Verisign will now be able to choose domain names using AI

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Verisign a patent titled “Deep Neural Network for Generating Domain Names”.

The patent was granted to the registry of the generic top-level domain .com. It describes a tool for selecting domain names available for registration using a deep neural network. Technical details of its operation are unknown, it is only reported that the tool generates lists of domain names that can be registered in accordance with the user’s wishes.

The patent, as stated in the description, is intended for domain investors. However, Verisign has been under fire for months for constantly raising prices and has recently been trying to shift the blame to them. The company claims that the excitement is caused by the behavior of domain investors who buy up names and resell them at a higher price.

As it turns out, the patent application was filed back in 2017, when the .com domain had price restrictions. At that time, Verisign needed investors and mass registrations to increase revenue.

In November, Verisign announced that it had renewed its contract with ICANN to operate the .com domain for the next six years. The contract includes a 7% price increase for the final four years of the contract renewal. The previous increase to $10.26 took place in September.

The contract therefore states that the price of the domain will remain at $10.26 in 2025 and 2026. Verisign has previously consistently increased the price of .com to the maximum allowed under the contract. Therefore, by the end of the contract, the price of .com will likely increase to $13.42.