If you experience issues with the display of this newsletter, click here to view it in your web browser.

Welcome to the premier issue of Webnames.ca's Corporate Services News. At Webnames.ca, we have always worked closely with our corporate clients, helping to manage domain name portfolios, advising on best practices and domain name strategy. In this capacity, we strive to help you get the most from your domain name registrations, but we want you to know we're more than your average domain name registrar.

As pioneers in the Canadian domain landscape, the Webnames.ca team is both resource and ally to your domain name objectives. Our new quarterly newsletter is meant to be a touchstone - providing a cross-section of industry news, articles, domain management advice and Webnames.ca news, with a Canadian twist. We aim to be an effective partner to your domain name needs, so rely on our expertise and come to us with your questions.

Seasons Greetings

Michael Maan, Corporate Services Manager

Locking Down Domain Names and Trademarks: steps for protecting and recovering intellectual property on the Internetby Dave Watson, for Webnames.ca

In a very short time domain names have gone from total obscurity to a complete necessity, especially for businesses. A domain name (or, more often, a collection of them) is a company's face to the world-the way customers find them and research their products or services. Clear, direct and identifiable domain names are probably the most useful form of international advertising a corporation can possess. Accordingly, domains have become very valuable corporate assets.

But despite that importance, companies don't always manage to retain possession of their Net or Web names and fail to lock down all the possible domain variations (products and brand names, country codes and other top-level extensions) that might be needed now or in the future. Remember, domain names are rare because each one has to be unique. That has created a scarce resource with an international demand. What can your company do to make sure it keeps ahead of its competition? The following guidelines will help your company get in line with best practices in protecting domain name assets and corporate intellectual property.  Read more

Top

How secure is your corporate domain portfolio? Take our quiz to find out.

Large corporations and small businesses alike are susceptible to having their intellectual property diluted and domain names stolen because of systemic problems in the way domain names are managed, monitored, registered and transferred. ICANN's report on Domain Name Hijacking published earlier this year gives credence to the growing threat of domain hijacking and the importance of proactively protecting online identities. Although .CA's are well protected under CIRA's stringent contact and password validation requirements, it's more important than ever to have effective protocols in place for managing your corporate domain names, trademarks and brands on the Internet. While some measures are easy to put in place - for example, designating the responsibility for domain maintenance to a specific individual or department - other measures such as bulk DNS modifications can require more expertise.

Guage how well your company is protecting its online intellectual property?

Take Webnames.ca's IP Vulnerability Quiz, then contact Webnames.ca Corporate Services for strategic domain name management solutions.

Top

Your Corporate Account: the ins and outs of domain locking

With the recent media attention on high profile cases of domain name hijacking, we have been receiving questions about domain name protection. For those unfamiliar with the term, domain hijacking is a process by which domain names are fraudulently assumed, or stolen, when somebody masquerades as the legitimate account administrative contact to transfer away a domain name. Domain names are protected by two primary safeguards: administrative contact confirmation and domain locking. Domain locking 'locks' your domain names, protecting them from unauthorized transfers.

For your security Webnames.ca automatically locks .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us and .cn domain names to prevent fraudulent or unauthorized transfer of your domain names. .Info domains need to be manually set to Registrar Lock, and require that you contact Webnames.ca Support.

Because CIRA's transfer requirements are rigorous in comparison to gTLD's, domain locking is not required for .ca's. Rather, in the case of .ca's the administrative contact must confirm domain transfers with CIRA using a unique, CIRA issued account and password.

Using Webnames.ca Domain Locking:

Domain locking must be disabled before initiating a legitimate transfer. To disable domain locking, simply log into your Webnames.ca account, go to the GENERAL tab for each domain name and un-check the associated box. Because it may take 1-2 days for the lock/unlock status to be updated by the Registry, we recommended you check the WHOIS before initiating your transfer.

In the case of .info, .biz, and .org domain names, Authorization Codes provide additional protection from fraudulent transfers. Domain Registries require these Administration Codes before a transfer is authorized to occur. The Authorization Codes for your .info, .biz, and .org domain names can be retrieved from the same page you access Registrar Lock.

Additional Protective Measures

  • Designate a trusted person as the primary domain name controller for your company to manage registrations, renewals, etc. If a department or multiple staff are in charge, make sure any account passwords are changed after an employee leaves that department.

    Ensure your primary domain name controller registers all domains in the company's name not his or her own name. Ensure the email used as the administrative contact is a one the company has access to if your primary domain controller leaves the company.

