The opening tomorrow of a new Asian internet top-level domain is expected to trigger a flurry of “defensive registrations” by companies that will not use their new “.asia” web addresses but are determined to prevent cyber-speculators and counterfeiters from exploiting them.

The .asia domain is being created to give groups dealing in Asia an alternative to the high-profile “.com” web suffix and is designed to be a gateway to the world’s largest online population.

From tomorrow companies will be allowed to secure registered trademarks as “.asia” web addresses. The domain will open to the public from February.

The registration period for companies will run from October 9 to January 15.

By contrast with previous new top-level domain launches, the .asia registry will not use a first-come-first-served process. If more than one applicant for the same address passes a verification process, they will be invited to bid for it in an auction.

Asia has more than 400 million internet users, according to estimates, compared with about 320 million in Europe and 230 million in North America.

The new domain, which was given the green light last year by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the United States-based body that governs the web, is aimed at an increasingly affluent online community that has resisted the West’s web brands.

EBay, the world’s largest online auction house, for example, has been crushed in China by Taobao, the domestic auction site owned by Alibaba, the company into which Yahoo! placed its struggling Chinese business two years ago to avoid going it alone on the mainland.

However, like other launches of new domains – such as the launch of “.eu” last year - the .asia plans have been overshadowed by concerns that con-artists will register trademarks to lure in unsuspecting online consumers or that speculators will snap up addresses to sell on to trademark-owners.

Some critics, however, have suggested that companies will stick with their existing country domains – such as “.cn” for China – and are being forced to register “.asia” names only to prevent criminals from doing so first.

Robin Fry, a partner in Beachcroft, the law firm, told Vnunet, the technology website, that most firms would not actively use their new .asia suffix. “Most international companies will register defensively,” he said.

Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer of NetNames, which manages domain names for a third of companies in the FTSE 100, said: “British businesses need to ensure that they protect their brands from the new threats and maximise any opportunities to build their brands in the growing Asian market.

“Many brands lost out in dramatic fashion during the launch of .eu because they didn’t take the issue seriously enough until the eleventh hour.”

In the process for the allocation of the European .eu domain names, several companies lost their claims to legitimate competitors. Land Rover was beaten to discovery.eu by the American Discovery Channel. Ralph Lauren and Nestlé lost out to Volkswagen on the polo.eu domain name.

However, generic .asia addresses are likely to be the most sought after. In the first two days that .eu domain names became available, EURid, the registry behind the scheme, received 227 applications for sex.eu.

Marc Van Wesemael, general manager of EURid, said: “The .asia registry will probably see the same rush for generic names but . . . after a time, Europeans realised that a .eu domain was good for business. People in Asia will discover that as well.”

More than 2.6 million .eu domain names are registered. It is the third most popular domain in Europe, behind .co.uk and .co.de, in Germany.

There are groups calling for similar new domains for Africa and South America.

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