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Tag: digital brand protection

Surviving in the Digital Space

Surviving in the digital space can pose difficult challenges to business owners. In order for businesses to survive today in the digital world they must have an online presence. It goes with out saying that traditional models of business have dramatically changed with the advent of the internet. The digital age has brought enormous opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs and established businesses alike. The global market is within arms reach with merely a laptop and a solid wifi connection. Unknown performers can suddenly become an internet sensation over night, businesses can increase their global reach into new markets with minimal cost and consumers have greater choice and say in the product they choose, or don’t choose to purchase.

Indeed, the digital space has created unprecedented opportunities for businesses to grow and evolve. However, it also presents brands with novel challenges. Global IP management is complicated and digital technology is constantly changing at an ever increasing pace. Many brand or marketing managers naturally are intimidated by this new, innovative digital landscape.

Savvy, intelligent brands invest time and money into promoting, protecting and growing their brand identity and reputation online. They understand that a brand’s online presence is intrinsically connected to a brands bottom line and survival. However, many organisations have no concrete or focused strategy for managing their most important intangible asset – their online presence.

So, what constitutes a brands digital or online presence?

All brand portfolios today are digital or at least should be.

Smart digital brands view their digital assets (domain names, social media platforms etc…) from a holistic perspective. This all- encompassing approach to brand management as a single entity is at the core of thorough digital brand protection strategies. In order to fully manage your online presence, brands need to monitor and manage their domain name portfolio (gTLD’s , ccRLD’s and IDN’s) track their registered trademarks, supervise social media sites and of course protect all their digital assets from external abuse or internal misuse. The only way to succeed in the digital space is to manage your digital asset portfolio centrally.

All organisations want to protect their brand online at minimal cost. They seek to increase their global reach and break into new markets whilst securing their digital assets against fraudulent online behaviour and cybercrime. This can be a daunting task for brand managers managing established international brands due to the size and complexity of their digital asset or IP portfolio. Scaling smb’s who wish to expand into international markets also find it difficult to implement a digital brand protection strategy. Many can be confused as to where to start. Needless to say, whether you’re a long established global brand or a developing SMB, your enterprises success in any case relies on the effectiveness of your digital brand protection strategy. Ultimately, spending a little will save a lot!

How can intangible assets like digital assets be protected and managed?

Managing your digital asset portfolio involves three key essential steps: monitoring, managing and enforcing.

1.Monitoring:

Are you monitoring all domain names related to your trademark internationally? Trademark surveillance and monitoring are essential in preventing IP infringement or online abuse in protecting your domain names. This ongoing supervision and investigation is crucial when safeguarding your digital assets as it ensures you are aware when third parties attempt to harness your brand equity.

Similarly, who is monitoring your online reputation? Have you implemented tools to gauge online sentiment on social media and peer to peer networks regarding your digital brand? Have you identified any cases of defamation against your brand reputation? Successful supervision of your brand reputation involves monitoring of the whole web. Integrating online monitoring toolkits will allow you to keep your finger on the pulse of public perception pertaining to your brand. Maintaining monthly brand sentiment reports will help you stay on top. A proactive approach is required.

2 Managing:

Enterprises often fail to competently manage their digital asset portfolios as many of the departments responsible for such supervision often work in isolation from one another. Managing digital assets often is the responsibilIty of three key departments within an organisation – a. Marketing/ Brand management, b. Legal or c. IT. In most instances, these three departments generally work in silo’s and fail to communicate with each other. Employing an effective digital brand protection strategy engenders that all three departments work collectively.

When managing a domain name portfolio, communication between all three departments is essential. Using a centralised platform that aggregates all important information about your portfolio will greatly improve management processes. In many cases, outsourcing the management of your portfolio to an experienced and specialist third party often yields better results than internal management.

3. Enforcement

All organisations with an online presence know of the threats that face their digital brand each day. Cybercrime is increasing every year and the expense it can incur for digital brands is enormous. Enforcing a thorough digital brand protection strategy ensures enterprises’ have safeguards in place to defend against instances of cybercrime. It allows them to act efficiently and cost effectively when required. Applying a proactive approach to enforcing your brands online IP rights will safeguard your brands most important intangible assets. Recovering domain names from third parties can be a complex process for those unfamiliar with UDRP. Consulting with legal experts who have extensive experience in this field will save you time and money and ultimately benefit your digital brand.

dotNice International Limited – Experts in digital brand protection

For more information email: brandprotection-emea@dotnice.com

Digital Brand Protection in the Latin American Market

 

We were delighted to speak with Salvador Camacho – Attorney in the Social Welfare department of the Mexican Department of Social Security (IMSS). Salvador also has worked for one of the top Intellectual property firms in Mexico – Arochi & Lindner, specializing in IP Enforcement and protection and recovery of domain names for international clients before WIPO and NAF.

We asked him to discuss the topic of digital brand protection in the LATAM market.

 

Why is digital brand protection important in your professional opinion?

Digital brand protection nowadays is essential in order to develop a strong presence in the Digital Environment. Trademark owners are the principal victims of unlawful online activity regarding domain names such as cybersquatting, typosquatting and new illegal online conduct such as soundsquatting. This situation is not only affecting brands, but also users are nowadays victims of illegal conduct like malware or phishing.

In this context, a digital brand protection strategy not only protects trademarks owners but also their customers.

