The State of Online Brand Protection

Irfan Salim
CEO & President, MarkMonitor®

It's no secret: online brand abuse continues to escalate and brandjackers continue to evolve their tactics, exploiting powerful brands in new and surprising ways.

In 2009, not only were fraudsters up to their old tricks with cybersquatting and phishing hitting all time highs, they also continued to evolve their sophisticated techniques and exploit brands in multiple online channels. Just like savvy marketers everywhere, scammers leveraged search engines and jumped into social media, taking advantage of trusted brands in trusted forums to snatch an unassuming customer’s identity or peddle fake goods.

The good news: brands have made tremendous progress by expanding their brand protection strategies and adopting new brand protection technologies.

The Online Brand Protection Expansion
Last year, we were pleased to welcome a record number of MarkMonitor Brand Protection™ customers to our roster of market-leading brands; a positive sign that more and more corporations are realizing the intrinsic value of protecting their brands online.

At MarkMonitor, we focused on expanding our core technologies and service offerings. Today, our customers monitor their brands in more online channels than ever before—search engines, social media, domain names, email solicitations, auctions, eCommerce sites and tradeboards—and in more countries around the globe. Another major expansion: flexible enforcement options—from sweeping preventative measures to decisive site shutdowns—brands can choose from a wide range of enforcement measures and services. One more significant advancement was the introduction of our new streamlined user interface, giving our customers a total view into their brand abuse challenges—all at-a-glance.

The Domain Name Expansion
ICANN continued with their unprecedented expansion of the domain name space. Last year, ICANN proceeded to move forward with their plans to support the launch of both Top-Level Country Code IDNs, as well as new generic Top-level Domains (gTLDs). Along with their many benefits, these initiatives will enable brand abuse on a much greater scale, posing untold risks for brands.

Throughout 2009, MarkMonitor remained a stalwart advocate for brand holder rights in the ICANN community, leading the debate on brand protection mechanisms. With the realization that the gTLD expansion was a foregone conclusion, many forward looking brands decided to take a proactive approach. We were pleased to have the opportunity to work with numerous customers on developing the right gTLD strategy for their business.

Last year, we witnessed a disturbing trend take hold with the rise of attacks on the domain name infrastructure. At MarkMonitor, domain security remains a top priority. In addition to regular and rigorous testing of our ‘hardened’ portal, we also introduced several advanced security measures—from restricting access via IP address to offering exclusive Super Locking services, which allow our customers to lock down mission-critical domains at the registry level.

Expanding the Fight against Phishing and Malware
Identity fraud hit an all-time high in 2009. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, 11.1 million people fell victim resulting in $54 billion in losses. And, once again, we saw cybercriminals evolve their tactics, launching more sophisticated attacks.

MarkMonitor expanded our arsenal by incorporating preventive measures into our AntiFraud Solutions. Leveraging our extensive attack database and proprietary analytics, we’re able to identify and preemptively shutdown attacks in the planning stages—before they’re launched.

Moving Forward
One thing is clear, as brand abuse continues to grow it is becoming more global, interconnected and insidious in scope, taking a greater toll on businesses. At MarkMonitor, we’re dedicated to delivering the innovative solutions and services companies require to effectively address this ever-evolving problem.

While we made great progress in 2009 there is more work to be done in 2010. Our global expansion will continue as we focus on building out our business relationships and capabilities in Asia Pacific. Our coverage model will expand too, scouring more marketplaces, search engines and websites in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific.

In 2010, you can also count on our continued advocacy for brand holder rights. As the IDN and gTLD initiatives continue to gather steam, MarkMonitor will keep you informed on the implications to your brand and your business. And, of course, continue to represent the interests of brand holders at every stage.

As always, our goal is to give brands a complete understanding of the unique brand abuse challenges they face and deliver the intelligence and expertise they need to take effective action—reclaiming revenues and reinforcing customer trust.

Kind Regards,
Irfan Salim

ICANN UPDATES

ICANN Nairobi Recap

ICANN recently concluded their 37th meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. Although many chose not to travel due to security and cost concerns, remote participation locations from both San Francisco (MarkMonitor offices) and Reston, Virginia were well attended.
 
A number of important issues were addressed by ICANN’s Board, including decisions to:

• Not proceed with an Expression of Interest (EOI) model which would have required that all entities wishing to apply for a new gTLD during the first round to submit basic information including the requested string and a fee of $55,000
• Uphold status quo supporting the strict separation of entities offering registry services and those acting as registrars so that no co-ownership is allowed, unless a new policy is developed prior to the launch of new gTLDs
• Incorporate the Trademark Clearinghouse, Uniform Rapid Shutdown (URS), Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (PDDRP) and Registry Restriction Dispute Resolution Procedure (RRDRP) into the fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook
• Finalize a report of possible process options for further consideration of .XXX
• Launch a formal communications program around the launch of new gTLDs when all of the “Overarching Issues” are resolved.

While timelines for the launch of new gTLDs were still not provided, ICANN staff did disclose their intent to release the next version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG4) prior to the ICANN Meeting in Brussels at the end of June. When questioned, ICANN staff said that DAG4 is intended to be the last draft version prior to the final.

MarkMonitor will continue to keep you up to date as developments happen.

IDN ccTLD Update

In addition to Egypt, Russian Federation, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia which had successfully completed the second phase of the IDN Fast Track Process earlier this year, ICANN recently announced that China, Hong Kong, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Tunisia have also successfully completed the second phase.

ICANN’s IDN Fast Track process was approved by the ICANN Board at its annual meeting in Seoul, South Korea in October of last year. The process enables countries and territories to submit requests to ICANN for IDN ccTLDs, representing their respective country or territory names in scripts other than Latin.

To date, ICANN has received a total of 19 requests for IDN ccTLD(s) in the Fast Track Process, representing 11 languages.

MarkMonitor will continue to monitor these developments closely and will provide updates on specific ccTLD IDN offerings as they become available.

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