The URL of a company's website is today a key component of its identity. As the existing range of available domain names nears exhaustion, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has been working to expand the available options.

ICANN, as the organization is known, is the body responsible for IP addresses worldwide. The organization's Government Advisory Committee recently announced it is working on a series of measures designed to address concerns regarding the security of new top-level domains.

Until now, almost half of approximately 200 million web addresses in use have incorporated the ".com" top-level domain. With the availability of new top-level domains, companies will be able to customize their IP addresses to better fit their brand identities.

This may present some intellectual property issues, as companies vie for domain names that incorporate their names and other key terms.

Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN, said the GAC and the ICANN board have been working energetically to review and improve the introduction of new top-level domains. The organization has already achieved "significant progress," Dengate Thrush said, including "improvement to trademark and consumer protections" and "assistance for potential applicants from developing countries."

According to ICANN, its board may be ready to approve the new program as early as June 20.