 

As an Intellectual Property specialist, what top tips would you give to trademark owners in the LATAM market on protecting their digital assets?

For different reasons, the LATAM market has been lagging behind in regard to the protection of digital assets. Nevertheless, intellectual property infringers have been developing an interesting and valuable market around those unprotected assets for years. In this context, the top tips that I would give are the following:

  • Search for professional advice in order to have a better understanding of the value of your digital assets and their subsequent protection.
  • Protect your trademark in every country that you are planning to offer your product or service.
  • Register gTLDs, ccTLDs and IDNs for your brand even before submitting the application for the trademark.
  • Have a strong presence on Social Media. This works not only to avoid fake profiles and bad reputation, but also presents excellent branding opportunities.
  • Be aware of the new gTLD’s launching. It is important to register your trademark as domain name before someone gets in there before you.

 

What common or frequent mistakes do you regularly see trademark owners making in the LATAM market?

The trademarks owners in LATAM are very interested in protecting their intangible assets before the Intellectual Property Governmental Authorities and that is truly important, but they are completely forgetting the Digital Environment. They are registering their trademarks in several countries but only registering one domain name, generally the .COM gTLD. In my experience, this is the biggest mistake from trademark owners in LATAM market regarding digital brand protection.

This situation has generated the proliferation of cybersquatted domain names on ccTLD strings. Therefore, when trademark owners seek to register their trademarks as domain names on ccTLD endings for digital branding purposes, they discover that somebody else has already registered it and is asking a 6 figure number for the domain. There are enforcement methods to recover the domain name, but they are more expensive than defensively registering a domain name. A proactive approach is a more cost-effective option.

 

What is your opinion of ICANN’s new gTLD program? Should it be viewed as a positive opportunity for scaling businesses who missed out on the .com era due to timing?

In 1974, the French writer Jacques Bergier gave some predictions of the future of telecommunications in his book named “The Planet of Impossible Possibilities”. I will quote him and say that ICANN’s new gTLD program is “The Planet of Infinite Possibilities” because it will change the way that we know, understand and use Internet.

This initiative definitively will affect the LATAM market, specifically for trademark owners, who believe that having just one domain name will suffice. According to SEDO’s new gTLD awareness report published on 2014, 75% of internet users are unaware of the new extensions.

As in any unexplored market, this early stage is an interesting opportunity for scaling digital brands. With extensions such as .LAT (Available on Sunrise period until April 16th) precisely focused on LATAM market, the prompt registration of trademarks as domain names is crucial to have a strong digital brand presence in LATAM Digital Environment.

 

In terms of controversial gTLD’s like .SUCKS or .FAIL do you think they should be made available to the public?

Actually, only trademarks registrations for .SUCKS are available. The Consumer advocate subsidy goes from $10.00 USD per year but it will be available until September and you will be unable to host a website. The Standard registration will be available on Sunrise period for $249.00 USD per year.

The actual controversy is related to the Sunrise Premium registration of trademarks registered in ICANN’s TMCH. Trademark owners will have to pay $2,499.00 USD per year, so companies like Apple and Yahoo already have bought their respective .SUCKS domains, in order to protect their trademarks. Some trademark owners are calling this business model extortion disguised as registration, but others are appealing to the legitimate right to sell the gTLD at the desired price.

As freedom of speech is one of the pillars of the Internet, I believe they should be made available to the general public. Furthermore, WIPO’s UDRP decisions have granted legitimate interests to owners of sucks or gripe domain names over trademark rights.

Finally, everyone that has been publishing articles for the past few weeks about this controversial gTLD has reached the same conclusion as me: If you don’t want to be a TRADEMARK.SUCKS, then just deliver a good product or service and try not to suck.

 

 

dotNice – Experts in digital brand protection

For more information on domain names registration and management email – brandprotection-emea@dotnice.com

Creating Your Digital Brand Protection Strategy

Top Insights on Developing Your Digital Brand Protection Strategy

Digital brand protection is essential to safeguarding your brand. Today more than ever keeping one step ahead in business is crucial to an enterprises success. Whether you’re a scaling SMB or a large multinational corporation, the same principles apply across the board; in order for your business to not only survive, but thrive in todays digital world  you must implement a digital brand protection strategy. Many trademark and business owners are unaware of the daily threats and risks facing their brands’ online.  By developing a brand protection strategy, you not only safeguard your brand, you potentially increase your global reach, enhance your brand awareness and boost your bottom line.

Implementing a brand protection is more important now than ever. Consider the following steps:

1. Revise, Reform and Develop Your Domain Name Portfolio. Strengthen Your Brands Visibility and Online Presence.

The internet was once dominated by a small number of universal top level domains (TLD’s) like .com, .org, .net. Today the ability to register a compelling .com has diminished. With ICANN’s  introduction of thousands of new gTLD’s (generic top level domains) since 2013, there now exists boundless opportunities for enterprises to develop their global reach. Digital brands can now get really creative in developing their domain name portfolio. The new domain name system presents great benefits to businesses allowing for improved SEO, targeted and personalised marketing potential as well as growing prospective client bases. Consulting with domain name specialists to devise your domain name portfolio strategy will be of immense value to your business.

2. Consider Defensive Registrations. Save on Legal Costs.

Unfortunately there is no lotus without mud. The opportunities inherent in the new domain name system also come with a potential increase in cyber-squatting/domain squatting. Opportunistic cyber-squatters set out to purchase, sell and profit from popular domain names. Your brand name could be next if you are not proactive and vigilant. dotNice recommend defensively registering new domain names in markets you currently operate in and also prospective markets that you hope to one day expand into.

