An initiative to introduce a mapping of individual and
corporate telephone numbers to URLs and enabling an automatic resolution of
the telephone numbers has been suggested by some quarters. (Refer:
http://www.enum.org ). IETF is putting
up a new protocol for public trial called "ENUM"
that takes a complete, international telephone number and resolves it to a
series of URLs using a Domain Name System (DNS)-based architecture.
While this appears at first glance to be an interesting
Convergence driven proposition, it must be recognized that the domain name
system is today is closely integrated with the Trade Mark rights in such a
manner that common names or similar looking names always cause a complex legal
tangle.
These domain name disputes extend beyond exact name matches
to misspelt names, different TLD s and extensions separated by hyphens
and many times even to phonetically similar words. If yahoo and india-yahoo is
considered conflicting, 91044-8143448 will be considered conflicting with
98044-8143448 or any other similar extension of 8143448.
If the telephone numbers are mapped to domain names there
is therefore a distinct possibility of the domain name rights infringing
on the right to use a particular telephone number even by people not having
URLs of their own.
If this system has to function, the telecom authorities
will have to be ready to issue millions of non conflicting telephone numbers
at each telephone exchange which is technically not feasible.
The ENUM initiative therefore appears to be an initiative
which will be unwelcome by the Telephone users of the real world and all the
efforts presently directed in this direction may turn out to be wasteful.
