Image source: janjf93 via Pixabay In the domain names’ world, the rules applied by many registries of “first come, first served” often lead to many cases of abusive registrations and of cybersquatting in particular. This is a practice that consists in taking a domain name by registering it, using or mentioning a trademark, a business name, a patronym or any name on which the applicant has any right, in order to make material or moral profit from its current or future notoriety. In order t... Read More
Category: Brand Protection
19 years after: UDRP in few figures
Image source : Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images Launched in 1999, the UDRP process (Uniform Domain Name Policy) is today the fastest and the most affordable solution for resolving clear cases of cybersquatting. Indeed, UDRP offers to brands owners a transparent process, carried out by independent experts allowing them to retrieve or delete a domain name infringing their brands. It is important to note that the expert cannot allocate the damages and interests to the requester... Read More
The blockchain at the service of domain names
The case of Ethereum foundation and the «.ETH » extension. Ethereum is a foundation created during 2015, by Vitalik Buterin, a 21 years old Canadian. This foundation aims to promote the Ethereum blockchain technology, created by this young computer engineer, who proposes in addition to a virtual currency, like the Bitcoin blockchain, the possibility to create applications ensuring traceability, inviolability and sustainability of the transactions they manage. To allow to the greatest number of ... Read More
Trademark bullying? The Glencoe story
Glencoe is an “unforgettable place of dramatic mountains, rare beauty and haunting history” in the Scottish Highlands. It is also a UK trademark, registered by several companies including The National Trust for Scotland. NTS’s 2016 trademark is registered for goods including beauty products, jewellery and clothing. A prior UK Glencoe mark protecting articles of clothing was registered in 1996 by Glenmuir Limited, a “family-run business dedicated to producing the finest golf wear” but it does ... Read More
Mastodon : What about cybersquatting ?
Communication on social media is the subject of many justified concerns from trademarks owners. As a matter of fact, user’s names creation, called “username”, are not legally protected beforehand. Specifically, the owner has to register or retrieve the username corresponding to their brand or demonstrate to the social media that the use of their brand is used with ill intent. In short, it’s a time consuming activity… Mastodon, a few months old social network, trendy since a few days, ... Read More
What is the appropriate way to deal with inappropriate content on the internet?
The internet is a great place to find content of all sorts. Videos of cats doing crazy stunts, memes, thought provoking lifestyle messages. But this rich availability means ease of access to a wide variety of inappropriate content. Inappropriate content means any material that is disturbing, improper, and just wrong. It can be images of real or simulated violence or of a sexually explicit nature. Recently there have been concerns raised around disturbing YouTube videos. These strongly resemble ... Read More
Alibaba’s use of technology to fight counterfeit reaps first rewards
In December 2016 Alibaba was placed on a US blacklist for fakes. A US industry watchdog called the company’s Taobao website (the world’s largest e-commerce platform) a “notorious” market for counterfeiting and piracy. Now Alibaba is diligently combatting this label. Via a program called Operation “Cloud Sword” big data technology such as advanced algorithms, machine learning, optical character recognition (OCR), and mapping technologies, is used to generate clues to help identify and take down... Read More
Sponsored Links – an opportunity and a threat to your brand
Title : Adwords – Author : Christophe Benoit – Photo : licence CC BY 2.0 – www.tyseo.net What is a “Sponsored Link”? It’s a paid advertisement in the form of a hypertext link that shows up on search results pages. The ads are typically for products and services that are generally or very specifically related to the keywords in the search query. The most well known sponsored links, Google Adwords, is an advertising service offered by Google for businesses wanting to display ads on the search eng... Read More
What has become of the big dreams of the big .BRANDs ?
In 2012, ICANN received 643 applications for restricted use generic Top Level Domains extensions by brand owners. Recently, a surprising proportion of these, so called, .BRAND applications have been withdrawn, often resulting in the loss of the entire application fee ($185,000). Why have these brand owners taken the decision to relinquish control over their very own piece of the Internet infrastructure? Is this a tactical response to a strategic direction or are they simply lacking the ideas ... Read More