3. Familiarise yourself with the URS & UDRP.

This should be a last resort. Filing disputes with the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution policy with ICANN can be a long, tedious and costly process. By taking preventative measures like defensive gTLD registrations you may save your business potentially huge litigation costs. Consulting with experienced intellectual property specialists is an essential to avoiding such litigation. Expert legal advisers can provide strategic insights on how to recover domain names from counterfeiters.

4. Consider Developing Your IDN portfolio. Expand Your Global Reach.

Introducing internationalised domain names (IDN’s) to your existing portfolio allows you to reach your target market in their native language. By incorporating IDN’s you automatically increase your  global reach.

5. Integrate Trademark Monitoring & Surveillance Technology. Stay One Step Ahead.

Brand awareness is everything in today’s digital world. Protecting your brand involves continuous online monitoring of trademark abuses. Utilising technologies that notify you of trademark abuses or even defamatory comments on social media related to your brand will prove indispensable in maintaining your brand identity.

6.Enforce Your Brand Guideline Policy. Cultivate Compliance in Your Company

The internet is all-seeing, all-hearing and all-knowing. What is said once can be remembered forever. Employing a clear compliance policy to employees, partners and affiliates is essential. Continuous surveillance of digital channels using advanced technologies will give you insights on the conversation surrounding your brand. 

7. Ensure Your DNS is Up to Scratch. 

Ensure  you have 100% uptime service level agreements with your DNS service provider to guarantee that your site is consistently available on quality servers. Even intermittent issues with DNS servers can desperately damage your brand through stalling web traffic. Such issues will negatively impact on your bottom line.

dotNice – Experts in Digital Brand Protection Strategy.

Cybercrime & Digital Brand Protection…What is it and why should we be talking about it?

There has been much talk over the last few years of the importance of digital marketing, how to create online marketing strategies, how to grow your online client base and following, how to build a brand’s online presence and how to conduct customer service via digital channels like twitter and Facebook. However there is very little conversation on the topic of how such brands’ can be protected once they have been established online. Businesses allocate massive marketing budgets to drive their digital presence. It would naturally make sense to safeguard your brand after so much capital has been invested. Some of the topics we shall be discussing over the coming weeks and months will cover the preventative measures your business can take to avoid such risks as brand reputation, revenue loss and of course legal litigation.

A key area of discussion over the next few months will focus on Domain Portfolio Management. Over the past year major developments and changes have rocked the world of domain names with ICANN , (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) releasing some 1,500 new domain names.
For instance, the music industry has just introduced .band as a new domain name available to online vendors. For yoga enthusiasts and teachers, the domain name .yoga was recently released; A plethora of new and unique domain names including .organic, .buzz, .beer even .wtf have recently been added to the domain name reservoir. This development can present great opportunities for brands endeavouring to expand and grow their online presence. It will allow enterprises to further develop targeted personalised marketing campaigns to new prospective clients and existing client bases. Needless to say, such transformations in the global domain registerary also possess threats to existing businesses. Opportunistic domain squatters may pre-emptively purchase a number of domain names that they imagine would hold equitable value to global brands. The news that Ashton Kutcher recently purchased a number of domain names for his baby daughter before she was even born, highlights the growing importance of reserving a domain name and also the growing awareness of online intellectual property. Brands must immediately consider how their domains are being managed, if at all!

Opportunities for cybersquatters are rapidly diminishing, because most businesses now know that securing domain names is a high priority. This has been happening many years and global brands are only now waking up to the extent of this problem. Companies that have won back their names from alleged cybersquatters following rulings from WIPO include Christian Dior, Nike, Deutsche Bank and Microsoft. Brands need to be aware of not only their current markets but also their potential markets. They need to protect themselves in both prospective future markets in addition to existing markets they currently operate in. Staying one step ahead is of critical importance.

Another issue our blog will discuss over the coming months is the problem of
Typo-squatting. Typo-squatting is similar to cybersquatting and is based on the probability that a certain number of Internet users will mis-spell or incorrectly type the name of a Web site (or actually its URL) when surfing the Web. For example, a common misspelling or a foreign language spelling. Back in 2006 to 2008, there existed an typo-squatted variant of Google listed as ‘goggle.com’. Landing on this fraudulent website would automatically cause the domain to download computer viruses and other destructive software including the dreaded antispyware program SpySheriff.

Another potential problem facing online brands is Phishing. Phishing involves opportunistic cybercriminals installing malicious software or stealing personal information off of your computer. Like fishing, cybercriminals essentially ‘Phish’ for important data through creating fraudulent email messages, websites, and phone calls. A highly publicised instance of this occurred in 2008 when an online fraudster claimed to be the renowned actress Scarlett Johansson and set up a fake competition whereby she ‘offered herself’ in a threesome with two of the competition winners. The object of the online imposter was to harvest email addresses of the unknowing competition participants.

Another fast evolving form of cyber-crime is brand jacking. Brand-jacking is a particular form of cyber crime whereby someone assumes the online identity of a person or brand with the intention of stealing the organisation or persons brand equity. An example of this happened to US Republican Sarah Palin and US President Barack Obama whereby falsified Facebook pages were created to damage their online presence. Furthermore, in 2006 a fake advert for a Starbucks Frappuccino was devised by an anonymous brand jacker who sought to damage the brands reputation. The objective was to highlight the contrast between consumption and poverty. Such parodies can ultimately destroy a brands equity as social media facilitates the rapid and viral dissemination of such fraudulent material.

