Com Laude and Valideus Domain Name Gazetteer 2019

The Com laude and Valideus Domain Name Gazetteer provides brand owners and IP professionals with an easy-to-use, up-to-date reference on the state of the Domain Name System (DNS).

In total in this edition we have profiled 1,600 registries: every place in the world where a business can register a domain. Now in its 6th edition, this latest update presents a comprehensive information source for the whole of the domains market.

The total number of domains being registered has continued to rise, albeit at a slower pace than in previous years. There are more than 340 million domains registered with an increasing number of brands opting to use their own dot brand TLD or an open new gTLD.

This year we have invited a number of domain name experts to contribute articles that provide in-depth analysis of specific aspects of the domain name space:

• Martin Sutton, Executive Director of the Brand Registry Group, considers the risks that brands face in the domain name supply chain in 2019. Everything from registry operations, to locks and breaches.

• Intellectual property commentator and journalist, Ed Conlon, spoke with brand experts at Google and Major League Baseball about the core challenges they faced in bringing their TLD to market. A third major company spoke to us on the condition of anonymity. All three businesses have provided valuable tips on how companies might navigate the dot brand sphere, from building microsites to maintaining search ranking and promoting their new digital presence.

• Andrew Lothian and Tim Brown from Demys, Com Laude Group’s recently acquired domain name brand protection arm explain how enforcement of rights is still possible in a world where Whois data access has been impacted by the advent of GDPR.

• Jeff Neuman, Senior Vice President for Com Laude and Valideus for North America, summarizes some of the most vexatious issues to be discussed, from his perspective as the Co-Chair of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process (SubPro PDP) Working Group – the team planning what Round Two will look like. He contemplates how the next round of new gTLDs is shaping up and considers the timeline that will take us there.

• Domain name validation services are used when a registry requires a robust validation process and system which ensures that the registrations in the TLD met the registries stated goals and objectives. Dietmar Lenden, Senior Manager at Valideus provides insight into the validations process.

• Heather Forrest who recently completed a one-year term as Chair of the GNSO, where policy is made in ICANN considers the organisation’s future. She reflects for us on the big questions that taxed her – the efficiency and effectiveness of decision-making, representation versus legitimacy, the processes that make or break consensus. It is our ICANN, she argues, and we need to work hard to improve it.

• A short piece by Sophie Hey of the Valideus team explains for the uninitiated, or those who simply don’t have time to get under the skin of it, how ICANN works.