Nick Caristinos
I am often asked about the Webnames.ca tagline “Securing Internet Identities”. What seems to be a nondescript statement really means we work to help you protect your brands on the Internet. There are numerous ways your brand can be used to your detriment on the Internet, making it vital for you to have a strategy and an ally like Webnames.ca to help advise you about protecting your online brands.
Last year billions of dollars worth of counterfeit medications and drugs were sold online, through websites and spam, using unauthorized brand names and trademarks to draw in unsuspecting customers. Approximately 5 billion dollars in revenue was also lost due to grey-marketing (the reselling of products and services by an unauthorized dealer online.) Unauthorized brand use in pornography, negative publicity, boycotting, activism, consumer credential theft and pay-per-click parking pages adversely affect businesses, dilute brands, destroy customer confidence and compromise the profitability of thousands companies, large and small, every year.
Here are some tips on how to prevent the unauthorized use of your brands on the Internet:
First devise a strategy to prevent unauthorized use of your brands. Start by setting a budget for your domain name registrations. Typically you will want to allot funds to register each of your brands, product names, marketing phrases along with their common variations before you launch new products and initiatives. Once this is taken care of, consider registering domains that cover your existing and potential markets. And taking into account that 38% of users will enter your business name directly into their browser, you may also want to register the most common misspellings, errors and variations of your domains.
The next step is to use one administrator or department to manage your domain name portfolio. Assigning responsibility to one person or department prevents confusion and helps to maintain the security of your domains by limiting who is able to authorize renewals, transfers and modifications. It also prevents employees across multiple departments from registering domain names on behalf of you or your company. Most companies will either have their legal, trademark agents or marketing department handle this.
Last, and perhaps most important, it is equally as important to have all or the majority of your domains with one registrar like Webnames.ca. Dealing with one registrar allows you to access and modify your entire domain portfolio in one location, avoiding confusion and mismanagement which causes companies to loose track of their important domain names and online brands. It is also important to choose a registrar with expertise in managing large domain portfolios. For more information on transferring domains, read my previous blog post Expert Advice on Consolidating Your Domain Portfolio.
Lastly, should you find unauthorized use of your brands you will need a strategy for dealing with these situations. First find out how and where your brand is being used and then prioritize according to the most damaging. Next, analyze your options and decide whether or not to take action. By having a strategy for online brand protection already in place, you can save the time and money it costs to pursue unauthorized use of your brands. Remember that it costs you significantly more to money to file a UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy ) than to purchase and renew your domain names.
Is your company effectively managing and protecting its domain names, trademarks and brands on the Internet? Take our short quiz to gauge the vulnerability of your online intellectual property. To discuss your results with a Webnames.ca Corporate and Premier Services Representative, email corporate@webnames.ca or call toll free 1-866-470-6820.
More information –
ICANN’s Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy
INTA – The International Trademark Association Webnames.ca Corporate and Premier Services