In many cases the examples quoted above could be avoided if certain steps had been taken to carefully and thoroughly protect the brands listed. It often occurs that SMB’s and large corporations find themselves having to take costly legal action to fix what originally was a preventable problem. Enormous costs can be incurred if enterprises fail to implement and revise their digital brand protection strategy. In the year 2000, global brand Kodak won back its rights to kodak.ru after a long, tedious litigation process lasting a year and involving some twenty lawsuits. A further example of this occurred when multinational corporation Verizon won a $33 Million dollar lawsuit retrieving it’s domain name myverizonwireless.com from domain-quatters. These global brands had the financial means to pursue such costly litigation, many scaling brands establishing their online presence and scaling their business would not have such capital available.

Whether you’re an SMB or a large multinational, whether you work in the Tech industry or the entertainment industry, the same principles apply. Being prepared is key to guarantee your brands online presence and digital footprint is safeguarded.

The opening of the .paris and .bzh TLDs is also a success for Afnic

Afnic, technical partner for the new Internet domains .paris and .bzh, makes an initial assessment after the general openings that took place on Dec. 2014.
The .paris project began in 2008 and was approved by ICANN in 2013. After its opening to the first 100 ambassadors on June 4, 2014 and a registration period reserved for rights-holders from September 9 to November 11, 2014, the .paris TLD has now entered a new phase.
On December 2, 2014, .paris domain names became available to the general public. 12,000 domain names using the new digital address for the French capital have already been reserved, including almost 6,000 on the first day of the launch.
Two days later, on December 4, 2014, the .bzh TLD also became available to the general public. For all Breton-born individuals and Brittany enthusiasts, the opening of this new Internet domain culminates a project that was initiated ten years ago. Gathering all the players since 2004 and backing by the Brittany Regional Council, the www.bzh Association, supporting the .bzh project, obtained ICANN approval to create this new digital identity in 2013.
One week after the opening, almost 3,000 .bzh domain names have been registered by businesses, associations, local authorities and individuals, which contribute together to the construction of a new digital territory, spreading the image of Brittany to the world.

The growth in these figures confirms the enthusiasm of French users for new Internet domains (gTLD) that bring new, targeted places for expressing community membership, and fostering digital solidarity.
In addition to the .paris and .bzh TLDs, for five years Afnic has supported the deployment of 15 other new registries for new Internet extensions, including the .alsace, .corsica, .ovh, .sncf and .leclerc namespaces.
The non-profit organization, registry of .fr, also manages the overseas ccTLDs .re(Reunion Island), .pm (St. Pierre and Miquelon), .tf (French Southern and Antarctic Territories), .wf (Wallis and Futuna) and .yt (Mayotte). The 23 ccTLDs represent a portfolio of more than 2.8 million domain names.
The next general openings are to take place in 2015, beginning with the .alsace TLD in January.

One Other New TLD Delegated : Samsung

One other new top-level domain name was delegated ,binging the total number to 445. The newly delegated TLD is .Samsung.

Here are the other 444 TLDs delegated so far:

.Irish
.latrobe
.Aquarelle
.网店
.Money
.Coach
.Legal
.Everbank
.Memorial
.Firmdale
.Madrid
.グーグル
.谷歌
.Lds
.Mormon
.Android
.Reit
.Science
.Bloomberg
.Delivery
.Energy
.Taipei
.TOP
.Emerck
Alsace
.Forsale
.PYC
.TUI
.Vermögensberater
.Vermögensberatung
.Budapest
.Casa
.Work
.cal
.channel
.chrome
.fly
.gle
.google
.nexus
.prof
.zip
.WME
.pharmacy
.gmx
.手机
.rsvp
.new
.mov
.meme
.ing
.frl
.eat
.day
.dad
.boo
.youtube
.prod
.here
.esq
.pizza
.otsuka
.immo
.gmail
.gbiz
.network
.business
.企业
.uol
.property
.ooo
.ltda
.how
.hosting
.help
.diet
.click
.cern
.caravan
.sca
.bnpparibas
.广东
.佛山
.wales
.tatar
.sarl
.restaurant
.gifts
.cymru
.top
.realtor
.healthcare
.williamhill
.ong TLD Delegation
.Praxi
.yandex
.whoswho
.nra
.ngo
.lacaixa
.krd
.auction
.LGBT
.Spiegel
.Bloomberg
.NRW
.SCB
.Cuisinella
.Schmidt
.CancerResearch
.Active
.Mini
.capetown
.durban
.green
.joburg
.lotto
.ovh
.physio
.wang
.Brussels
.BZH
.Surf
.Vlaanderen
.Global
.army
.engineer
.gives
.hamburg
.navy
.nhk
.rehab
.republican
.tirol
.bio
.vet
.software
.press
.mortgage
.market
.lawyer
.host
.hiv
.dentist
.attorney
.Reise
.Versicherung
.Audio
.Beer
.Church
.Guide
.HipHop
.Juegos
.Life
.Luxe
.Loans
3 May 2014 GMO GMO Internet, Inc.
3 May 2014 GLOBO Globo Comunicação e Participações S.A
3 May 2014 BAYERN Bayern Connect GmbH
30 April 2014 AIRFORCE United TLD Holdco Ltd.
29 April 2014 CREDITCARD Binky Frostbite, LLC
29 April 2014 INSURE Pioneer Willow, LLC
29 April 2014 FINANCE Cotton Cypress, LLC
29 April 2014 WTC World Trade Centers Association, Inc.
29 April 2014 CITIC CITIC Group Corporation
24 April 2014 москва (xn--80adxhks) – Russian for “Moscow/ moskva”Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development (FAITID)
24 April 2014 MOSCOW Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development (FAITID)
23 April 2014 LIMITED Big Fest, LLC
23 April 2014 FAIL Atomic Pipe, LLC
23 April 2014 EXCHANGE Spring Falls, LLC
23 April 2014 TAX Storm Orchard, LLC
23 April 2014 WTF Hidden Way, LLC
23 April 2014 FUND John Castle, LLC
23 April 2014 SURGERY Tin Avenue, LLC
23 April 2014 INVESTMENTS Holly Glen, LLC
23 April 2014 FINANCIAL Just Cover, LLC
23 April 2014 GRATIS Pioneer Tigers, LLC
23 April 2014 FURNITURE Lone Fields, LLC
23 April 2014 DENTAL Tin Birch, LLC
23 April 2014 CARE Goose Cross, LLC
23 April 2014 CASHD elta Lake, LLC
23 April 2014 DISCOUNT Holly Hill, LLC
23 April 2014 BLACKFRIDAY Uniregistry, Corp.
23 April 2014 CLINICoose Park, LLC
23 April 2014 FITNESS Brice Orchard, LLC
19 April 2014 SCHULE Outer Moon, LLC
19 April 2014 FOO Charleston Road Registry, Inc.
19 April 2014 SOY Charleston Road Registry, Inc.
19 April 2014 PARIS City of Paris
19 April 2014 FROGANSOP3FT
16 April 2014 QUEBEC PointQuébec Inc
11 April 2014 PICTURES Foggy Sky, LLC
11 April 2014 UNIVERSITLittle Station, LLC
11 April 2014 GALAsociación puntoGAL
11 April 2014 ASSOCIATES Baxter Hill, LLC
11 April 2014 REISE New Cypress, LLC
11 April 2014 MEDIA Grand Glen, LLC
11 April 2014 CAREEr dotCareer LLC
11 April 2014 TOWN Koko Moon, LLC
11 April 2014 TOYS Pioneer Orchard, LLC
11 April 2014 LEASE Victor Trail, LLC
11 April 2014 SERVICES Fox Castle, LLC
11 April 2014 ENGINEERING Romeo Canyon
11 April 2014 GRIPE Com Sunset, LLC
11 April 2014 EUS Puntueus Fundazioa
11 April 2014 CAPITAL Delta Mill, LLC
10 April 2014 DESIDesi Networks, LLC
10 April 2014 FEEDBACK Top Level Spectrum, Inc.
10 April 2014 COLLEGE XYZ.COM, LLC
10 April 2014 ROCKS United TLD Holdco, Ltd.
10 April 2014 网址 (xn--ses554g) – Chinese for “network address”Hu Yi Global Information Resources (Holding) Company Hong Kong Limited
4 April 2014 GOP Republican State Leadership Committee, Inc.
3 April 2014 RYUKYU BusinessRalliart Inc.
3 April 2014 YOKOHAMA GMO Registry, Inc.
2 April 2014 REST Punto 2012 Sociedad Anonima Promotora de Inversion de Capital Variable
2 April 2014 SAARLAND dotSaarland GmbH
31 March 2014 CONSULTING Pixie Station, LLC
31 March 2014 VODKA Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
31 March 2014 HAUS Pixie Edge, LLC
31 March 2014 COOKING Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
31 March 2014 MOE Interlink Co., Ltd.
31 March 2014 RODEO Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
31 March 2014 COUNTRY Uniregistry, Corp.
31 March 2014 商城(xn--czru2d) – Chinese for “mall” Zodiac Capricorn Limited
31 March 2014 HORSE Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
31 March 2014 FISHING Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
31 March 2014 VEGAS Dot Vegas, Inc.
31 March 2014 MIAMI Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
31 March 2014 ARCHI Starting Dot Limited
