Founding Partner
The Importance of Protecting Your Domain Name
By David Postolski, Esq.
As discussed by our distinguished panel of experts during the “IP Issues and Domain Names: How to Protect Your Internet Property” event on Feb 24th, protecting your domain name isn’t as simple as registering it. Please read below for tips from the experts.
Domains names are so important! Companies live and die by their brands. A domain name and a registered trademark forms the core of a company’s brand identity. A domain helps distinguish a brand from competitors. These are also important factors in securing your trademark as well. Companies and Brands need to be more vigilant and take more proactive steps to protect their brands, domains and mitigate the risk of or actual infringement.
For instance, numerous variations, misspellings and typosquats should be considered for core or key brands or ‘.com’ domains (e.g., ‘yourbrand.com’ should include ‘yrbrand.com’, ‘yourbrond.com’ and ‘yorbrnd.com’). These domain names will likely cost little to secure and if your company can register it then a 3rd party can’t!
While trademarks and domains are two separate Intellectual Property assets, trademarks can be used to great effect in guiding a registration strategy. Domain registrations should align with trademark registrations – if a German trademark exists, for example, register the ‘.de’ domain.
The following elements should be considered as part of a wider trademark and domain registration plan:
· Office locations or regions where the organization does business
· Top Level Domains (TLDs) that support global sales and marketing programmes;
· Existing and select TLDs; and
· Top 10, 25 or 50 e-commerce countries
Domain abuse and/or trademark infringement come in many forms, from domain squatters and phishers redirecting traffic to fraudulent sites (domains that are confusingly similar to legitimate sites), to losing ownership to domains if the Domain Name System is hacked and details are changed. Having your Trademark Registered will ensure that your rights can continue despite such situations.
Also, important to note is that securing your trademark that corresponds to your domain name is the maximum protection you can get and not vice versa. Securing a TM in multiple is more than just clicking on purchase for a domain name. It’s a process that should be started early with clearance searches and risk assessment. We can help!