Bid for Internet addresses delayed

NEW YORK -- Bids for new Internet addresses to rival ".com" and other suffixes will likely be delayed until the end of the year as a key oversight agency grapples with trademark and security issues.

Draft guidelines for the new suffixes generated so much comment that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers needs more time to sort out what it terms "overarching issues."

Those include whether trademark owners could wind up having to register thousands of new domain names simply to protect their intellectual-property rights.

Other concerns include whether new suffixes could encourage more scams involving fake Web sites that look legitimate, and whether new suffixes would even get much use.