A survey of the domain registration behaviour of Fortune 100
companies conducted by Minds + Machines reveals that they have not
registered many of their trademarks in recently created generic
top-level domains (gTLDs).
In the study it was found a sample of 1043 brands were registered in
less than 30 per cent of the eight new open gTLDs created after 2001. If
historical registration data is a guide, brands are unlikely to
undertake many defensive domain name registrations in the proposed new
gTLDs, and furthermore are unlikely to be the victims of cybersquatting.
With the help of DomainTools, Minds + Machines surveyed 1043 brands
owned by the Fortune 100 companies.
Their purpose was to discover to what extent large companies - which
have been the loudest critics of ICANN's new gTLD program - have
actually registered their brands defensively in the already existing new
gTLDs.
By counting which domain names had been registered, reserved, or
otherwise made unavailable for new registration, they were able to see
which gTLDs are either registered in defensively (by brands) or
cybersquatted by malefactors. Where many names are registered (e.g.,
.COM), it can be deduced whether defensive registrations and/or
cybersquatting is prevalent.
The data shows that brand names are registered as domain names 87 per
cent of the time in .com, .net, and .org; just 67 cent of the time in
.INFO and .BIZ; and only 29 per cent in .MOBI, .ASIA, .CAT, .JOBS,
.NAME, .PRO, .TEL and .TRAVEL - the newer ICANN-created gTLDs where it
is easy to register a domain name, and may be attractive to
cybersquatters.
Overall, the claims of brand owners that they will be forced to spend
significant amounts of money performing defensive registrations in the
proposed new gTLDs is not supported by the historical data the study
found, which shows that they largely do not undertake defensive
registrations in new gTLDs, nor is there any extensive cybersquatting in
new gTLDs.
The study also looked at whether new gTLDs force brand owners to
register names defensively?
In a previous study, Minds + Machines found that the cost of enforcement
of trademark rights in new gTLDs is likely to be small - on the order
of $.10 per registered trademark, per year. The current study looks at
the likely cost of defensive registrations to trademark holders.
The study is was in response to a vocal group of brand owners who have
repeatedly claimed that the cost of defensive registrations would be
"astronomical" and a "major burden on U.S. businesses."
The Minds + Machines provide, using submissions to ICANN, quotes from
trademark holders on their concerns using terms and phrases such as
"astronomical registration fees required to protect trademarks across
new gTLDs." (Overstock.com) Other terms used include "staggering", "a
fortune" and "billions."
Countering the arguments of trademark holders was a recent study by Paul
Stahura that, according to Minds + Machines, definitively concluded
that the answer was a definite "no", by examining which trademarks (in
general) were registered across COM, ORG, NET, MOBI, BIZ, INFO and US.
Stahura concluded:
"The vast majority of trademark holders are not registering their
trademark in all the current generic TLDs, let alone all the TLDs."
Dennis Carlton, an ICANN-appointed economist, noted:
"... claims that the introduction of new gTLDs will necessitate
widespread defensive registrations appear to be exaggerated and are
inconsistent with the oft-noted observation that there have been a
limited number of registrations on gTLDs introduced in recent years."
As the report notes, these two sets of voices are completely at odds. On
the one hand, the adamant insistence by brand holders that defensive
registrations in new gTLDs are necessary and costly. On the other,
equally insistent dissenting voices saying that brands neither register
defensively in new gTLDs, nor do they need to. We attempted to look
systematically at the data to try to determine who is correct, or if the
truth is somewhere in the middle.
To read more of this study, including methodology and results of the
research and analysis, see:
www.mindsandmachines.com/2010/02/survey-shows-brands-dont-register-defensively-in-new-gtlds/
and a PDF version is available from www.mindsandmachines.com/wp-content/uploads/Analysis-of-Trademark-Registration-Data-in-New-gTLDs.pdf
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