Why Domain Name Monitoring is Vital to Protecting Your Brand Online

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Given the thousands of domain names registered every day, finding an efficient domain name monitoring solution has become more critical than ever before. From cybersquatting to domain impersonation, cybercriminals are using domain name registrations to take advantage of brand reputation and trademark rights. Discover how Questel's online brand protection solution can help you create and optimize your domain brand protection strategy.

Unfortunately, many domain names are registered with the intent to take unfair advantage of someone else’s trademark through impersonation, phishing, or with the intent to profit by selling it to the affected brand owner. Cybersquatting is perhaps the most common type of abuse and a pressing reality for generic Top-level Domains (gTLDs), New gTLDs, and many country-code TLDs (ccTLDs), perhaps most notably in China.

Brand owners must monitor new domain name registrations and take proportionate action against unwanted registrations if they are to adequately protect their IP, secure revenue, and protect customers, employees, and partners from potential fraud.

Our online brand protection solution includes a dedicated module for domain name monitoring. From monitoring new registrations to specialist domain impersonation monitoring and dispute resolution services [1], our comprehensive solution will support you to overcome your domain brand protection challenges efficiently and cost-effectively.

Two Steps to Domain Brand Protection

Step 1: Detection

As part of the domain name monitoring module of our online brand protection service, we detect identical and confusingly similar domain name registrations affecting your brand across all Top-level Domains, as well as Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) (non-Latin scripts) to protect you from trademark infringement, phishing, and spoofing attacks. This includes Identifying domain name registrations:

containing your brand name
containing your brand name with prefixes and suffixes
containing your brand name in variations
containing your brand name imitated in non-Latin script, and
carried out by subsidiaries or sister companies.

We filter results and provide proactive identification of infringement using human intelligence.

Step 2: Investigation & Enforcement

Our team of experts is experienced in monitoring and enforcing IP rights in local languages [1]. Our experts will conduct reverse searches using registrant data and identifiers found on the website to potentially reveal additional illicit domain name registrations made by the same individual. Once the scope of the abuse has been established, our experts will send complaints to the relevant intermediary through our case management and take-down brand protection system (CMS).

In the last two years, we have notified over 250 hosting providers and 450 registrars across the world in a variety of different languages, adapting our notifications to local procedures and regulations.

We store all relevant data related to the case in the CMS, with each “case” including the URL, investigation notes, suggested action, a screenshot, the takedown process, and correspondence between the infringer, the client, and ourselves.

In addition, clients can benefit from:

Domain name landscape reports with an overview of already registered domain names. You will receive a list of taken domain names in an Excel file with available WHOIS data,
Premade enforcement mechanisms for 200+ intermediaries, and
Tailored domain name management services, including support to apply for your own new gTLD, domain name registrations across all TLDs, and domain name recovery solutions, such as drop catching and anonymous domain name purchases.

Support for Dispute Resolution Services

Thomsen Trampedach, our center of excellence for online brand protection, can also assist with domain name dispute resolution procedures across all TLDs, such as the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), China ccTLD Dispute Resolution Policy (CNDRP), and more [1].

Frequently Asked Questions About Domain Name Monitoring

What is Domain Name Monitoring?

Domain name monitoring means detecting and identifying domain name registrations similar to your brand’s. In other words, it is the act of searching for relevant domains in the databases of domain name registries. By monitoring your domain’s name, you can avoid and protect your brand from trademark infringement, phishing, and spoofing attacks. Protecting your brand is of utmost significance and, ideally, all brand owners should continuously monitor new domain name registrations to protect important aspects such as their IP, revenue, and customers from potential fraud.

Why is Domain Name Monitoring Important?

There are several reasons why domain name monitoring is important for brand owners. Every day, thousands of domain names are registered, and many are registered to take advantage of other brand’s trademarks through, for instance, impersonation and phishing. By, monitoring how your domain names or domains similar to your brand(s) are used, you can help to avoid these issues.

What is Domain Impersonation Monitoring?

Domain impersonation is a phishing technique where cybercriminals set up email domains to impersonate a legitimate company or organization. To create the email domains, the cyber attacker will first register a domain name, which matches or is similar to the brand of the targeted company. Domain impersonation monitoring is the practice of identifying unauthorized domains to act against malicious third parties exploiting such email domains to send phishing emails to your customers.

Interested in Finding Out More About Our Domain Brand Protection Module?

We help dozens of brands with domain name monitoring. Contact us for a demo of our domain brand protection module or sign up now for a 3-month trial of our online brand protection solution.

[1] Questel does not provide any legal services. Legal services are provided by independent IP attorneys on the basis of a separate engagement agreement between you and, if you wish to, a partner IP attorneys firm.