DOMAIN NAMES


In recent years, the rise of closed networks such as Facebook and Twitter has prompted some people to question whether Internet addresses are still relevant. But those questions have always overlooked the essential role that domains play in branding in the digital age. In the digital world, it is ideal when a company’s name and its domain name are one and the same. New gTLDs make that possible for an exponentially larger number of businesses and individuals.


So when measuring the success of a new TLD, its raw number of


registrations will be less


indicative than how it is being innovatively used by its target audience. A TLD such as .plumbing may have a fairly narrow target audience, but if it is embraced by the plumbing community, it will have added tremendous value by serving its specific purpose.


Beyond the raw numbers of registrations, new gTLD operators will be watching closely to see what percentage of registered names are being used, how they are being used and how those names are resonating with the communities they are designed to serve.


Few in the new gTLD community expect a wholesale migration from legacy domains such as .com. Companies that have built brands in .com will undoubtedly want to keep those brands active, but new TLDs open up a host of new identity options for new companies, as well as for established companies that are constantly building new brands, campaigns and business lines.


As with any new tools introduced to the Internet, the one thing that is certain is that innovators will find uses for them that the creators never considered. While new gTLD operators are focusing on


developing appealing strings,


and operating secure, stable infrastructure, entrepreneurs and innovators will have the real say in how dramatically those TLDs change the face of online communication.


Measure of trust


One area where the new gTLD community has innovated dramatically is in the area of brand protection and reputation management. New TLDs pose significant new challenges to brand owners, and meeting those challenges will be pivotal to the success of the programme.


Key for the new gTLD community will be establishing trust with trademark owners so that they come to view new gTLDs as powerful tools for enhancing brands, rather than threats to their integrity.


While ICANN has built several powerful brand protection mechanisms


into the contractual 32 Trademarks & Brands Online


Te effect of these types of innovative approaches to brand protection leads to another key measure of the new gTLD programme’s overall success: the extent to which it


yields registrations


that are active, as opposed to defensive. By reducing—or virtually eliminating, as in the case of the DPML—the need to defensively register individual addresses, new gTLD operators will seek to cultivate gTLD zones in which the majority of domains are live and serving the online public, rather than parked and dormant.


The final word Of course, the ultimate determination of


the


value of new gTLDs rests not with new gTLD operators, or even perhaps with new gTLD registrants, but rather with Internet users.


While some have speculated that new gTLDs could cause confusion among users, effectively


Volume 3, Issue 1


Bob Samuelson brings more than 15 years of domain, brand protection and digital marketing experience to the Donuts team. After working at .tv, he joined Verisign’s Digital Brand Management Services group, providing domain portfolio management and brand protection services for some of the world’s largest and most respected brands. Most recently with the Marketing Cloud division of Adobe Systems, he gained invaluable knowledge about the website creation life cycle and the consumer experience.


www.worldipreview.com implementing


“NEW GTLD OPERATORS WILL SEEK TO CULTIVATE GTLD ZONES IN WHICH THE MAJORITY OF DOMAINS ARE LIVE AND SERVING THE ONLINE PUBLIC, RATHER THAN PARKED AND DORMANT.”


DNA of new gTLDs—making them far more inherently protective of intellectual property (IP) than existing gTLDs—many gTLD operators have taken significant steps beyond their contractual remits.


In 2013, Donuts launched its Domains Protected Marks List (DPML), a tool that allows rights holders to protect marks across the entire universe of Donuts's TLDs with a single, inexpensive service. Generally, when an authorised trademark owner places a DPML block on a specific trademarked term or a term containing that specific mark, that term cannot be registered in any of Donuts TLDs (the company expects to operate about 200 gTLDs) by anyone other than the trademark owner.


By using DPML for key marks, brand owners can be confident in the control of their brand identity and use Donuts gTLDs to pursue valuable business opportunities, rather than just to mitigate risks. Te response from the IP community has been overwhelmingly positive.


the programme will have


precisely the opposite effect. Te domain name system exists simply because words are easier to memorise than numbers. Te ability to type ‘google.com’ rather than 74.125.224.18 has made the Internet a powerful tool.


But as legacy TLDs such as .com offer little semantic meaning and have grown more crowded, that functionality has diminished profoundly. Te average length of domain names has steadily increased, as have their complexity. New gTLDs hold the potential to reinvigorate the Internet's addressing system's original purpose by letting the owner of Joe’s Plumbing register ‘joes.plumbing’, rather than a cumbersome name such as ‘joesplumbingnyc.com’.


As such intuitive online branding becomes more widespread, users will tell us whether the programme is succeeding simply by how they click. 


Bob Samuelson is vice president of sales and


marketing at Donuts Inc. He can be contacted at: bob@donuts.co


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