Several companies recently set up different systems to prevent any undesirable reservations. These procedures will allow the owners of trademarks registered with the TMCH to block any domain names that would include their own trademark, in all extensions offered by the company concerned. This is meant to avoid having third parties reserve such domain names, and also to block these names for a certain period of time.
However, these blocking systems should be used with care:
– The systems ensure collective blocking, covering all extensions, which means that selective blocking covering individual extensions is not possible
– It is not possible to “pre-reserve” any domain names before the extensions are effectively open
– All extensions do not deserve to be reserved
– Reservations incur a cost and will inflate your portfolio of domain names, which you will have to manage (renewal costs, usage, etc.)
These blocking procedures may prove very useful for certain well-known trademarks that give rise to substantial domain squatting, but they should be used very carefully and also seem to be proposed without any prior strategy, as part of allegedly “all-encompassing” reservations.
Any reservation or blocking action should be carefully nurtured, as it is advisable for trademark owners to first prepare to adapt their response in case of harm, and in view of the costs incurred!