An Overview of Domain Name Monitoring

Com Laude’s domain monitoring is a highly automated service, which scans registered brands in domain names to identify keywords that indicate brand infringement. The system identifies domains that are the same or confusingly-similar to the brand and may well be infringing the brand owner’s trademarks. It is a service that helps businesses safeguard themselves from domain name abuse, such as cybersquatting and typo-squatting as well as other cybercrimes.

Cyber-criminals are opportunists and will target occasions when users may be less alert, such as holidays and monumental dates in the calendar. Their actions will go unnoticed by the domain name holder unless effective automated monitoring is in place.

Why should businesses use Domain Name Monitoring?

Here is an example where a business would benefit from domain name monitoring.

An innovative activewear brand dominates the marketplace with its new product range.  Because of its popularity, online traffic is high and bad actors want to reap profits from this opportunity. Therefore, an identical website is created with all the same information, design, and content as the legitimate brand owner – but instead their domain name portrays an outlet version of the site where the cybercriminal is selling counterfeit goods. In turn, misleading unsuspecting consumers and causing detrimental financial loss to the legitimate brand and the customers, as well as a deluge of complaints from the customers to the legitimate brand owner.

In this example, a domain name monitoring service would have detected this fraudulent domain name and it could have been addressed before causing significant harm.

What does a Domain Name Monitoring service offer?

A domain name monitoring service detects potentially infringing domain names used for fraudulent purposes as well as domain names used for phishing emails and malware distribution. The system uses an advanced, customised algorithm to detect infringing domain names and rank them by the threat they pose to the brand owner. It scans the global domain name space.

Com Laude provides an industry-leading monitoring system, Com Laude Watch. Set up and reporting can be tailored to the risk profile of each individual brand. In the last six months, Com Laude Watch has helped clients recover 13 domains via the UDRP and six via the .uk DRS.

To learn more about our Domain Name Monitoring and Dispute Resolution services, please contact us.