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SafeBrands, an accredited Registrar with ICANN and CIRA created in 1997 is a leading advisor on domain names issues. Working with corporations and law firms, the company can register and manage your domain names in any country, even the most exotic ones. We can provide assistance in administrative, legal, technical and marketing matters: registrations, naming guidelines, portfolio management, monitoring, recovery, UDRP, cession of property rights, security of DNS infrastructures,…
A worldwide group, leader in their field.
This case study on a name change could easily be adapted and used for the launch of a new brand.
Three names have been shortlisted with the help of the marketing agency which assists us in this major project.
We have confirmed no prior rights existed on the selection with regards to trademarks, we now need to make sure the corresponding domains are available or, if they are not, recover them at the best financial conditions.
The challenge is to keep the confidentiality of the project and the shortlisted names secret, to prevent third parties from registering them before we do and trying to resell them to us later.
Once the final name will be chosen, we will have to secure the domains in the extensions we have selected as part of our naming strategy.
We will also have to buy the domains that third parties may have registered beforehand, all without attracting attention to our global project to avoid the risk of third parties jacking up the price.
SafeBrands’ team worked in two stages. First, they performed audits on the availability of the domain names, and of the corresponding handles on social networks, based on the strings that we had shortlisted. Results of these audits were taken into account to determine our final choice.
Once the decision was made, SafeBrands registered the names and handles, either anonymously or using assumed names. For domains that were already taken, SafeBrands offered a specific recovery strategy for each case (third party with a prior right, cybersquatted name,…).
Everything went perfectly, we registered the domain names that were available without attracting attention, and recovered the others under very favorable conditions. Embracing our new identity went well and did not trigger any case of cybersquatting.
A leading luxury brand whose products are subject to many counterfeiting cases which are more and more made available and bought online.
We have set up monitoring solutions to be informed each week of new domain names registered worldwide that include our brands.
Monitoring is essential to our brand protection strategy because it allows us to react in real time against each threat we are routinely facing (phishing, cybersquatting, counterfeiting,…).
Because of the sheer number and notoriety of our brands, our monitoring systems generate dozens of results each week.
We spend significant time every Monday analyzing them and determining which are actually relevant and which are potential threats.
Qualifying and analyzing those results in a lengthy and time consuming process, and we would like to free that time to work on other matters.
We have chosen to use SafeBrands’ solution to analyze results.
Their team of legal professionals assesses the data and sends me every week a curated list of domains that represent actual issues, each including the type of threat at hand, its level of potential harm and a suggestion of remedy.
Benefits are immediate: we save a number of hours each week and were able to recover several domains of vital importance to our group.
A Canadian cosmetics company.
We are facing complex strategic choices. We need to prioritize registrations between countries where we are present, countries where we already gathered a limited commercial presence, and countries which we could target in the future.
We are no specialists and do not have an unlimited budget! Things have also become more complex now that we need to factor new generic extensions in.
The Challenge is to stay on budget, while registering what we need short term and anticipating on the development of future external markets.
SafeBrands has created a strategic audit, showing on a world map the trademarks we have registered in various countries and identifying the domain names that needed to be registered to martch.
This audit even allowed us to discover some cybersquatting cases in countries where we did not think we were known.
We now have a portfolio of brands centralized and in line with our registered marks, based on clear and evolving strategy. We are finally able to develop web sites adapted to international markets and optimized for local referencing in search engines. Because we do not have the budget to perform defensive domain name registrations in every country, we have set up a worldwide monitoring solution with SafeBrands, and their team alerts us every week of new domains registered which include our brands.
An SME selling its goods on the Internet and exporting in Europe.
The first order of business is to find our way into the ever expanding list of new extensions!
.Shop seems obvious, but .Buy is around the corner and we have more and more visitors to our .Paris address.
How can we decide in which extension to register… or not?
SafeBrands’ team fully understand our business, and we have been able to discuss our future projects with them in total confidentiality.
They have shared with us a first list of key Top Level Domains into which we absolutely had to protect our brand.
