The author is reiterating the complaints that major trademark holders raised over a decade ago during the initial generic TLD (gTLD) expansion process in the mid-1990s (see Milton Mueller's book "Ruling The Root" for details). More gTLDs meant the need to purchase one's trademark in each new gTLD in order to protect that trademark. The power that trademark holders/WIPO had in this process lead to "sunrise" periods where established trademarks were allowed to be registered before the registry opened generally, and I've heard claims that the dispute resolution process can tend to favor trademark holders too, though I can't vouch for that.
The problem with the claim that trademark interests trump all others in domain name disputes is that non-domain-name trademarks must be distinctive and are typically for a specific market. To use the example already given in the comments, Apple Inc. the computer manufacturer and Apple Records the music label can coexist because they aren't really in the same market and won't confuse consumers as such. However, domain names don't allow for this level of subtlety, and so whoever registers apple.com first with good-faith intent "wins", despite justified interest from computer, music, and fruit companies.
While this attitude towards new gTLDs makes sense from the perspective of existing second-level domain/trademark holders, what about those who aren't established yet. Is the person searching for a short or meaningful domain name out of luck because trademark holders are sick of new TLDs? There appears to be demand for new TLDs, and it's been shown that the root zone will scale, so it would seem to make sense to allow new TLDs for those whose needs aren't met by .com et al.
The deeper problem in all of this is that we interpret meaning in these unique identifiers, and use that meaning as part of branding and to judge authenticity of a site. If (for example) websites were identified by the public key of the certificate that signed its contents, and if we navigated the web using a directory system instead of typing domain names into browser URL bars, we wouldn't have this problem.
The problem with the claim that trademark interests trump all others in domain name disputes is that non-domain-name trademarks must be distinctive and are typically for a specific market. To use the example already given in the comments, Apple Inc. the computer manufacturer and Apple Records the music label can coexist because they aren't really in the same market and won't confuse consumers as such. However, domain names don't allow for this level of subtlety, and so whoever registers apple.com first with good-faith intent "wins", despite justified interest from computer, music, and fruit companies.
While this attitude towards new gTLDs makes sense from the perspective of existing second-level domain/trademark holders, what about those who aren't established yet. Is the person searching for a short or meaningful domain name out of luck because trademark holders are sick of new TLDs? There appears to be demand for new TLDs, and it's been shown that the root zone will scale, so it would seem to make sense to allow new TLDs for those whose needs aren't met by .com et al.
The deeper problem in all of this is that we interpret meaning in these unique identifiers, and use that meaning as part of branding and to judge authenticity of a site. If (for example) websites were identified by the public key of the certificate that signed its contents, and if we navigated the web using a directory system instead of typing domain names into browser URL bars, we wouldn't have this problem.