Domain names: don’t underestimate the value of these IP outcasts

20-04-2020

Statton Hammock

Domain names: don’t underestimate the value of these IP outcasts

Oleksiy Mark / Shutterstock.com

In the digital age, domain names are crucial for brands. Despite this, many fail to invest in their domain name portfolio as they do their trademark and patent portfolios. Statton Hammock of Clarivate Analytics reports.

The commercial registration of domain names is now more than 35 years old, having begun when symbolics.com was first registered in 1985.  

Today there are more than 400 million domain names registered, with thousands more being registered each day. Although there are other means of creating an online presence (such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn), no platform gives a user greater control over its identity than a registered domain name which points to a website with useful content.  

In February, I read an interesting article about companies that own trademarks in a specific colour (eg, ‘Tiffany blue’, ‘UPS brown’, ‘Post-It Note yellow’). The substance of the article was interesting but what caught my eye was this simplistic graphic attempting to explain each of the different types of IP assets, listing trademark, copyright and patent. 


Clarivate Analytics, domain names, IP protection, brands, IP assets, ICANN, domain name registration, e-commerce, internet, Statton Hammock

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