We were then able to create specific content for various local sites and easily set up redirects to our .com for others.
Our company is easier to find in search engines and our business is soaring.
SafeBrands’ diagnostic tool also allowed us to find squatters against which their recovery team was able to launch URS processes, which are cheaper and quicker than UDRP.
Moreover, SafeBrands’ specialists inform us in advance of the availability of new extensions that match our activity or our locations, so we can make the right decision at the right time.
An ad agency which registers names for itself and its clients
For historical reasons, some team members are used to work with specific domain name Registrars.
As a result, our portfolios are fragmented, which makes following the expiration and renewal dates difficult.
Costs are probably unnecessarily high since each provider has their own specific fees.
Nevertheless, we must retain some flexibility because our creation process should not be impaired by a constrained process.
SafeBrands’ advisory team have listened to our needs and considered our way of working to build with us the right naming guidelines.
Our teams have now integrated these guidelines in their respective routines and they know what our common best practices are when it comes to registering domain names. Moreover, the flexibility of SafeBrands’ extranet allows us to consolidate our portfolio in one location while allowing each department to register names independently on its own. This, along with adequate pricing, has been a strong argument when we decided to consolidate all our names with SafeBrands, who took care of the trandsfer from a dozen of other Registrars.
Since SafeBrands is accredited in all extensions even the most exotic ones, we were able to transfer all our domains very easily. We now keep our costs in check without losing any of the flexibility we need thanks to their extranet. We were able to create dedicated accounts for all our clients and can fine tune the rights of each our employees depending on the project.
A major daily newspaper.
Our main Domain Name is critical to our business and several internal teams may modify its parameters from time to time, as part of our regular operations.
We wish to oversee and control these modifications, not forbid them.
SafeBrands’ teams have set up the « Registry Lock » function with the Registry in which our most important name is registered. They have also applied their own Domain Premium service on various other domains, for maximum safety.
As a result, any request for modification leads to a call from the relevant Registry to ensure it comes from a person authorized by our company. Thanks to Domain Premium, we were also able to block modifications to the zone file and URL redirections, and to limit the IP addresses that can access our client area outside our network.
This was very easy to set up and did not slow down our teams.
Attempts to change the redirection of our name to a non-official site from a third-party masquerading as a member of our team were stopped by the phone verification process of the Registry.
SafeBrands also informed us of intrusion attempts from IP addresses outside our company network that were also thrawted thanks to Domain Premium’s filtering.
An e-commerce leader.
Our brand is well known but based on a dictionary word and therefore harder to protect : registering names in every extensions is extremely expensive and squatters are cunning and constantly try and register several variations of our trademarks.
SafeBrands’ team of legal experts has come up with various measures to recover the squatted names.
Thanks to their knowledge of ICANN procedures and their tight relationships with Registries in the relevant extensions, we did not have to systematically use costly recovery procedures, even though those were successful when we decided to use them.
For some names, we have mandated SafeBrands to acquire some names, which they did anonymously to contain costs asked for by the existing registrants.
Thanks to the « recovery » team of SafeBrands, the formerly squatted domain names are now part of our portfolio.
Moreover, acting on several fronts did send a strong message to cybersquatters, and the attacks against our brand have gone down significantly as shown by SafeBrands’ monitoring reports.
These reports also allow us to make the right decision much faster.
An e-commerce site.
We have been using an SSL certificate for quite some time but feel our choice is no longer in line with our growing business.
Moreover, we know that some basic and free SSL certificates are out there nowadays which allow bad guys to create fake sites bearing the “padlock”. We need to do more so our customers can see the difference.
SafeBrands is accredited by several certification agents, so their experts could present us with a full menu of options and we were able to choose the best version for our specific needs.
We have chosen an Extended Validation (EV) certificate for our e-commerce website. The validation process is comprehensive so that the Certificate Authority can make absolutely sure our company is behind this domain name. As a result, our customers are greeted by our full company name which appears in green directly in the URL bar and know that, if it is not present, the site is not safe.
