Protect Brands

Internet Domains, Domain Name Monitoring and Trademarks

Domain names are a fundamental aspect of branding.  They are easy to register, and can be used instantly to associate your website with your brand. Before buying a domain, have a trade mark clearance search of the name.

Interaction between trademarks and domain names

Domain names and trademarks are separate and unrelated pieces of property although they are linked by the fact that each is relevant to a brand and both have value. You should consider registering a trademark as it gives you additional rights to the corresponding domain name, and provides an advantage in the recovery of a domain name from a cyber squatter.

If a domain name you are interested in has already been registered, you can do a ‘whois" search to find out the contact details of the owner of the registration. If you think that the registration has been made in bad faith or to ‘cyber squat" then you may be able to recover the domain name without having to buy it from the owner. Depending on the circumstances you may want to invoke the dispute resolution procedures of the relevant registration authorities.

Sometimes you may discover that others are using the same name without good cause.  For example, they may be using it as a Metatag.  Alternatively, they may have registered confusingly similar domain names so as to ride freely on the back of your reputation and goodwill.  They do this by sending traffic to a page with click through ads.

What Next?

We offer a comprehensive domain name service, and are able to arrange worldwide domain name registration of both generic top-level names (including .com; .org; .net; .info; .biz) and country level domain names. We also provide a domain name watch service, portfolio management, recovery of domain names registered by cyber squatters, and dispute resolution.

Further information is available on our Domains subsite >>