> I would think of names as a socially agreed upon convention that can live entirely in digital space with no knowledge of meatspace.

Then there is no protection from name squatting

> I don’t see any reason that Apple Inc should necessarily own the name “Apple”, but in an open market they might be able to pay more than “Farmer John’s Apple Orchard, Inc.” to purchase that scarce digital asset from a previous owner.

This is literally name squatting.