Management and protection of your domain names
Brandon IP supports you in the management, protection and defense of your domain names.
The domain name, an asset for your business
The domain name has now become a crucial item for any economic or institutional actor (company, association, etc.) having a website. Like a trademark, it allows users and consumers to identify their contact more easily. Choosing and protecting it well is therefore essential to both be recognized and sustain your business. Registering domain names close to its own is also a strategy that can be put in place to avoid misleading uses by third parties.
The domain name is an intangible asset. It consists of a name and an extension.
For example: brandon-ip.com
A distinction is made between generic extensions (eg: .com; .biz; .org; .info) and so-called national extensions. For example .fr for France, .eu for Europe, .co.jp for Japan… The extension generally reflects the activity or the country corresponding to the website.
Find here a list of domain name extensions with their correspondence.
Protection of domain names
The domain name is not registered with intellectual property Offices but with registrars. When registering, it is not necessary to specify the activity you wish to develop in the corresponding website.
The rule for assigning a domain name is that of “1st come, 1st served”. It is therefore possible to buy any domain name, as long as it is available.
Please note that you cannot in principle adopt and use as a domain name a name infringing an earlier registered trademark, a company name, a registered designation of origin (AOC), a known surname, etc.
However, there are many fraudulent registrations of domain names relating for example to spelling variations of well-known brands, or to little-used territorial extensions in order to mislead the consumer. If we take the previous example, it could be “brandon-ip.biz”, close to “brandon-ip.com”, or “brrandon-ip.com”. By the way, it is often this similar domain name technique that is used by hackers during phishing or cybersquatting campaigns, when the user is redirected to a website similar to the copied brand, with an URL which is very similar but still slightly different. This method can also be used by third parties to sell counterfeit products, or simply by a competitor to mislead the Internet user and retrieve a stream of users who would normally have clicked on your website when searching the Internet.
This is an important point on which you must remain careful, because the risk is to see fraudulent uses tarnish the image of your company or your brand and therefore have a negative impact on your turnover.
Our experts can advise you on the domain name registration strategy.
As Intellectual Property Attorneys, Brandon IP’s experts can also take care of watching your domain names on the Internet in order to detect any infringement by third parties. In case of conflict, we then manage the drafting and filing of complaints with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), AFNIC (French Association for Internet Nomage in Cooperation) or any other competent national or international organization.
There is also a system parallel to the judicial system, namely the UDRP complaint, which is managed by the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. Do not hesitate to contact us for more information about this topic.
In conclusion
Protecting your domain names is highly important. That is protecting your brand image, and therefore your reputation and your activities.
Brandon IP consultants are able to relieve you of the management of registrations and the renewal of your domain names in all existing territories. At the same time, and facing the increase in online fraud, we provide monitoring and protection of your rights, including administrative and legal actions if need be.
Intellectual property attorneys that meets your expectations as closely as possible
With more than 155 years of existence, Brandon IP is one of the oldest intellectual property firms in France. Since 1866, the firm has supported its clients, project holders and companies of all sizes (SMEs, large international groups, start-ups) in the protection of their inventions and other intellectual property rights. The services offered by Brandon IP are totally personalized and are as close as possible to the creators needs.
As a guarantee of our expertise, Brandon IP is ranked among the best French IP law firms by the Leaders League rating agency (Décideurs Magazine).
Our teams of patent attorneys, lawyers and paralegals, each expert in their field, are competent to handle all stages of the life of your intellectual property.
Find out more about our team on this page: www.brandon-ip.com/your-contacts/
Services offered by Brandon IP
As Intellectual Property Attorneys, Brandon IP covers all aspects of intellectual property, from the implementation of a protection strategy to the filing and defense of your rights, to their economic and/or financial valuation.
Regarding your domain names, our firm can assist you in the following procedures:
1/ The acquisition and retention of your rights
- Consulting and protection strategy
- Verification of the availability of domain names
- Reservation of domain names
- Surveillance of due dates
- Renewal of domain names
- Registration of modifications with the registrars
2/ The defense of your rights
- Watch of similar domain names
- Filing and monitoring of administrative proceedings
- Proposal and management of pre-litigation procedures
- Filing of complaints before the arbitration and mediation centre of the WIPO
- Lawsuits for infringement, unfair competition or others, particularly with specialized lawyers
3/ The valorization of your domain names
- Negotiation and drafting of contracts (transfer, licence, coexistence agreement, etc.)
- Domain name audit or due diligence
- Advice concerning rights management
- Financial valuation of domain names, in partnership with Brandon Valorisation, Innovation Consulting
Do you plan to reserve a domain name, or do you want to defend your right, take administrative or legal actions or estimate the value of your property? Our teams are at your disposal to advise you and support you in all these steps.