As per our earlier newsletter, the internet is experiencing the dawn of a new era.
The biggest change to the internet since it was created is taking place…right now and it is imperative for right holders to take action in order to protect their marks. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which the world broadly accepts as the place to work out Internet governance policies, has put into place a new gTLD program (we know gTLD’s as the word after the dot in domain name addresses, for example .com,) in order to expand the Internet namespace.
In the coming months, the number of generic top level domains (gTLD’s) on the internet will increase from 22 – such as .com, .org, etc – to over 1300 including .beer, .travel, .museum etc. More than half of these new gTLD’s run with open registration policies so that anyone can register a new domain name without restriction.The effect of this drastic change will be felt by trademark/brand right holders throughout the world and as reasonably expected, trademark right holders are concerned about the continued protection of their brands on the web.
Thankfully, a one stop solution for protecting your brand has been put into place and it is now possible for trademark holders to be in a position to control the online use of their trademarks and prohibit the misleading and unauthorised use of their trademarks in this new era.
The following link will take you to the new gTLD addresses available (or to be made available soon).
If you need help understanding how you can protect your trademark, we would be pleased to assist.
FURTHER READING: Click here for ICANN’s infographic about the new internet era
