Amazon.com, HP, Ford among those lobbying Washington regarding domain names
Big firms join domain heavyweights in lobbying U.S. government regarding domain name issues.
It’s been a couple years since I’ve done a round up of how much domain name firms are spending on lobbying in Washington.
I just ran an updated analysis and made two key observations.
First, major domain name firms counting VeriSign and Go Daddy are spending less on lobbying than they used to.
Second, a lot of non-domain name firms are lobbying regarding domain names, mostly due to fresh top level domain names.
The chart (top right) shows how much six domain name firms and lobbying groups spent on lobbying activities in Washington for the first half of the year. This is based on filings under the Lobbying Disclosure Act as of today.
Verisign
Verisign’s spending has steadily declined since 2008, and it spent just $270,000 during the first half of this year. Last year, when it was working on its .com contract renewal, the firm spent $675,000 on lobbying efforts.
Compare that to 2006, when the firm spent regarding $7 million on lobbying.
Also, compare the results of its 2006 registry agreement to its 2012 one…
GoDaddy
GoDaddy spent just $204,000 during the first half of the year, and all of that was in-house. Last year the firm spent regarding $750,000, and in 2011 it spent over $1 million. The most recent drop seems to be timed with General Counsel Cristine Jones’ departure from the firm.
Advocacy Groups
The Association for National Advertisers lobbied everyone from the House of Representatives, Senate, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Commerce (DOC) and National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) regarding fresh top level domains as it tried to slow down or stop their rollout.
The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA), a trade group representing trademark interests for domain names, spent $100,000. If it continues that pace in the second half of the year it will be in line with the previous two years.
Internet Commerce Association (ICA), a trade group representing domain name investors, did not file any lobbying disclosures.
Non-domain Firms
A handful of sizable firms that aren’t (at least yet) in the domain name business spent money lobbying regarding domain names this year. Most of it was related to fresh top level domains.
Amazon.com is one of the big names that stands out. The firm is an applicant for 76 fresh top level domain applications. But its flagship application for the brand .amazon is in doubt thanks to the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). I suspect some of the lobbying had to do with the NTIA.
HP, which couldn’t apply for .hp since of restrictions on two letter top level domains, also lobbied regarding domain names.
Two car firms, Ford and Chrysler, noted lobbying activities regarding top level domains. Add Procter & Gamble, National Retail Federation and Software & Information Industry Association (backed by a who’s who of software firms) to the list.
