Doug Isenberg of The GigaLaw Firm was quoted extensively in “Managing IP” in an article titled, “10 years of new gTLDs: why brands have never got the memo.”
The article focuses on what has transpired in the 10 years since ICANN revealed the list of applications in its historic expansion of the new generic top-level domain names (new gTLDs).
The article discusses how many great expectations for the new gTLDs never materialized and says:
Doug Isenberg, founder of domain name specialist law firm GigaLaw in Atlanta, agrees. He says clients have lost interest in ‘dot brands’ over the years with many either directly or indirectly abandoning their plans.
“Even after all of these years there’s just not a strong incentive to use them given a lack of consumer education. ‘Dot com’ is what continues to attract the most interest from everyone: trademark owners, cybersquatters, and consumers alike,” he tells Managing IP.
He notes that the number of new gTLDs involved in domain name disputes is relatively small.
According to GigaLaw’s Domain Dispute Digest, a quarterly report that tracks data and trends from the major providers of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), the majority of disputes still involve ‘dot com’.
In the first quarter of 2022, 2,531 ‘dot com’ domain names were subject to UDRP decisions, out of a total of 3,259 (70%).
“Despite the arrival of the new gTLDs, most trademark owners are primarily concerned about cybersquatting in the ‘dot com’ TLD, because it remains king,” he says.
However, there are some new gTLDs that some trademark owners have found worthwhile including restricted TLDs like ‘dot bank’ and ‘dot law’, Isenberg believes.
“I switched from gigalaw.com to giga.law because it allowed me to maintain my brand while shortening the overall length of my domain name and to adopt a new gTLD that is restricted, which means cybersquatting does not happen,” he says.
To read the full article in “Managing IP,” click here.
