We are at least nine months to a year away from cybersquatters gaining the opportunity
to exploit newly approved generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) web suffixes. The application
window for new gTLDs will formally open in January 2012 and close in April 2012,
and new domain registries will need at least a few months to launch their winning
extensions to the general public (where applicable, as not all winning gTLDs are
oriented for community or public use). But rest assured, malevolent typosquatters
are already planning to replicate their previous success misusing and abusing .com
domain name variations. Yes, ICANN’s new gTLD initiative does include some additional
rights protection mechanisms as a result of prudent lobbying by the trademark community.
But ICANN’s Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) and Trademark Clearinghouse components
are still in the process of getting finalized. Additional details on these topics
can be found at http://newgtlds.icann.org/about
So how should brands and/or rights’ holders prepare for the chaos ahead? What kinds
of brand protection strategies should they have in place? Answering these will require
the interested parties to ponder several additional questions:
- How will the major search engines react to the new gTLD suffixes? Will a search
for the term “walmart” first return “walmart.com” or “something.walmart” in the
organic result set?
- How will consumers react to the new suffixes? Many Internet users are already quite
confused; it likely will only get worse with the addition of more domain name extensions.
CitizenHawk has traditionally used a leading research firm’s estimate that nearly
4 out of 10 consumers manually type domain name information into their browser bars.
That results is a good many folks mistyping and being diverted to unofficial and/or
unauthorized web destinations.
- How will advertising change with the advent of branded gTLDs, such as “.adidas”?
What will the physical billboards in New York’s Times Square look like? Today, these
billboards may invite you to visit “adidas.com/golf,” but in the future, the call
to action may direct you to a “golf.adidas” landing page.
- How will advertisers deal with parallel worlds, with dot com remaining as the No.
1 online destination for the foreseeable future versus dot brand (e.g., ”.newbalance”)
or dot anything (e.g., “.shoe,” or “.mocassin”) gaining traction over time?
- What will companies do with their existing portfolio of ccTLDs (country-code top
level domains)? Will corporate brands need their product or corporate names in both
ASCII (“.nike”) and native character sets (the equivalent of “.nike” in traditional
Chinese, Arabic, or Cyrillic)?
To even begin answering some of these questions requires some context. In the United
States, the .com and .net gTLD extensions are by far the most sought-after suffixes.
Contrastingly, in Europe and Asia, ccTLDs reign supreme, with .de for Germany and
.uk variations for the United Kingdom currently ranking as the world’s second and
fourth most popular extensions, respectively. According to VeriSign’s “The Domain
Name Industry Brief” dated August 2011 (Volume 8, Issue 3), more than 215 million
domain names are currently registered, of which more than 84.6 million are ccTLDs.
The ccTLD universe accounts for almost 39 percent of all domain name registrations.
It is also important to note that the top 10 ccTLD registries comprise 60 percent
of all ccTLD registrations, according to the VeriSign brief. Consequently, there
is a need to continually monitor worldwide ccTLD registries for new extension launches
or changes to existing (and potentially previously restricted) requirements.
Of the 240 available ccTLDs, approximately 203 have publicly released registration
rules and requirements, according the World Intellectual Property Organization .
As of early 2011, there were at least 69 ccTLD registries with a poorly maintained
Whois service, and only 119 Registries had adopted an Alternative Dispute Resolution
(ADR) procedure. As many as 25 ccTLDs did not even offer a web presence.
With the advent of new gTLDs, won’t this already-convoluted landscape just get worse?
That is precisely what excites the cybersquatting community. When there is customer
confusion, there is an addressable market of consumers to divert to unauthorized
sites. I’m sure some of these infringers are salivating already. Sad, but likely
true.
Each trademark rights holder must determine the most appropriate brand protection
and domain enforcement strategies, based on its respective business requirements.
As a general guideline, best practices in the brand protection space would suggest
keeping one’s eye on the new gTLD proceedings throughout 2012. Many things will
change rapidly between now and when the first new gTLD registry becomes active,
but the most prudent companies will track these market changes and react calmly,
yet decisively, when any shenanigans become apparent.