Because SafeBrands is also a hosting provider they also helped us set up a UCC certificate for our MS Exchange internal mail server.
SafeBrands’ solution allowed us to increase our security posture, both internally and externally.
We were able to choose certificates perfectly adapted to our needs, at a reasonable cost. Our customers are using the site more and more, knowing that, thanks to the green bar, we are better equipped against Phishing, Pharming and Spoofing.
An International Company.
Our brand is frequently targeted by cyber squatters and typosquatters. We must protect ourselves and be as proactive as possible, but we do not want to spend a fortune each year to renew useless names.
We need to protect ourselves and be proactive as much as possible, but without spending a fortune on renewing useless names every year.
SafeBrands’ legal team offered to start with an audit of our portfolio.
This first step allowed us to identify domains that were no longer useful and did not need to be renewed. It also gave us an overview of our providers and helped us realize that their fees were higher and their local presence options costly.
An international corporation.
Everything goes through this domain name and our use cases change frequently. We need strong systems that can also be flexible. We need to handle the records associated with this name ourselves, and be able to change the redirections at will, and with no need for external assistance.
SafeBrands presented us with DNS Plus, their proprietary tool designed from their own hosting experience.
Extremely flexible, the interface allows us to create and modify as many records and sub-domains as we want, add several “A” entries for the same sub-domain with a different IP address each time (round robin management).
SafeBrands’ DNS Plus gives us the flexibility and strength we need. We remain autonomous in our daily use and take advantage of SafeBrands’ expertise, if and when needed, for the more complex questions related to DNS management.
Using SafeBrands’ DNS infrastructure we make sure that our servers are always available and that our business and clients are armed to face DDoS-type attacks.
A computer company.
Our brand is also used by a company that operates in a completely different space than ours and with which we have a coexistence agreement.
We want to protect our brand but we must be able to differentiate between names registered by this company and real cybersquatting cases!
SafeBrands’ legal team introduced us to their diagnostic tool which allows us to monitor registrations that includes the string forming our brand in real time. We are informed of any and all registration and deletion of names identical or similar to our brand, including names containing accented characters or coming from non-latin alphabets (IDNs).
The flexibility of their interface allows us to very easily isolate names registered by the company we coexist with, and only be warned about registrations from unknown third parties.
The Diagnostic Tool reassures us on potential attempts against our brand and allows us to act only when necessary.
Because SafeBrands’ legal team is also empowered to send swift cease & desist letters, we fight criminals efficiently while maintaining a peaceful coexistence with the homonymous company.
A company with several subsidiaries.
Our subsidiaries must stay autonomous but we want to uphold global guidelines of domain name registrations while containing our costs.
As part of a consulting mission, SafeBrands’ experts were able to gather our legal, marketing and technical teams to define together suitable naming guidelines for our whole group.
This document is now used by all our subsidiaries where the relevant teams now know what to do during the whole lifecycle of the domain, from registration to renew and recovery.
Moreover, our teams now use SafeBrands’ extranet: we take advantage of the granularity of their authorization levels, which can be set according to our needs: admin, subsidiary, delegated accounts and simple users.
Thanks to the comprehensive illustrated how-to that SafeBrands provided, our teams mastered the extranet really quickly. They now use it without supervision and we know that mistakes will be avoided thanks to the specific rights management process.
Moreover, by consolidating our portfolio with SafeBrands we make significant savings without sacrificing on flexibility.
A French company exporting abroad.
We decided to rely on SafeBrands’ expertise. Their in-house legal experts know and master all the various local rules of ccTLDs Registries.
Moreover, because they provide local presence services in most countries, they were able to register the names we needed in all extensions.
Our names are registered in China, Germany and the Netherlands, as easily as if they were generics because SafeBrands handled everything.
Since local presence is managed directly by their in-house lawyers, we know that they will stay on top of any modification or requirement attached to the names, of which we will be informed in time to act accordingly.
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