Online Brand Protection: What to Expect in 2008

Irfan Salim , President and Chief Executive Officer, MarkMonitor

No enterprise is safe from online threats to their brands. Brand defamation, trademark infringement, counterfeit/gray market sales, phishing scams—all forms of brand abuse are on the rise.

At MarkMonitor, it’s our business to stay ahead of these threats. To that end, we’re constantly improving our Brand Protection Platform and enlarging our network of strategic alliances.

For instance, last year, MarkMonitor made significant product enhancements, from providing unmatched management of enterprise domain portfolios with the release of Domain Management 5.0 to policing social media. We also expanded our strategic alliances to further strengthen our Brand Protection Network—with increased email feeds, an expanded Fraud Broadcast Network™ and aligning ourselves with global leaders to fight brand abuse in the physical world. Finally, we successfully tackled the challenging Rock Phish and fast flux phenomena, shutting down phish attacks quickly and effectively at the root level.

MarkMonitor remains committed to delivering the industry’s most robust, end-to-end brand protection solutions and services.   

Outlook for Online Brand Protection

Any enterprise with a strong brand and customer base is a potential target. Brand abuse will only continue to escalate and evolve. Below are some of the trends we’ll be keeping ahead of here at MarkMonitor:

The Rise of Domain Tasting
As a result of ICANN’s five-day “grace period” on domain registrations, 2007 saw a dramatic increase in Domain Tasting. It looks like Domain Tasting will continue to be an issue for brandholders moving forward. In 2007, we also saw a record number of UDRP filings as more and more companies vigorously defended their brands against domain tasters and cybersquatters. MarkMonitor will remain an advocate for brandholder rights, continuing to monitor and influence the stance ICANN takes on Domain Tasting as well as other critical issues.

The Arrival of Internationalized Domain Names
This year will bring the launch of Internationalized Domain Name Top Level Domains (IDN TLDs). Along with its many benefits, IDN TLDs will enable brand abuse on a much greater scale as the possibilities and combinations of brands within domain names will explode. By continually enhancing our Domain Management solution and services, we’ll allow corporations to maintain complete visibility and control over their ever-expanding domain name portfolio. In addition, we can help implement preventative measures to better defend and strengthen brands online with defensive and offensive registrations.

The Growing Need to Police Social Media
Today, six out of the ten most popular Internet sites are social media sites.
With the surge in traffic to social media—social networking sites, blogs and forums—we’re seeing an unprecedented increase in brand abuse. In addition to brand disparagement, we’re now beginning to see the sale of counterfeit/gray market goods as well as targeted phishing attacks. Moving forward, there will be an even greater need for monitoring all the various aspects of social media. We’ll continue to strengthen our strategic alliances, Internet monitoring, as well as reporting and analysis capabilities, staying on top of potential new outlets for brand abuse.

Evolving Phish Exploits
According to our recently released Winter Brandjacking Index™, 122 new brands were targeted by phishers for the first time in Q4, 2007. And, financial institutions were not the only targets, first-time attacks against eCommerce and social media sites hit an all time high. We have no reason to believe that this trend will not continue.

Rock Phishing and fast flux attacks will continue to escalate and evolve. To continually counter these complex attacks, MarkMonitor will further develop our proven methodologies, from defensive domain registrations to phish site takedowns.

Some industry watchers, report intercepting around ten targeted attack attempts daily in 2007. As more and more personal information goes online due to social networks, we expect to see the trend of targeted phish attacks or “Spear-phishing” continue to escalate.

Now is the Time

As you can see, brand threats are an ongoing concern. However, you can always depend on MarkMonitor to mitigate these risks. Our experience includes serving over 50 of the Fortune 100, all of which rely on us to be their trusted partner, providing end-to-end brand protection solutions as well as industry-leading knowledge and advice.

Now is the ideal time to identify your vulnerabilities and protect your most important asset—your brand—from online attacks. Please don’t hesitate to call upon our expertise.

Sincerely,

Irfan Salim
CEO, MarkMonitor Inc.

NEWS

ICANN New Delhi Update

Margie Milam, General Counsel, MarkMonitor

MarkMonitor participated in the recent ICANN meetings in New Delhi, India, which brought about several important developments that are relevant to brandholders.

New gTLDs
The adoption of the new gTLD policy is near completion - the ICANN board instructing staff to develop an implementation plan.   Bids for new gTLDs will likely be solicited at the end of this year, with some industry observers predicting hundreds, if not thousands of new extensions to be proposed and evaluated in 2009.

MarkMonitor understands that several large corporations are evaluating whether to submit bids for their house brand as a “vanity” TLD. The potential of being able to market and manage a tld for corporate purposes presents an exciting opportunity in this new landscape.  For more information on the new gTLD policy, see http://www.icann.org/topics/new-gtld-program.htm

Domain Name Front Running
Domain name front running is the term applied to the practice of spying on domain name availability lookups, and registering the name before the original requester returns to register the name. 

This issue was brought to the attention of the ICANN Stability and Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) last year, prompting an investigation.  According to their initial findings, presented at the Delhi meeting, the SSAC was unable to verify that domain name front running occurs, based upon the complaints and information gathered to date.  Network Solutions presented evidence on the scope and breadth of this problem as experienced by its customers, as a justification for their new website availability procedures.  In response to concerns over domain name front running, Network Solutions changed its domain name look-up protocol to pre-register or “reserve” any domain names that are looked up on its website. While MarkMonitor does not support the action taken by Network Solutions, MarkMonitor urged the SSAC to conduct additional tests to determine whether domain name front running occurs through abuse of the domain name registration system.

International Domain Names (IDNs)
Can you imagine “.com” in Korean, Farsi, Arabic and Chinese characters? In fact, International Domain Names, or extensions in non-latin characters, in both ccTLD and gTLD extensions, are closer to becoming widespread - with ICANN recognizing the need to adopt technical standards that expedite the approval and launch of IDNs.   

Of concern to brandholders is the possibility that IDNs will be launched without a sunrise period which allows trademark holders to protect their trademarks.  .eu has indicated that it plans to launch in foreign characters without a sunrise period—i.e., on a first come, first served basis.   MarkMonitor is currently preparing a letter to EURid (the registry operator for .eu) to recommend that it allow a sunrise period for these IDNs.

Domain Tasting
Due the increased public scrutiny on domain tasting, ICANN has been evaluating numerous proposals to curb this practice, which stems from abuse of the five day add grace period policy (AGP).  The ICANN board has recommended that the individual ICANN domain name fee be made non-refundable, regardless of whether the domain name is dropped within five days.   This change would be included in the ICANN budget for the next fiscal year commencing July 1, 2008, subject to approval by the registrar’s constituency. 

We are pleased to report that the .info and .biz registries have submitted requests to ICANN to modify the AGP to minimize excessive deletes within their registry.  We commend these registries for recognizing the need to stop domain tasting in their extensions.

For more information on the New Delhi ICANN meeting, see http://delhi.icann.org/node/113

MarkMonitor Tops .Asia Sunrise Applications

As an ICANN Accredited Registrar, MarkMonitor participated in the application period for .Asia Sunrise, which completed at the end of January. The sunrise period avoided the chaos previously experienced during new domain launches, with a 90% success rate for applications and zero disputes received to date. A total of 30,780 domain name applications were received, with MarkMonitor representing the most applications with more than a 10% share. More...

 

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