27 March 2014 BLACK Afilias Limited
27 March 2014 REN Beijing Qianxiang Wangjing Technology Development Co., Ltd.
27 March 2014 MEET Afilias Limited
25 March 2014 SOHU Sohu.com Limited
22 March 2014 LONDON Dot London Domains Limited
20 March 2014 NYC The City of New York by and through the New York City Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications
19 March 2014 COLOGNE NetCologne Gesellschaft für Telekommunikation mbH
19 March 2014 AXA AXA SA
19 March 2014 WEBCAM dot Webcam Limited
19 March 2014 TRADE Elite Registry Limited
15 March 2014 JETZT New TLD Company
12 March 2014 世界 (xn--rhqv96g) – Chinese for “world/shijie” Stable Tone Limited
11 March 2014 DNP Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
11 March 2014 INK Top Level Design, LLC
9 March 2014 机构 (xn--nqv7f) – Chinese for “agencies/institutions” Public Interest Registry
9 March 2014 संगठन (xn--i1b6b1a6a2e) – Hindi for “organization/sangathana” Public Interest Registry
9 March 2014 组织机构 (xn--nqv7fs00ema) – Chinese for “organization” Public Interest Registry
5 March 2014 орг (xn--c1avg) – Russian for “organization/org” Public Interest Registry
5 March 2014 KOELN NetCologne Gesellschaft für Telekommunikation mbH
2 March 2014 BID dot Bid Limited
2 March 2014 OKINAWA BusinessRalliart Inc.
2 March 2014 VOTE Monolith Registry LLC
2 March 2014 VOTO Monolith Registry LLC
27 February 2014 BAR Punto 2012 Sociedad Anonima Promotora de Inversion de Capital Variable
27 February 2014 KRED KredTLD Pty Ltd
27 February 2014 BEST BestTLD Pty Ltd
26 February 2014 CHRISTMAS Uniregistry, Corp.
26 February 2014 PUB United TLD Holdco, Ltd.
26 February 2014 дети (xn--d1acj3b) – Russian for “kids/deti” The Foundation for Network Initiatives “The Smart Internet”
26 February 2014 ACTOR United TLD Holdco, Ltd.
25 February 2014 SUPPLIES Atomic Fields, LLC
21 February 2014 FISH Fox Woods, LLC
21 February 2014 삼성 (xn―cg4bki) – Korean for “Samsung/Samseong” Samsung SDS Co., LTD
21 February 2014 VACATIONS Atomic Tigers, LLC
21 February 2014 INDUSTRIES Outer House, LLC
21 February 2014 SUPPLY Half Falls, LLC
19 February 2014 XYZ XYZ.COM, LLC
19 February 2014 WIKI Top Level Design, LLC
19 February 2014 NEUSTAR NeuStar, Inc,
18 February 2014 بازار (xn--mgbab2bd) – Arabic for “bazaar/bazar” CORE Association
16 February 2014 MANGO Punto FA S.L.
12 February 2014 QPON dotCOOL, Inc.
11 February 2014 CARDS Foggy Hollow, LLC
11 February 2014 FOUNDATION John Dale, LLC
11 February 2014 REVIEWS United TLD Holdco, Ltd.
11 February 2014 FUTBOL United TLD Holdco, Ltd.
11 February 2014 VISION Koko Station, LLC
11 February 2014 CONDOS Pine House, LLC
11 February 2014 VILLAS Koko Station, LLC
11 February 2014 PARTS Sea Goodbye, LLC
11 February 2014 PRODUCTIONS Magic Birch, LLC
11 February 2014 MAISON Victor Frostbite, LLC
5 February 2014 移动 (xn--6frz82g) – Chinese for “mobile” Afilias Limited
5 February 2014 BLUE Afilias Limited
4 February 2014 FLIGHTS Fox Station, LLC
4 February 2014 CLEANING Fox Shadow, LLC
4 February 2014 REPORT Binky Glen, LLC
4 February 2014 EVENTS Pioneer Maple, LLC
4 February 2014 CRUISES Spring Way, LLC
4 February 2014 RENTALS Big Hollow, LLC
4 February 2014 PARTNERS Magic Glen, LLC
4 February 2014 PROPERTIES Big Pass, LLC
4 February 2014 CATERING New Falls, LLC
4 February 2014 EXPOSED Victor Beach, LLC
29 January 2014 VOTING Valuetainment, Corp.
29 January 2014 TOKYO GMO Registry, Inc.
29 January 2014 NAGOYA GMO Registry, Inc.
27 January 2014 DATING Pine Fest, LLC
27 January 2014 COMMUNITY Fox Orchard, LLC
23 January 2014 BOUTIQUE Over Galley, LLC
23 January 2014 BARGAINS Half Hallow, LLC
23 January 2014 TIENDA Victor Manor, LLC
23 January 2014 WORKS Little Dynamite, LLC
23 January 2014 WED Atgron, Inc.
23 January 2014 EXPERT Magic Pass, LLC
23 January 2014 WATCH Sand Shadow, LLC
23 January 2014 KIM Afilias Limited
23 January 2014 COOL Koko Lake, LLC
23 January 2014 TOOLS Pioneer North, LLC
18 January 2014 CLUB .Club Domains, LLC
18 January 2014 BUILD Plan Bee, LLC
18 January 2014 PICS Uniregistry, Corp.
18 January 2014 PINK Afilias Limited
18 January 2014 LUXURY Luxury Partners, LLC
18 January 2014 PHOTO Uniregistry, Corp.
18 January 2014 GIFT Uniregistry, Corp.
18 January 2014 网络 (xn--io0a7i) – Chinese for “network” Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences (China Internet Information Center)
18 January 2014 公司 (xn--55qx5d) – Chinese for “company” Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences (China Internet Information Center)
18 January 2014 MONASH Monash University
18 January 2014 RICH I-REGISTRY Ltd. Niederlassung Deutschland
