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Both the trademark and the domain name must be protected against fraud and abuse. A company’s reputation can be threatened by a third party appropriating or diluting the product or service trademark with copy cat trademarks or redirecting Internet traffic to bogus websites. Customers may abandon loyalty to the brand, resulting in revenue loss for the company.
VAYTON can help you protect and manage your brand capital with our proprietary platforms.
Here are our top six recommendations for ensuring full brand protection and valuation:
1. View Your Domain Names as a Corporate Asset
Is the management of your Domain Name portfolio an integral part of your total business management strategy? Is domain portfolio management in sync with your corporate objectives and goals? If the answers are no, this is your first clue that your company has failed to see your DN portfolio as a valuable corporate asset to be protected and valorized. The risks are too great not to have a comprehensive domain management strategy. And, the opportunities to valorize this asset are too numerous to be ignored.
2. Centralize Domain Name Management
Choose a single, accredited registrar for your DNs to reduce costs and risks and have a single-point of contact (corporate administrative contact). As new top level domains become available and as the corporation builds its e-commerce for products and services, the necessity of continuously acquiring new Domain Names can result in too many opportunities to miss renewal deadlines. You should not only have an effective management system but a comprehensive strategy to protect and optimize your brands and trademarks.
3. Perform Systematic DN Portfolio Audits
Audit all your Domain Names immediately. Do managers in different areas of the company who control Domain Names have the same policies for renewals and management? After an enterprise-wise audit is performed, you should develop policies and procedures for systematic renewals and acquisition of new domains. 4. Audit and Centralize Your Trademark Portfolio at the Same Time Many countries require a new trademark or a local company to also register a domain name. This is true for France. So, audit and centralize your trademark portfolio at the same time you centralize your DN portfolio.
5. Monitor Domain Information for Guaranteed Renewals
Take steps to ensure you have the resources and technology for guaranteed domain renewals and control over the process. Failure to update Whois can result in losing DNs to cybersquatters who will try to resell the DNs to you at exorbitant prices or redirect Internet traffic to a bogus or counterfeit Web site. Renewing your DNs for periods longer than the usual two years will ease the administrative burden. However, with large portfolios, having different initial registration dates for DNs, managing renewals can be an administrative hassle leading to mismanagement of this valuable asset.
6. Stay Informed About New Threats
Do not wait until the crisis (the counterfeiting, the disruption of services, or unauthorized access to company and consumer information) occurs to take action. VAYTON devotes resources to monitoring the threats on the horizon, assessing the potential harm, developing a plan and taking action to protect your DN portfolio asset.