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29 May 2020TrademarksRory O'Neill

Webinar: managing domains in uncertain times

“Unpredictable” and “crazy” might not be the words that first jump to mind when you think about domain name management. But that’s how Matt Serlin and Elisa Cooper of  Brandsight described the past 12 months for the industry which, like everyone else, is dealing with a pandemic and an economy in freefall.

Serlin and Cooper discussed these challenges yesterday, May 28, on a webinar jointly hosted by WIPR and Brandsight. The topic was “ Domain Name Management in Uncertain Times”⁠—and while everyone is in uncertain times at the moment, domain name managers have unique challenges of their own.

A Brandsight survey found that more than half of respondents, all domain name professionals, said that it was getting more difficult to manage their portfolios. “Almost no one” said it was getting easier, Cooper pointed out.

Some of the challenges identified by Serlin and Cooper relate to GDPR, the EU data law which came into effect in 2018, domain name security, and uncertainty over the next round of new generic top-level domains.

There’s also, of course, the pandemic. You can tell a lot about what’s going on in society and what people are talking about by looking at the domain registers. As Serlin explained, there’s been a spike in domain names including the word “corona” this year. They’ve gone from “barely any” last year to just shy of 15,000 so far in 2020.

That might seem perfectly normal, or potentially worrying, depending on your viewpoint. There’s no doubt that the pandemic represents an opportunity for counterfeiters and bad actors, and it’s good advice for everyone to watch out for bogus websites offering fake products or false information.

As Serlin points out, “it doesn’t mean there are 15,000 bad domain names out there”. A lot of those domains will host legitimate websites, many of them government-operated.

But unfortunately, he observed, “people are opportunistic.” That means that, with events like the pandemic, there will always be bad actors looking to take advantage. The domain name registers are just one of many areas of the economy that should be closely watched as we try to filter out bad information and fake goods.

Cutting costs

But the domain name management industry is facing more prosaic challenges too. Like everyone else, IP and legal departments’ budgets are stretched and brand owners need to cut costs where they can.

The costs of domain name management are generally much lower than maintaining a vast portfolio of patents or trademarks, Cooper said. Before, for IP and legal departments looking to cut costs, domain names might not have been the first place they’d look. But now, given the severity of the crisis for so many businesses, costs will be cut wherever they can.

But Cooper says businesses should avoid a slash-and-burn approach to paring domain name portfolios. When deciding which domain names can be cut, brand owners should adopt a set of rational criteria looking at factors including the amount of traffic it gets, or whether it’s actually in use.

“We’ve definitely seen cases where the domain professional types a name into a browser, it doesn’t go anywhere, but that doesn’t mean it’s not in use in some other way,” Cooper warned. It’s important to be thorough in evaluating individual domain names for hidden uses like supporting email systems.

The discussion was the latest in a round of webinars jointly hosted by WIPR and industry partners recently. On Wednesday,  InterDigital explained the interconnection between standard-essential patents and the Internet of Things, while earlier this month,  Appdetex offered advice on how to protect your brand amid the COVID-19 crisis.

For more information on opportunities to participate in a webinar, contact Sarah Gooding on sgooding@newtonmedia.co.uk.

To listen to LSIPR's and WIPR's back catalogue, visit our  BrightTALK channel.

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