18 January 2014 RED Afilias Limited
18 January 2014 SHIKSHA Afilias Limited
18 January 2014 中信 (xn--fiq64b) – Chinese for “CITIC” CITIC Group Corporation
18 January 2014 LINK Uniregistry, Corp.
18 January 2014 GUITARS Uniregistry, Corp.
14 January 2014 ZONE Outer Falls, LLC
14 January 2014 CHEAP Sand Cover, LLC
14 January 2014 MARKETING Fern pass, LLC
14 January 2014 DEMOCRAT United TLD Holdco Ltd.
14 January 2014 SOCIAL United TLD Holdco Ltd.
14 January 2014 AGENCY Steel Falls, LLC
14 January 2014 MODA United TLD Holdco Ltd.
14 January 2014 DANCE United TLD Holdco Ltd.
8 January 2014 BERLIN dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG
3 January 2014 集团 (xn--3bst00m) – Chinese for “group” Eagle Horizon Limited
3 January 2014 我爱你 (xn--6qq986b3xl) – Chinese for “I love you” Tycoon Treasure Limited
3 January 2014 中文网 (xn--fiq228c5hs) – Chinese for “Chinese network” TLD Registry Limited
3 January 2014 WANG Zodiac Leo Limited
3 January 2014 KIWI Dot Kiwi Limited
3 January 2014 WIEN punkt.wien GmbH
2 January 2014 EMAIL Spring Madison, LLC
2 January 2014 IMMOBILIEN United TLD Holdco Ltd.
2 January 2014 在线 (xn--3ds443g) – Chinese for “online” TLD Registry Limited
28 December 2013 INSTITUTE Outer Maple, LLC
28 December 2013 CEO CEOTLD Pty Ltd
28 December 2013 SOLAR Ruby Town, LLC
28 December 2013 FARM Just Maple, LLC
28 December 2013 EDUCATION Brice Way, LLC
28 December 2013 GLASS Black Cover, LLC
28 December 2013 ONL I-REGISTRY Ltd. Niederlassung Deutschland
28 December 2013 INTERNATIONAL Wild Way, LLC
28 December 2013 CODES Puff Willow, LLC
28 December 2013 TRAINING Wild Willow, LLC
28 December 2013 HOUSE Sugar Park, LLC
28 December 2013 KAUFEN United TLD Holdco Ltd.
28 December 2013 NINJA United TLD Holdco Ltd.
28 December 2013 REPAIR Lone Sunset, LLC
28 December 2013 BUILDERS Atomic Madison, LLC
28 December 2013 COFFEE Trixy Cover, LLC
28 December 2013 FLORIST Half Cypress, LLC
28 December 2013 HOLIDAY Goose Woods, LLC
28 December 2013 SOLUTIONS Silver Cover, LLC
18 December 2013 BUZZ dotStrategy Co.
18 December 2013 SUPPORT Grand Orchard, LLC
17 December 2013 RECIPES Grand Island, LLC
17 December 2013 COMPUTER Pine Mill, LLC
17 December 2013 ACADEMY Half Oaks, LLC
17 December 2013 CAREERS Wild Corner, LLC
17 December 2013 CAB Half Sunset, LLC
17 December 2013 公益 (xn--55qw42g) – Chinese for “charity” China Organizational Name Administration Center
17 December 2013 政务 (xn--zfr164b) – Chinese for “government” China Organizational Name Administration Center
17 December 2013 SYSTEMS Dash Cypress, LLC
17 December 2013 DOMAINS Sugar Cross, LLC
17 December 2013 VIAJES Black Madison, LLC
17 December 2013 COMPANY Silver Avenue, LLC
17 December 2013 CAMP Delta Dynamite, LLC
17 December 2013 LIMO Hidden Frostbite, LLC
17 December 2013 MANAGEMENT John Goodbye, LLC
17 December 2013 PHOTOS Sea Corner, LLC
17 December 2013 SHOES Binky Galley, LLC
17 December 2013 CENTER Tin Mill, LLC
10 December 2013 RUHR Regiodot GmbH & Co. KG
30 November 2013 MENU Wedding TLD2, LLC
30 November 2013 UNO Dot Latin, LLC
23 November 2013 みんな (xn--q9jyb4c) – Japanese for “everyone” Charleston Road Registry, Inc.
19 November 2013 diamonds John Edge, LLC
19 November 2013 tips Corn Willow, LLC
19 November 2013 photography Sugar Glen, LLC
19 November 2013 directory Extra Madison, LLC
19 November 2013 enterprises Snow Oaks, LLC
19 November 2013 kitchen Just Goodbye, LLC
19 November 2013 today Pearl Woods, LLC
14 November 2013 plumbing Spring Tigers, LLC
14 November 2013 graphics Over Madison, LLC
14 November 2013 contractors Magic Woods, LLC
14 November 2013 gallery Sugar House, LLC
14 November 2013 sexy Uniregistry, Corp.
14 November 2013 construction Fox Dynamite, LLC
14 November 2013 tattoo Uniregistry, Corp.
14 November 2013 technology Auburn Falls
14 November 2013 estate Trixy Park, LLC
14 November 2013 land Pine Moon, LLC
14 November 2013 bike Grand Hollow, LLC
06 November 2013 VENTURES Binky Lake, LLC
06 November 2013 CAMERA Atomic Maple, LLC.
06 November 2013 CLOTHING Steel Lake, LLC
06 November 2013 LIGHTING John McCook, LLC
06 November 2013 SINGLES Fern Madison, LLC
06 November 2013 VOYAGE Ruby House, LLC
06 November 2013 GURU Pioneer Cypress, LLC
06 November 2013 HOLDINGS John Madison, LLC
06 November 2013 EQUIPMENT Corn Station, LLC
23 October 2013 شبكة (xn--ngbc5azd) – Arabic for “web/network” International Domain Registry Pty. Ltd.
23 October 2013 онлайн (xn--80asehdb) – Russian for “online” CORE Association
23 October 2013 сайт (xn--80aswg) – Russian for “site” CORE Association
23 October 2013 游戏(xn--unup4y) – Chinese for “game(s)” Spring Fields, LLC

