Limitations of .Brand Search Engines

Based on the success of these niche engines, some TLDs pundits have argued for the viability of search engines for companies that have registered their .Brands. Imagine a Search.Nike or Search.Apple.

Read the complete article on gTLD.club:
http://gtld.club/2014/09/01/limitations-of-brand-search-engines/

Why most brands may never sign the ICANN contract

What many dotBrands have failed or seem to have not to have understood (especially those who have already signed with ICANN) is that the contract is not designed for trademarks. The agreements are basically a lease agreement that can be revoked from you and given to someone else. What brand on earth would allow for someone else to run their trademark on the internet without their approval?

Read the article from Shaun Le Cornu on gTLD.club:
http://gtld.club/2014/07/28/why-most-brands-may-never-sign-the-icann-contract/

How to prepare for the launching of a .BRAND Top-Level Domain?

Soon, brands applying for their Top-Level Domain will enter into the ICANN validation process. This will take eight months at least. This time should be used to get prepared for D-Day.

Many questions will be raised then.

Read the article in French here.

Brands are applying for generic keywords

According to Ken Hansen, Senior Director at Neustar (a back-end registry provider), "some brands are applying for generic keywords that are related to the business that they are in".

To apply or not apply?

115 new gTLD projects revealed

Found on DomainNameWire.com, a list of 115 new Top-Level Domain trademarks and their current status were revealed today:

• Mark;
• Name of the applicant;
• Type and;
• Status.

The list is available here.

10 questions about .anything (form WTR)

World Trademark Review is conducting a qualitative survey to find the level of understanding in industry and how different groups are strategising around the groundbreaking development of new Top-Level Domains.

 Survey is available here

New TLDs : what to do to protect your brand ?

Trademarks' anxiety is high to the approach of new Top-Level Domains. What should trademarks owners know to protect themselves in case of infringements ?

More (in french) on DomainesInfo

US Trademark SEX.SEX for sale

The principle of this sale is very clear : acquire a right on the sex.sex domain name if the .SEX generic Top Level Domain should be launched. At the present time there is known no official project.

• More information on explanation of this sale : www.sexdotsex.net
• Latest status info with serial and registration numbers
• Where to bid to acquire this trademark on eBay

IP Clearing House

Let's imagine more than 500 new Top Level Domains starting 2011…

The IP Clearing House project recommended by the ICANN Implementation Recommendation Team (IRT) answers many problems related to Intellectual Property and costs for the Registrant (right owner).

The new gTLD implementation consultation dated July 13 can be read at the link below:

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/presentation-irt-13jul09-en.pdf

Would your Registrar sell your domain name ?

OH YES HE WOULD !

The role of a good Corporate Registrar is to secure your domain names and ensure it works properly.
Now, the security of your domain name does not only rely on your registrar’s tools: automated systems can lock domain names and Registrar’s internal procedures can provide a very good security.


Now: what happens when there is a problem ?

Let’s imagine a domain name is not on auto-renew status and the person in charge for this domain is not familiar with renewal procedures ?
What if renewal alerts are blocked in the SPAM filter ?
What if she is on holidays that day ?
What if she was fired recently ?
What if her position has changed and no one is in charge of domain names anymore ?
What if her email was closed ?
So many “what if” can endanger the security of your domain names.
Domain names do not only rely on systems, they also rely on people.
And what if…

…your registrar doesn’t care about your problems and wants to be paid that day?

Well, that famous day, your Registrar could just “sell” your domain name.
The domain name market is a very lucrative one. According to the number of letters your domain name has, if it is a generic term, how long it has been registered for, what traffic it generates, your domain name can reach a very high price if it is sold in live auctions.


Now: what live auctions have to do with the security of your domain name ?

Companies like Pool.com, Snapnames and many other have deals with Registrars: they have a preferred access to their automated systems to “grab” domain names when they expire so they can sell them during auctions: “These partners offer their expired domains through SnapNames before they are available anywhere else in the public market, giving SnapNames customers exclusive access to some of the highest value—and best priced—domain names on the market.”(Source: https://www.snapnames.com/about_snapnames.jsp)


What does it mean ?


Whatever the legal protection your brand or name has: it does not mean it is secured on Internet. Such partnerships can considerably endanger the security of your domain name because they maximize the risk to have your domain name automatically taken by someone else at its expiration if you forget to renew.

Would your Corporate Registrar sell your domain name ?
Check if he is a partner of these companies: Pool.com – Snapnames (down the page) – List of partnerships

Searching for a real Corporate Registrar ? Have a chat with me.