Ever since the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) approved seven new internet suffixes in November last year, there has been a cloud of confusion around how companies can register these suffixes, and whether they will be anything more than a poor cousin to the distinguished dot.com.

The new batch of top level domains (TLDs) - dot.aero for the air transport industry, dot.biz for businesses, dot.coop for co-operatives, dot.info for unrestricted use, dot.museum for museums, dot.name for individuals and dot.pro for professionals - has been created to make space on what has become an overcrowded environment.

Indeed, many companies looking to go online have been hard pushed to find a dot.com domain that has not already been taken.

"The dot.com world is full," says Roland LaPlante, chief marketing officer of Afilias, the registry operator for dot.info. "These new suffixes will help separate the crowds by creating new 'neighbourhoods' for different trading areas." Two companies that previously would have fought over the same domain name, for example The Pipe Museum and Philip Matthews the butcher, can now have their own, well-defined URLs - www.pm.museum and www.pm.biz.

There are organisational differences between the new and current domains. At the moment, international TLDs (including .com and .net) are administered from the US, but are available to anyone. National domains (eg: .de, .es, .fr, .co.uk) are issued by local organisations. Now, each new suffix has a separate operator to register a name, companies can either go to their web hosts who will act as agents, or apply directly to a registrar recommended on the operators' web sites, which should include approved registrars in the UK, France, Germany and Spain.

It is unlikely, however, that things will run that smoothly. Firstly, there is a perception that dot.biz and dot.info - the two suffixes that are not sector specific - will not hold the same weight as dot.com in the eyes of businesses and consumers.

"When consumers want to find a company on the Internet, they automatically type in the name followed by .com and expect to find it," says Willie Black, director of Nominet, the UK registrar for co.uk. "It will take a long time for people to change their perception of where to find things online."

On the other hand, there may be companies which will prefer to stay clear of the dot.com suffix, which is often associated with the glitzy, fly-by-night businesses that crashed and burned.

Second, there is likely to be a good deal of dispute as companies look to register the new names defensively. The owner of www.goodname.com will also want, at the least, www.goodname.biz. You need only to look around the internet for examples of how the first-come-first-serve registration process for dot.com left some companies without the appropriate URL: www.fosters.com is not a beer site, and ICI, the chemicals giant, had to buy www.ici.com from the Investment Company Institute.

"Cybersquatters do not pose the main threat; companies that share a legitimate interest in the same domain as you are likely to cause the biggest headaches because they are harder to 'turf off,'" says Paul Stevens, partner at Olswang, the UK law firm.

There have been efforts to avoid these problems this time round by creating a period in which companies can settle disputes before the application is actually granted. For example, Afilias (www.afilias.info) organised a so-called "Sunrise period" until August 27 during which anyone with a registered trade mark could reserve their domains before speculators got a hold of them.

Coca-Cola, for example, reserved both "coke.info" and "cocacola.info." There was a £200 charge for this service, 85 per cent of which will be refunded if the application is not successful.

Similarly, NeuLevel, (www.neulevel.biz), the operator for dot.biz, ran a fee-based Intellectual Property Claim Service until August 6, under which applicants were notified if another business asked for the same name. This way, there was a window of opportunity for companies to challenge the registration using an administrative dispute resolution procedure and hopefully avoid legal wrangles later on.

The fee of $90 for this service is not refundable but three US law firms have filed a suit against NeuLevel and other registrars of the .biz domain that seeks to recover any unsuccessful application fees.

Indeed, not all companies have been happy with this idea of paying for an application where there is no guarantee of victory or means of gauging where your application is in the queue. "The registration process for the new dot.biz TLD is not as straight-forward as it should be; even some professional registration companies seem to be a little unclear as to how registrations progress through the system," says Richard Latham, chief executive of Bluewave, the UK software company.

"It is part of our remit as a web design and development company to protect our clients' trademarks online and to this end we've tried to get to the head of the registration queue. What we've found is a frustrating lack of information available on the status of registrations made," says mr Latham.

In response, Neulevel says companies will need to wait until the end of the application phase to be told whether they have "won" their desired dot.biz domain name.

"NeuLevel cannot provide the status of registrations until the domain name application process is complete, because those applications are taken by registrars who will forward the information to NeuLevel upon the close of the application," says Jeff Ganek, chairman of NeuLevel. "When the registry 'goes live,' NeuLevel will notify the registrars of the status of all domain name applications."

If you have missed the deadlines, you may find that another organisation has "bagged" what you believe should be your spot. However, it is not too late to obtain a dot.biz or dot.info domain; registrars will now be accepting registrations on a first-come-first serve basis where applicants will be told right away whether or not a name is available. These domains should cost around £60 for a two-year registration.

Although accreditation agreements are not yet in place for the remaining new suffixes, companies should keep their eyes peeled for developments on the appropriate operators' websites.

These are:

Dot.aero: Societe Internationale de Telecommunications de Aeronautiques - www.sita.com

dot.biz: Neulevel - www.neulevel.com

dot.coop: National Cooperative Business Association - www.cooperative.org

dot.info: Afilias - www.afilias.info

dot.museum: Museum Domain Management Association - www.musedoma.net

dot.name: Global Name Registry - www.gnr.com

dot.pro: Registrypro - www.registrypro.com

Kate Pritchard is a business analyst at Net Profit Publications - www.netprofiteurope.com