New launching dates for the .GAY

The launch of .GAY - New gTLDs - Nameshield Blog
Image source : Top Level Design website

In our article of January 24, 2020, we announced the launch of the .GAY by the TOP LEVEL DESIGN registry. This extension is intended for individuals, organizations, businesses supporting the LGBTQ community. It will increase their visibility and create a safe online space.

Originally scheduled for May 20, the date of general availability has been postponed to September 16, 2020.

Currently in Sunrise II Phase, here are the new launching dates:

  • Second Sunrise phase (period opened to any trademark holder, Sunrise I was restricted to holders of trademarks registered with the TMCH): until 04/09/2020
  • EAP (Early Access Period): from 08/09/2020 to 15/09/2020
  • General availability: from 16/09/2020

Find more information about this new extension .GAY in our previous article of January 24.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact a Nameshield consultant.

Interpol warns of alarming rise in cyberattacks during COVID

Cyberattack - Covid 19
Image source : geralt via Pixabay

In a new study of August 2020, INTERPOL measured the impact of COVID-19 on cybercrime. The results reveal that while the primary targets of cyberattacks usually remain individuals and SMEs, these have significantly expanded to large organizations and governments during the COVID period, revealing a new underlying trend.

The fact that working from home was massively implemented has obviously increased vulnerabilities which cybercriminals have been able to exploit seeking to take advantage of the situation.

According to this study, between January and April 2020, 907,000 spam messages, 737 malware incidents and 48,000 malicious URLs, all related to COVID-19 were detected.

The most common cyberattacks during the COVID-19 period were as follows:

  • Phishing
  • Ransomware
  • DDoS
  • Data harvesting malware
  • Cybersquatting / fraudulent domain names
  • Fake news

In Europe, two-thirds of member countries report a major increase in the number of cybersquatted domain names containing the keywords COVID or CORONA and ransomware deployments on critical infrastructures.

Cloning of official government websites is increasing massively as cybercriminals seek to steal sensitive data that can be used in future attacks.

In this report, you will discover all the measures implemented by INTERPOL.

It is more crucial than ever to secure your domain names carrying critical services and to protect your infrastructures.

Our consultants are, of course, at your disposal to assist you on these points.

New document available on the Nameshield’s website: “5 minutes to understand – SEO of domain names”

5 minutes to understand -SEO of Domain names - Nameshield

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of techniques aimed at optimizing the visibility of a web page in the search results.

For your positioning in search engines and for your communication, the domain name is of significant importance.

Find in this “5 minutes to understand” document, available for download on the Nameshield’s website, the good practices to optimize your referencing on search engines.

DOWNLOAD

New document available on the Nameshield’s website: “5 minutes to understand – Operations on domain names”

5 minutes to understand - Domain names - Nameshield

Domain names are subject to various operations. The modalities for these operations may vary according to the extensions and the rules set up by the registries.

Find in this “5 minutes to understand” document, available for download on the Nameshield’s website, the different operations on domain names.

DOWNLOAD

Booking.com, a generic term turning into a brand?

Booking.com - domain name
Image source: Julius_Silver via Pixabay

A trademark must be “distinctive”, which is why no one can register a generic term as a trademark.

However, a decision of the US Supreme Court on June 30, 2020 allows Booking.com to register its domain name as a trademark.

If for USPTO (U.S Patent and Trademark Office), “booking” is a generic term, and adding the .COM would amount to adding “Company” to a name, thus arguing that booking.com cannot be registered as a trademark, the Court decided otherwise.

Indeed, it considered that “.COM” could not be compared to “company” since the essential criterion would be the identification of consumers.

In particular, the online travel company presented consumers surveys indicating that 75% of consumers thought Booking.com was a brand.

Of course, this first argument, easily challenged by Judge Breyer, was not the one that hit the nail on the head in the final decision. Since a domain name can only belong to one holder, the risks of confusion that must be avoided by trademarks could not arise here, since no one else can use the name Booking.com.

Despite the registration of the booking.com trademark, the company will not be able to use it as a trademark right in disputes that could oppose it to other companies using the generic term “booking” in their trademark.

To read the full decision, click here.