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Digital Brand Management |
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Digital Brand Management FAQs - General FAQ
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What is Digital Brand Management?
Digital assets include domain names, logos,
proprietary content and images online. As a company's business and reputation
grows, its digital assets become more and more valuable. Digital branding
includes not only Web site content and logos, but how domains are used,
whether or not they point to correct sites and how partners represent
products and services on their own Web sites. Digital Brand Management
includes everything from organising, consolidating digital assets to
using them to actively promote the business and increase revenues.
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What do Digital Brand Management
Services include?
VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services
is a business unit of VeriSign, Inc. We provide customised solutions
to enterprise companies that want to protect and promote their digital
brands. Most Digital Brand Management clients have portfolios of more
than 50 domain names, including ccTLD registrations.
Services for enterprise clients include:
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Why should I choose VeriSign?
In today's challenging business environment,
it's unwise to take chances with vendors whose future and mission may
not be entirely clear, particularly when it comes to managing valuable
digital assets. VeriSign provides:
- Dedicated and knowledgeable
enterprise support
- Domain registration
and management experience since 1993
- Networked systems
experience since 1979
- Security and stability
- Global services
and support
What is a Registry?
A registry is a company or organisation that
maintains the master database of domain names that all end with the
same Top Level Domain (TLD), such as .com. There are approximately 250 registries around the globe.
VeriSign, Inc., maintains the registry for domains ending in .com and .net, and until recently, .org and .edu.
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What is a Registrar?
A registrar is company or organisation through
which individuals and organisations process their registrations to obtain
domain names. While many registrars offer a wide range of TLDs for registration,
some specialise in particular ccTLDs or regions.
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Is it sufficient to register
only a .com?
Registering your .com, .net, and .org is a
good first step; but if you are serious about expanding and protecting
your identity however, there are more than 200 active registries where
your brand names, trademarks and products can be registered. Failure
to register these names can result in lost revenue and customer confusion,
as unscrupulous companies or cyber squatters may register them to divert
traffic or sell unlicensed goods.
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What is cyber-squatting? Are
there different types of cyber-squatters?
Cyber-squatting is a practice where "individuals
seek extortionate profits by reserving Internet domain names that are
similar or identical to trademarked names with no intention of using
the names in commerce themselves." H.R. Rep. No. 106-412, at 6
(1999).
There are a number of types of external threats
to your domain names, including:
- Speculators registering
variants of your company's name, hoping to resell them back to you.
- Speculators monitoring
domain names, hoping you inadvertently allow them to expire, then registering
them and attempting to sell them back to you.
- Critics who register
a domain name similar to your company's name to make disparaging remarks
or create public awareness of potentially damaging information.
- Traffic diverters
who register your brand names or variations on them in order to resell
the customers who come looking for your products and services.
- People with no malicious
intent who coincidentally register a domain name you want. This is of
particular concern if someone else anywhere else in the world legitimately
uses the same name as your company or brand name.
Failure to protect your domain names from deletion,
hijacking, or cyber squatting often results in complex and expensive
recovery operations, typically costing much more than a well-planned
domain name strategy.
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What if my business is not
Web-related or has minimal presence?
VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services
recommends that you register your company name, key trademarks and brand
names as domain names to prevent someone else from registering them
and misusing them. Unlike trademarks, domain names are unique - there
can be only one per domain. So, once someone else registers your name
it is gone, unless you are willing to spend time and money to recover
it by alternative methods. The cost of registration is often much less
than the cost of litigation or other recovery methods.
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What is the difference between
restricted and unrestricted ccTLD?
A ccTLD is a country-code Top-Level Domain
and a part of the domain space associated with a certain country or
region. Each of the ccTLDs do not necessarily represent a sovereign
country. There are three kinds of ccTLDs - unrestricted, restricted
and severely restricted.
Unrestricted ccTLDs have no restrictions. Anyone
from anywhere is generally allowed to register a domain name on a first
come, first served basis. Restricted ccTLDs have particular requirements
that must be met for registration. For example, a local mailing address
may be required in order to register. Most allow multiple name registrations.
Severely restricted ccTLDs have the most stringent restrictions for
registration. Requirements may include a local mailing address and proof
of local incorporation/residence. Some countries may request additional
documentation.
Restricted ccTLDs have restrictions for registration.
Requirements include a local mailing address and proof of local incorporation/residence.
Some countries may request additional documentation.
Semi-restricted ccTLDs have restrictions, though
less stringent than Restricted ccTLDs, for registration. For example,
a local mailing address may be required in order to register. Most allow
multiple name registrations.
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Where am I most vulnerable
from a trademark infringement standpoint?
Many trademark holders consider the unrestricted
country-code domains as "high-risk" countries and rank these
as the highest priority for registration. Many companies register in
these country-code domains to protect themselves from cyber-squatters
and to maximise traffic to their Web sites.
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How are VeriSign and Network
Solutions related?
VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) acquired Network Solutions,
Inc., which included a domain name registrar business and a domain name
registry business in addition to other businesses, in June 2000. In November
2003 VeriSign sold the Network Solutions domain name registrar business
to Pivotal Private Equity, a private equity fund, and retained the domain
name registry business. In the disposition of the Network Solutions registrar
business, VeriSign retained a 15% equity stake in the business, however,
VeriSign has no control of nor operating role in the Network Solutions
registrar business. In its domain name registry business, VeriSign continues
to operate the registry for the .com and .net top-level domains.
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Does registration of domains
"domestically" (.com, .net, .org) protect my company internationally?
Registration of a .com, .net or .org domain name is often mistakenly thought of as a "U.S".
or "domestic registration." However, these domain name types
can be registered, used and accessed from any part of the world. Country-code
top-level domains (ccTLDs) work the same way. It is important to note
that all domain names, even those associated with country-codes, do
not recognise international borders when it comes to registration end-user
access; thus you need to consider registering in as many domains as
possible to protect your identity and build more traffic. Many international
search engines bring back results for country-code specific Web sites
as well.
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Does the Uniform Dispute Resolution
Policy (UDRP) apply in every ccTLD?
No. Most ccTLDs have not adopted the UDRP.
Some have developed their own dispute policies. In practice, many ccTLDs
consider disputes to be between the parties, and generally will not
get involved unless ordered by a local court to do so.
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What recourse do I have to
get back a domain name internationally?
For .com, .net and .org related disputes, refer to the ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution
Policy (UDRP). Again, most country-code domain registries have not adopted
the UDRP. This means you may have to go to court of pursue alternative
measure. Also, VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services can help recover
domain names confidentially from third parties (hostile or non-hostile)
through our Recovery and Acquisition services
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How can I protect my domains
internationally?
The growing complexity of maintaining and managing
your domain names requires a carefully planned strategy and a well-managed
implementation VeriSign® Digital Brand Management Services and its staff
of expert representatives can work with you to develop a customised
strategy to protect your Internet brand identity, including local presence
to register names in restricted domains. We have successfully helped
hundreds of companies with thousands of domain names develop customised
strategies for protecting, promoting, maintaining, and managing their
brands and identity on the Internet.
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Is a trademark sufficient to
meet local presence requirements?
Registration requirements can vary widely between
countries and domains. Some require proof of trademark, while others
require more or less documentation.
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What is the relation of domain
names to trademarks or name brands?
Domain names themselves are not classified
as trademarks. But trademarks and brand names are often registered as
domain names. However, trademark holders do not necessarily have superseding
rights to register or hold domain names. In the physical world it is
possible for two parties to use the same trademark name in different
countries, regions or classifications. But in the online world there
are no borders; and there can be only one unique domain name per top-level
domain.
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