  • Do not dilute your account login and password information; only the person or department managing your domain names should have access to this information
  • Never allow third-party service providers - ie. technicians, web developers - to register domain names on your company's behalf
  • Whenever possible, keep administrative contact information consistent between your domain registrations
  • Record the WHOIS information, renewal date, purchase date, transfer history and registrar of record for each of your domain names - this way you can cross reference renewal notifications to confirm their legitimacy and recognize domain slamming (fraudulent notices attempting to trick companies into switching registrars or paying falsified invoices to keep their domain names)

Questions on this subject? Email corporate@webnames.ca

Top

Domain Name News - recent disputes and resolutionsA selection of notable domain name disputes from past three months

The Lance Armstrong Foundation has won UDRP disputes over livestrongbracelets.net and talk-livestrong.com.
http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/...d2005-0888.html
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5926088.html

Canada Post wins a dispute over candapost.ca.
http://www.cira.ca/en/dpr-decisions/00042-canadapost.ca.pdf

Enterprise Rent-A-Car Canada wins a split decision over entreprise.ca.
http://www.cira.ca/en/dpr-decisions/00043-enterprise.ca.pdf
http://www.cira.ca/en/dpr-decisions/00043-1-enterprise.ca.pdf

The Toro Company loses a dispute over toro.ca.
http://www.cira.ca/en/dpr-decisions/00039-toro.ca.pdf

Lee Valley Tools wins a dispute over leevalleytools.ca.
http://www.cira.ca/en/dpr-decisions/00040-leevalleytools.ca.pdf

Bell Canada wins a dispute over belll.ca.
http://www.cira.ca/en/dpr-decisions/00038-belll.ca.pdf

Top

Expert Insight: answers for your corporate domain questions

John Demco, Canadian Internet pioneer, originator of .CA and founding member on the CIRA board of directors is also one of Webnames.ca's founding partners. We're fortunate to be able to ask John our questions, both complex and not-so complex ones.

At Webnames.ca, we receive a lot of astute customer questions. Usually we have an answer, but occasionally we get stumped - and when this happens, we frequently turn to John. Have a question where the answer eludes? Maybe it's technical in nature, or it's related to domain name policy or procedure? Send your questions to corporate@webnames.ca and each quarter we'll publish one question answered by John Demco.

This quarter's question pertains to Registry rules and Canadian Presence Requirements.

Q:: I have a client with a pending Canadian trademark, but the company is based outside Canada. Does my client meet the Canadian Presence Requirements to register a .CA domain name?

There are a few different ways that registrants with companies based outside of Canada can meet Canadian Presence Requirements for .ca domain names.

One is to have a Canadian trademark, which can be granted to non-Canadian citizens. When I managed the .ca registry at UBC under CDNnet and before the Canadian Internet Registration Authority's (CIRA's) Canadian Presence Requirements were adopted in November, 2000, holders of pending trademarks were able to register .ca domain names on a probationary basis. (For background, before CIRA became the official Registry on December 1, 2000, CDNnet functioned as both a Registrar and the .ca Registry for Canada.)

CIRA's Canadian Presence Requirements require that .ca registrants with companies based outside of Canada have a registered Canadian trademark The article (Section Q) reads as follows:

Trade-mark registered in Canada. A Person which does not meet any of the foregoing conditions, but which is the owner of a trade-mark which is the subject of a registration under the Trade-marks Act (Canada) R.S.C. 1985, c.T-13 as amended from time to time, but in this case such permission is limited to an application to register a .ca domain name consisting of or including the exact word component of that registered trade-mark…
For clarification, the phrase "consisting of or including the exact word component" means that as long as the full trademark is within the domain name, the domain name can be registered. If the trademark is - for example's sake only - "Coke", the trademark holder can register coke.ca, mycoke.ca, etc. If the trademark is "Coca-Cola", the trademark holder can register coca-cola.ca, mycoca-cola.ca, etc.

If you expect the approval of your anticipated trademark may take some time, or be subject to an objection, another option is incorporating the company federally, or in a Canadian province/territory.

For more information:

CIRA's Canadian Presence Requirement
http://www.cira.ca/en/...EffectiveDateJune52003.pdf

CIRA website
http://www.cira.ca

Canadian Intellectual Property Office: Guide to Trademarks - Trademark Basics
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/...tm_gd_basic-e.html#section01

Top

Event of the Quarter

ICANN 24th International Public Meeting
Vancouver, Canada
Wednesday, November 30th - Sunday, December 4th

ICANN - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - is responsible for coordinating the management of the Internet's core technical infrastructure, including the assignment of domain names and IP addresses. Within ICANN's international framework, governments and organizations work with businesses, organizations, experts and members of the public to assure the stability of the Net. ICANN's annual public meeting brings together Internet pioneers, decision-makers, futurists, academics and commercial parties to consult on ICANN's missions and activities.
http://www.icannvancouver.ca
http://www.icann.org

Top