Panic Spreads as Businesses Struggle to Register their Trademark Online

Posted by camille on Apr 2, 2012 in The IT Crowd

The race is on in the domain name game, and thousands of companies are desperately trying to register a domain that matches their brand, products and services.

Domain registrar Nominet recently announced the registration of the 10 millionth .co.uk domain name, a number that has sparked panic amongst smaller businesses who fear their brand security may be at risk.

Due a weight being placed on the necessity of ecommerce for smaller businesses, there has been a significant rise in the registration of domain names through various agencies like Domaincheck. Unfortunately, the ethics of an internet business greatly differ from those in traditional society, and shopkeepers with 50 year old businesses are suddenly finding their place has already been taken online. Businesses have to find alternatives to their original brand name, which can often be damaging to an established trademark.

But not all is lost. The newly launched .co domain name is becoming increasingly popular, representing ‘.company’. Whilst it isn’t as well known as the .co.uk or the .com, the domain at least provides companies with a solution to mistaken identity.

Very recently, online movie giants Netflix took over DVD.com for an undisclosed sum. This purchase only further highlighted the desperation amongst business owners, even those as wealthy as Netflix, to be in control of domains that enhance their visibility.

UK based domain name registration company Domaincheck operate a Domain Name Generator, which allows businesses to check the availability of their desired domain across a range of different domain name suffixes. This allows business owners to not only check the price of the various domains, but also find out who else is trading under a similar trademark.

Businesses are also being advised to purchase multiple domain names, in order to protect their brand against confusion with other similar companies. Another reason for multiple domain name purchase is to eliminate the chance of cybersquatters who sit on your domain and sell it back to you for a highly marked up cost. This concept can often be quite confusing for businesses, who view individual domain names as websites in themselves, when actually it may be more effective to park the domain name or apply a re-direct to their main site.

For more information on how you can check your desired domain name availability, visit http://www.domaincheck.co.uk.

 

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