The Importance of Protecting Your Domains

Richard Branson and his company the Virgin Group are once again making waves in the business world but instead of engaging in a new battle with companies like British Airlines, Branson and Virgin are engaged in a virtual battle over the domain name richardbranson.xxx.

With the release of the new .XXX domain name in December of 2011, Branson was shocked to see that his name was registered like so many other celebrities and his name richardbranson.xxx was now online. Eager to protect his name and other Virgin intellectual properties his company filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum, an organization that oversees domain name disputes.

It Can Happen To Anyone

The domain was registered by an Australian resident on December 10^th 2011 who most likely intended to become a cybersquatter and hold the domain name for ransom until he received a very large payoff from Virgin.

Any cybersquatter knows how much domain names like richardbranson.xxx are worth and jump at the chance to register them when new domain name extensions are released. Richard Branson is lucky though because this .XXX domain name hasn’t been pointed to a porn website like so many other new .XXX domain names have been.

What’s next for Branson?

Virgin has a good case and will most likely be given the domain name if they can prove that it wasn’t registered in good faith. Branson’s case should be a wakeup call to celebrities and business owners around the world who want to protect their brand online and best interests.

Even though the average person or company has to spend money initially to protect their best interests online by registering all of the domain name extensions that apply to their name or brand, the cost is minimal compared to the potential long term financial damages that could result from dealing with a cybersquatter.

Posted under Domain Management, Search News by Luna  Print This Post