ICANN : Release of Country and Territory Names within the .BMW and .MINI TLDs

A Registry Services Evaluation Policy (RSEP) request was submitted by Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft to allow the release of country and territory names for .BMW and .MINI top-level domains (TLDs).
The RSEP proposal was posted on the RSEP webpage for public information and can be found here. Currently, the .BMW and .MINI Registry Agreements require country and territory names contained in specific internationally recognized lists to be withheld from registration or allocated to the registry operator at all levels.

As required by the RSEP, ICANN has undertaken a preliminary determination on whether the RSEP proposal might raise significant competition, security or stability issues. ICANN’s preliminary review (based on the information provided) did not identify any such issues.

Following ICANN’s preliminary determination that the proposal does not raise significant competition, security or stability issues, it was further determined that the change would require a material change to the registry operator’s Registry Agreement and that an amendment is needed in order to effect the change.

The proposed amendments, which are being posted for comment, would allow the registration of country and territory names at all levels in .BMW and .MINI TLDs. It should be noted that as of 2 October 2014, Specification 13 has been granted for both .BMW and .MINI meaning that both TLDs have .BRAND TLD provisions in place.
Public Comment Box Link: https://www.icann.org/public-comments/bmw-mini-amendment-2014-12-11-en

dotNice Official Representative of RU-CENTER in Italy

The online brand protection company unique partner in Italy for the simplification of administrative procedures in the Russian register by Italian companies

Rome/Moscow, December 4th, 2014 – dotNice official Trusted Partner in Italy of RU-CENTER. With this agreement dotNice, the italian brand protection and brand reputation company projected on the international markets – also thanks to the support of its Dublin-based sister company – in business for over 18 years, confirms its leadership in providing services with higher added value aimed at an highly efficient and cost-effective protection of trademarks online.

“This partnership makes Russian top-level domains closer to Italian market,” says Andrey Vorobyev, RU-CENTER Head of PR&GR. “With strong business relationships between the countries it is essential to provide convenient tools for names’ registration Italian companies need for successful business in Russia.”

“It is with great pleasure – says Alessandro Bucci, CEO of dotNice – that we announce this partnership with RU-CENTER. The agreement we have recently signed will significantly simplify the administrative procedures on the Russian domain names for the Italian companies by providing ease of access, greater efficiency and lower costs.”

The RU-CENTER representative office in Italy is ready to fully support both the actual holders of domain names registered in Russia – providing all the domain names related services and operations, as renewals, transfer of rights, data modification, change of registrar, cancellation of services – and those who wish to register new domain names with the .ru extension.

dotNice contacts:

dotNice Italia srl
Piazza del Popolo 18
00187 Rome – Italy
Ph: +39.06.874461
Fax: +39.06.87446000
Email: brandprotection-italy@dotnice.com
Web: www.dotnice.com

Domain names in China hacked by overseas IPs

Nearly 60% of domain names in China that were hijacked by backdoor programs in the first half of 2014 ended in “.com” and 48.8% of these cases were controlled by overseas IP addresses, the Beijing-based China Securities Journal reports.
Huang Chengqing, director of China’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China (CNCERT or CNCERT/CC) disclosed the statistics at a forum on cyber security at the World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province on Nov. 20.
Domain names are the addresses websites use to allow internet users to find them. When one gets hijacked, the person looking for that site gets redirected to a site controlled by hackers. In many cases though, hackers can be traced back to their IP address or special idenifier each computer has.
The report suggested that among the overseas IPs controlling hacked domain names in China, the US, Hong Kong, and South Korea were the top three. Huang said China now faces a difficult situation in terms of its internet security and plans to combat it by promoting international partnership programs. CNCERT has signed cyber security agreements with 17 organizations and established international cooperation partnership with 127 organizations in 59 countries.
CNCERT is a non-governmental and non-profit cyber security technical center and the key coordination team for China’s cyber security emergency response system. They are also responsible for domain name registrations in China.

Afnic: New registration rules as of December 8, 2014

Afnic has published the new naming policy for domain names under the .fr, .pm, .re, .tf, .wf and .yt ccTLDs which comes into force on December 8, 2014.
The main changes in the registration policy are:
As announced on 8 October 2014, registration of .fr domain names only consisting of one or two character(s) is authorized from December 8, 2014.
The opening is scheduled in phases, with a precise timetable.
The opening is only applicable under the .fr TLD and none of the other country codes managed by Afnic: .pm, .re, .tf, .wf or .yt .
The creation of a registry lock option. Holders may ask their registrar to benefit from this option which prevents any intervention on the domain name without obtaining the prior confirmation of the registrar and/or the holder of the domain name.

More information are available here

About AFNIC
AFNIC is the French Registry for the .fr (France), .re (Reunion Island), .yt (Mayotte), .wf (Wallis and Futuna), .tf (French Southern Territories), .pm (Saint-Pierre and Miquelon). AFNIC is also positioned as a provider of technical solutions and services for registries and registrars. AFNIC (the French Network Information Centre) comprises public and private stakeholders, including government authorities, users, and Internet service providers (Registrars). It is a non-profit organisation.

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