Big brands such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Canon, HP and Samsung are set to spend up to $500,000 each to create their own customised domain following a shakeup of the entire Internet system.The move to new top level names comes after the body governing Internet names voted over the weekend to allow the creation of thousands of new web suffixes to run alongside .com and .net.

The Financial Times said that there are just 22 generic top-level domain names that are tightly controlled by a handful of companies – the best known of which is .com. There are also 255 country domains, such as .au and .uk often run by a government or government-approved organisation.

But now any group with a creditable business plan and enough money can create its own Internet top-level domain.

“For those companies that have been locked out of a good .com name, it could be a good option for their online branding,” said Stuart Durham, European sales director at Melbourne IT DBS, a digital branding company that is advising about 150 companies on the new domain name system.

Apple, for example, does not own iPad.com, and it could cost the company thousands of dollars to acquire the name from its current owners. A recent survey showed that companies were willing to pay upwards of $5,000 to acquire good .com names.

Under the new domain name system, Apple could create .apple, and then use it for all its branded products such as ipad.apple, iphone.apple and mac.apple.