Global IP Matrix - Issue 1

Untangle domain
name management
As you are probably already
aware, simply registering
your trademark is not
enough to protect it online.
Bart Mortelmans (general
manager of bNamed.
net) discussed with us the
importance of domain name
registrations to protect your
online intellectual property.
He also tells us about what
can be done to get the
maximum out of this.
He has a clear vision on this: “We have seen
domain names become more and more
important over the last decades, turning
into an unignorable part of the protection of
Intellectual Property. Our mission is to provide
the level of support you would be accustomed
to regarding IP-protection, but at domain
name level pricing.”
One of the problems you will certainly be
confronted with while protecting your IP
online is to decide where to protect and
where not. Bart: “A couple of years ago, many
of our clients requested their trademark to
be registered under every single domain
name extension. At that time, that meant all
country code extensions and just a few generic
extensions like .com, .net and .org. Since the
launch of the so called ‘new gTLD’s’, that is no
longer feasible.”
Country Code
extensions
It is not always necessary to register all country
code extensions; however, country code
extensions still play a very important role.
People can be chauvinistic regarding domain
names. The Singaporese assume a domain
name will end in .sg, the Germans assume
.de and the Portugese .pt. In practice, when
Bart Mortelmans, General Manager of Bnamed
www.bnamed.net
someone doesn’t know the exact address of a
website, they will first try to find the website
under their own country code. It is therefore
important to target your customers and
take into account your main market and the
country code extension.
So the first thing to do is to protect your brand
under the extensions of the countries you’re
doing business with, or to which you expect
to expand in the future. If you’re active on the
British, Spanish and German market, register
your brand as a .co.uk, .es and .de domain
name. But if your only focus is the Japanese
and Taiwanese market, then those European
country codes will not be relevant for you and
you should first of all make sure you have your
primary market covered. For example; are
you considering expanding your business to
South America? Then do make sure to already
register your brand under the most important
South American extensions.
gTLD’s as an
alternative
So country codes remain important but the so
called ‘new gTLD’s’ can offer a nice alternative.
These ‘new gTLD’s’ such as .shop, .hosting,
.computer, .london, .paris, .berlin, .bank,
.insurance,... were launched a few years ago
and most have been completely enrolled.
Bart: “We must also be honest that most
gTLD’s have only limited popularity. As said
a .de works best for Germany, but if you are
headquartered in Berlin a domain name under
.berlin can be a nice added extra. The same
goes for .london, .paris, .brussels, .nyc,... Other
new gTLDs have found their way to the general
public. The .shop domain is a good example
of this. The next, possibly popular gTLD that
is being launched is .app. There is already
a healthy amount of interest for this, but of
course it always remains to be seen.
According to Bart the ‘new gTLD’s’ can also be a
way to show your core business. If you’re a bank
or insurance company a .bank or .insurance
domain name is a nice extra. It’s immediately
clear what services you’re offering. Moreover
before you can register your name under .bank
or .insurance, you need to run through a whole
registration process so if you register your
name under those extensions, it also shows
you’re trustworthy. Obviously bNamed can
help and assist you every step of the way.”
Protect yourself,
are you sure you are
secure?
Protecting your IP online is important but are
you sure your protection itself is secure?
This can be done via centralising your domain
names with an independent registrar. The
relationship with a web designer can sometimes
blur or you may receive a better offer from
another webhoster. If your domain names are
managed by an independent party you can
switch quickly and you can even combine
different providers for different services, like
webhosting and e-mail. You’ll never have to
worry that your precious intellectual property
(for that’s what domain names are) is taken
hostage because of a dispute regarding an
invoice for that web design that never got off
the ground.
Centralising domain
names
In many companies domain names are
currently registered here and there. This
easily causes things to go wrong. If you miss
a renewal deadline, your domain name can go
offline or can even be lost completely. In many
cases it’s also not clear who has control over the
domain name and who has the correct login
information when an update is needed. As
seen, way too often, names are even registered
in the name of a branch, a local reseller who
now no longer exists or even an ex-employee.
The centralisation of the domain names
solves those problems and is also financially
interesting, because grouping more names, of
course, also means a bigger discount.
Name Server
diversification
Another way to protect yourself and make sure
your domain names keep functioning is name
server diversification.
Bart: “The name servers are the basis of
your domain name. If they don’t function,
nothing does. In the past some major internet
companies, such as Twitter and Spotify, went
offline for a couple of hours because their very
trustworthy name server provider was attacked
by a so called DDoS. The attack wasn’t aimed
directly against Twitter or Spotify but they
were ‘collateral damage’.”
The conclusion is clear: there’s only one way
to make sure you don’t get hurt if your onlineneighbour
is attacked and that’s by combining
different name server services. Bart: “We for
example offer you the possibility by one simple
click to combine our name servers with the
cloud name servers of Google. If you wish you
can also add special anti-DDoS name servers.
16 www.gipmatrix.com www.gipmatrix.com
17