Imagine opening a gourmet shop, working towards growing it, and building a brand image around it, and your competitor opens the same shop next to yours and gives it the same name. Now your consumers are confused as to which shop is yours and find it hard to recognize it. This hampers not only your business but also your brand image. Similarly, it is important to trademark your domain name. And then, to block trademarked domain names.
Trademarking your name helps prevent consumer confusion by ensuring that customers can recognize the actual brand and its goods and services. It also stops fraudsters or competing businesses from stealing your name.
In the digital era, your domain name is just as important as your storefront’s name. Fortunately, trademark protection also applies to your website URL. This means that by registering trademark rights on your domain name, you prevent another business from registering the same name as yours. If they do so, you can seek legal help.
Why Should You Protect Your Trademarked Domains?
Protecting your domain name is a crucial step in managing your online presence. A domain name is a business’s most valuable asset. It acts like a business’s identity. Therefore, if you have been using a domain name for years or have recently acquired it, you need to protect it. To make sure you don’t lose it due to oversight, fraud, or criminal conduct. A great way is to block trademarked domain names.
If you own a domain name, here’s how you can protect it.
- Ensure that your domain name is registered to the proper entity.
- Block trademarked domain names.
- Be cautious of domain name frauds.
- Choose a trusted registrar and blocking tool.
- Use a strong registrar password and keep it safe.
- Register your domain name for an extended period.
- Pay attention to the contact details you provide.
Block Trademarked Domain Names
If your brand name is also your domain name (or something similar), you should protect it by registering your domain name as a trademark.
“Your domain name may operate and qualify as a trademark if it is clearly and prominently displayed on your website in such a way that potential customers see it as a symbol of origin in direct relation to the products and services advertised,” according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
USPTO also mentions, “If you want to profit from trademark rights and restrict undesired usage by the competition, it is critical to avoid using common, generic, or descriptive phrases in a domain name.”
Go for an experienced domain name registrar to guarantee that your domain name is available and can be legally trademarked after you register it.
Threats to Domain Names and Businesses
At times, cyber hackers may try to deceive your customers by using various versions of your registered domain name. They might use identical names or close variations of your domain name for phishing schemes where hackers masquerade as representatives of your business and send emails or messages using your domain address similar to your business domain for fraudulent purposes. Therefore, you need to take the necessary measures to protect your company’s private data and not compromise during domain registration.
It adds to the list of reasons why you should block trademarked domain names. Make sure to renew your domain name so that you don’t get a message suddenly stating your business website is not functioning. Make sure to keep a record of your domain expiration dates. Also, invest in auto-renewal services that will renew your domain name before the subscription expires so you don’t have to tackle the risk of website downtime.
How To Block Trademarked Domain Names?
Ever wondered that you could block specific domain names to protect your trademarks?
ShortBlock, a domain blocking service, makes it easy to protect trademarks. ShortBlock enables trademark holders to block marks and variations of those marks on all of ShortDot’s domain extensions.
Registrars and their clients can safeguard trademarks against income and reputation harm caused by fraudsters exploiting brand names in disgust and negative sentiments with a single interaction.
ShortBlock is intended to assist registrars and registrants in simply managing a portfolio of trademark blocks across all ShortDot’s domain extensions and prevent anybody from abusing the registration of a domain with an existing block imposed.
How Does ShortBlock work?
Once a registrar has created an account with ShortBlock, it may begin submitting blocks. Each block can have its category depending on how many variants a registrar wants to block, and each block can be active for a specific number of years, up to a maximum of ten.
When a registrar wants to submit a new block, they simply go to the ‘Blocks’ page, enter the term they wish to block, re-enter it to ensure it is spelled correctly, then submit the SMD file from the TMCH, select which block service they want to use for that specific block term, and choose the number of years the block should be active, and voila! Your block will be activated.
The 3 Block Services
ShortBlock has 3 block services:
- Basic Block.
- Homoglyph Block.
- WildCard Block.
Basic Block
The Basic Block Service guarantees that the client’s mark will be blocked across all of ShortDot’s existing and future extensions, as long as the block remains active when new extensions are added.
The basic block will block the mark without any character changes or additional words added to the domain.
Homoglyph Block
The Homoglyph Block provides an extra degree of protection by additionally prohibiting confusingly similar names to the submitted mark by utilizing letters and numerals resembling those in the mark.
For example, in the mark ‘Microsoft,’ the letters i,o, and L might be mistaken for 1, l, or 0. The homoglyph engine will examine your provided mark and include any mark variants on the block list.
WildCard Block
The WildCard block is one of the most complete and well-rounded blocking mechanisms available. When a block is submitted, it is checked for homoglyphs and then blocks everything that comes before or after the complete list of the mark and its homoglyph variations.
When a mark is blocked using the WildCard Block, it is effectively removed. It is entirely safe from the moment domains containing the mark in any form are registered across all of ShortDot’s extensions.
Bottom Line
It is crucial to block your trademarked domain names. Many businesses don’t even realize whether they have it or not while rushing through the domain registration. Therefore, check with your domain registrar and hosting provider to make sure your domain name is protected.
Also, visit www.shortblock.bond to learn more about blocking your marks.