NAMEZERO.COM™ Offers Small Businesses an Opportunity to Protect Their Trademarks

Early Reservations Available for dot.biz Domains

Los Gatos, CA.- July 24, 2001 - Namezero.com (www.namezero.com), a leading provider of domain management services, today announced a new opportunity for its small business members to protect their trademarks. Through the Namezero.com Web site, domains with the new dot.biz extension are available for early reservation.

Dot.biz is the first of seven new top level domains (TLDs) approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in November 2000 to become available to the public. The introduction of new extensions such as dot.biz is expected to dramatically expand the available pool of "generic" TLDs beyond the familiar .com, .net, and org. However, the availability of multiple extensions also creates trademark concerns for businesses that want to retain the rights to their trademarks across all available extensions. Dot.biz names will go live later this year, but in the meantime Namezero is offering small businesses an opportunity to reserve domains with the dot.biz extension.

"By becoming one of the first domain management service providers to offer domains with the dot.biz extension, Namezero is giving small businesses the opportunity to protect their trademark across the board,'' said Bruce Keiser, President and CEO, Namezero. "Dot.biz is the first TLD devoted solely to businesses, so we want to make sure that our small business customers have an early shot at reserving their domain name with the dot.biz extension while they are still available."

"The issue of trademark protection is definitely an issue for small businesses with online presences to begin to seriously consider,'' commented Kneko Burney, principal analyst, Cahner's In-stat Group. "It will be important for these companies to protect themselves against other businesses that might be vying for the same domain with new extensions like dot.biz."

To reserve a dot.biz domain, or for further information, please visit the Namezero Web site at www.namezero.com.

About Namezero.com

With more than 2.0 million domains hosted, Namezero is a leading provider of domain name services for small businesses and individuals seeking to establish a permanent identity on the Web. The company offers domain registration, personalized e-mail, URL forwarding, and domain management services through multiple leading brands including Namezero.com, mydomain.com, namesdirect.com and myInternet.com. Namezero works with VeriSign, Covad, Bigstep, Critical Path, L90 and other leading Internet companies to offer a powerful Web-based communications platform for its growing membership base. Founded in 1999, Namezero is backed by leading venture capital firms including WaldenVC, Whitman Capital, Arcadian Venture Partners and strategic corporate investors. For more information, please visit www.namezero.com.
 

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