Guarding your online brand against cybersquatters

If you had a business called Widgets R Us and somebody set up shop right next door with a business called Widgets R U, you’d probably be a bit miffed. Especially if the interloper then demanded money to move elsewhere. cybersquatters: But this sort of thing is happening all the time online. It’s called cybersquatting – buying up website addresses, or domain names, that sound very similar to existing well-known brand names. When Google recently launched its new parent company Alphabet, and the abc.xyz web address, there were more than…

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Year End message from DotConnectAfrica: 2013 Year in Review

As 2013 draws to a close it is worth looking back at where we have been and consider what 2014 will bring. As usual for DCA, it has been a year of intense activity to ensure that our promise to Africa stands – that “we shall deliver .africa registry to the continent, sooner than expected”.  DCA Trust has a long-standing tradition of informing its African and global constituency on matters affecting the global Internet Governance, ICANN and related African affairs.  Our regular Newsletters and Social media Campaigns sites provide us the…

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The Basics of Domain Names for Your Business

o stay competitive businesses have to have an online presence. But if you aren’t web savvy, navigating all the ins and outs of creating a website can be confusing. How do you choose a domain name? What must you do to maintain it? And what happens if your domain name expires? We spoke with Paul McGrady, a trademark and domain name lawyer in Winston & Strawn LLP’s Chicago office about what business owners can do to keep their sites running smoothly, here’s his advice: adapted from news.terra

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More Than 250M Domain Names Have Now Been Registered, Almost Half Are .Com And .Net

The total number of registered domain names passed 250 million in the last quarter of 2012, according to Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief. More than 6 million domain names were registered in the fourth quarter of 2012, bringing the total to 252 million worldwide. The basic .com domains, of course, make up the majority of registered domain names. By the end of December users had registered 106.2 million .com domains, as well as 14.9 million .net addresses. The .com and .net top-level domains (TLDs) also accounted for the majority…

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Despite Pushback, ICANN on Track with TLDs

ICANN has been moving full-steam ahead under new CEO Fadi Cherhade, announcing that April 23rd will be the approval date for the first TLDs for delegation. Once recommended for delegation, an applicant must pass a technical test and sign a Registry agreement with ICANN, which takes between five to six months, before a registry launch—which can take up to a year after they have been approved for delegation. source

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