Brisbane City Council is taking its fight for the domain name Brisbane.com to the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
A win would set a precedent for councils Australia-wide to stake their claim in any domain name which resembled their own council title.
Internet domain name broker AuDomain.com is 'up in arms' over Brisbane City Council's attempt to claim Brisbane.com, which is currently owned by a South Australian advertising company.
AuDomains told ZDNet if Brisbane City Council acquires Brisbane.com, it would set a precedent for all other councils in Australia to follow suit.
".....every other place name registered in Australia will be at risk.
"If a city name is up for grabs, the suburb names, and every other landmark and place name will be next," AuDomains director Anthony White said.
AuDomains.com trades in Australian Internet domain names, which according to the company derives most of its income by listing Australian place names.
A spokesperson for Brisbane City Council says it is undergoing a process through the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to claim the name Brisbane.com from the current owners, Joyce Russ Advertising.
"We're claiming the name back. It's going through the WIPO process," she said.
"The law is very clear that you must show legitimate intentions in the domain name you own."
Although Brisbane.com is not a registered trademark of the council, the spokesperson told ZDNet it has more rights to the name than the South Australian advertising agency.
"The Adelaide advertising agency owns Brisbane.com, and they are not using it legitimately."
Furthermore, the Counil spokesperson told ZDNet that there is strong inference that Joyce Russ is trying to sell the name.
AuDomain believes 'Brisbane' is "quite simply not a trademark and the City Council has no right whatsoever over the name. The government already has exclusive use over domains ending in gov.au and city councils should use these."
"Why then, were these names ever for sale in the first place? It's bad enough that the Council occasionally repossesses houses, now they think they can repossess cyberspace as well. What's next?"
Surely .com stands for "commercial" (as in enterprise) or at the very least "company".
Brisbane City Council, should have by all rights brisbane.gov.au but I can see no reason why it needs or feels it has the right to a .com