Protecting a brand involves understanding the relationship between domain names, trademarks, patents and copyrights – the four pillars of intellectual property. However, it is only relatively recently that domain names have become one of the major considerations for organisations compared to the fact that trademark legislation was first passed into English law in 1266!
It is important for any organisation to have a clear domain name strategy that not only defines the key geographies, and thus ccTLDs they need to have registrations in, as well as what IP protection mechanisms they have to provide defensive cover elsewhere.
There are two types of commercial entities in the world today. Those that know their intellectual property is being abused and those that don’t want to know. Technology has brought great opportunities for organisations to grow their global footprint cost-effectively and efficiently, but it has also increased the threat they face in the digital landscape.
