How Victoria’s Secret Learned About Domain Law

By: RH

David Mitnick from DomainSkate.com wrote an article on Digiday.com that went into great detail about how Victoria’s Secret lost a domain arbitration with a brothel in Australia. The article goes on to warn brands they need to be careful about the new tld launch.

David Mitnick wrote:

But do pay attention to the new global top-level domains. Over 1,900 applications were filed for new top-level domain registries this year, and some of these domain-name registries may go live as early as June of 2013. There are built-in protections for brand owners to put their brands into a database that will prevent third parties from registering their names.

Brand owners should also be on the lookout for domain squatters who will try to purchase domains and sell them at a profit, fool consumers or create elaborate phishing scams that can do irreparable damage to the goodwill and public confidence in a brand name. In some cases, trademark holders have sought to prevent this type of abuse at domain names that are identical to certain trademarks. For example, the launch of XXX domains caused a rush of defensive registrations, and the launch of these new gTLDs may yield even more places that brands have to put down their markers — even if they never use them.

You can read the full article here which is worth reading as a domainer or as a brand owner.