ICAAN’s new gTLD program, which includes launching new gTLDs such as ‘.food’ and ‘.organic’, will have a significant impact on the way companies formulate brand management strategies going forward. Given the importance of maintaining a reputation for quality in the food industry, how can businesses in the food and beverage sectors pre-empt and utilise these upcoming developments in order to best protect and promote their brands?
What’s Happening?
ICAAN, the organisation charged with ensuring the proper regulation of global domain name registrations, is set to introduce new generic top level domains (gTLDs). These new domain options will be extremely attractive to businesses seeking to establish a strong online presence and either build a new brand or reinforce an existing one. But with this new gTLD program comes the increased risk of cybersquatting. In an attempt to reduce the occurrences of cybersquatting, ICAAN is introducing several support services which will complement the new gTLDs.
Trademark Clearinghouse
Chief among these support services is the Trademark Clearinghouse, a global repository for trade marks which will validate trade mark information and maintain verified records of all trade marks registered with it. By registering trade marks with the Trademark Clearinghouse, businesses will be able to avail of the Trademark Claims and Sunrise services. The Trademark Claims service will notify trade mark owners of any registration that infringes their registered rights. The Sunrise service will grant trade mark owners priority in terms of registration for new identical gTLDs. Additionally, in an attempt to limit typosquatting, a new Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) system will operate alongside the established dispute resolution system in order to allow for efficient challenges to gTLDs which are registered in bad faith.
Brand Management Strategies
Establishing an online presence and portraying the desired image is vital for all businesses, especially those in the food industry where brand loyalty and perception are key influencing factors in consumers’ purchasing decisions, as evidenced by the recent horsemeat controversy. Aside from the generic .food domain names, there are also multiple speciality domain names offered under the new gTLDs. An organic supplier may opt for the .organic domain, an online grocery delivery service may choose to register under the .grocery domain or a dietary specialist may decide to use the .kosher or .halal domain names in order to substantiate the quality of their products.
If any new gTLDs are relevant to a business, it would be prudent for that business to register their marks with the Trademark Clearinghouse in order to avail of the advantages of priority and notification. And with approximately 1,900 new gTLD applications already made, it is clear that businesses will have to consider the importance of this new system in terms of strategy formulation.
With the increasing need for companies in the food and beverage sectors to manage their online presence and protect their reputations in regards to quality, the gTLD program will undoubtedly begin to play a major role in brand strategy formulation. The Trademark Clearinghouse and Trademark Claims service could prove invaluable to brand managers in addressing and managing these rights as such services will offer a centralised platform for protecting against cybersquatting, as well as assisting in the uniform execution of global brand management strategies.
Contributed by: Leo Moore; John Magee
