Transactions / Pre-litigation

SafeBrands is one of the few providers in the world offering registration and management of domain names in all worldwide domain extensions, without exception. We only help companies and brand owners, providing them with our tools and our experts—lawyers and technicians—to optimize the security of their brands on the internet.

Being accredited by national authorities (ccTLDs) or ICANN registries (gTLDs) enables better management and security of your names, but not only this. Our status as a Global Registrar also provides us with expertise in dispute resolution policies that we can manage directly with the relevant authorities.

As a leading player in governance, SafeBrands has been actively involved in ICANN summits for 20 years with the aim of collaborating on the development of registries policies for the benefit of our clients. This is also an opportunity to interact with community members and help develop global governance policies. We are at the source of the information. This experience guarantees you both rare expertise in the management of the different procedures, even the most obscure, and also the necessary technical expertise to find solutions other than an uncertain court decision.

It is difficult to list all the procedures due to the number and the lack of alignment between them. But, very often, there is an inexpensive and quick solution allowing you to find out who owns a domain name, recover it, block it, etc., whether you have rights or not. Some of these solutions are not well known because they are sometimes the result of a direct collaboration with the registries.

Knowing the registries is one thing, but knowing the different players in the industry (registrars, resale or auction platforms, holders of generic names portfolios, etc.) is another. Our different relationships can enable us to get certain service providers to lift anonymity, speed up domain name blocking in case of infringement, etc.

Some procedures allow you to obtain results you might not think of immediately. For example, how do you obtain a name transfer on the basis of a complaint for inaccurate WHOIS data?

As you will see later in this document, our expertise in online brand protection taught us a long time ago that the solution to a dispute cannot be based solely on legal considerations. It is essential to be able to decipher the technical configuration of a name, know the impact of its practical use, know how to assess the appropriateness of the domain extension, the potential value of the name on the second market and much more besides. SafeBrands’ multi-disciplinary team has been training continuously in these subjects over the last 20 years to be able to provide the best answers.

Is the infringement critical and does it require immediate action? If this is the case, we will take action directly with the service providers concerned to obtain blocking of the domain name without delay, before making any contact with the domain name holder.

Will the domain name then be integrated into your portfolio? If so, legal action may be taken against the domain name holder. This may involve asserting your rights according to the procedures presented in the document, but you can also ask for verification of the coordinates given in the WHOIS database, which, if they are incorrect, may lead to transfer or deletion of the name, depending on the procedures of the registry/regulatory authority. It can then be recovered by our services without a legal dispute, or re-registered for your use. We can see here that every problem is different and requires a tailored answer. Contact us for more information!