On the occasion of the 16th "World Intellectual Property Day", a multi-level litigation went through the Trademark Review and Adjudication Committee of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, and the Beijing Higher People's Court. The battle for the "iPhone" trademark has finally settled, and Apple's monopoly claim to monopolize the "iPhone" trademark has encountered "Waterloo".

As mentioned before, Apple’s failure over the iPad trademark all stemmed from the same rule: first come first served. This can't help but remind people that compared to our traditional concept of industrial and commercial registered trademarks, companies' brand and trademark domain names on the Internet and mobile Internet actually have similar hidden dangers.

New trends in Internet, trademark, and domain name squatting

It is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of "cornworms" in our country. These investors have keen business sense and rich knowledge. Practical experience, long-term involvement in the preemptive registration of Internet domain names, trademarks and other resources has forced those companies that initially had a weak awareness of Internet brands to eventually repurchase them at exorbitant prices. It should be noted that with the rapid development of the mobile Internet, Chinese domain names have also begun to be focused on by "cornworms": not long ago, the internationally renowned luxury brand Hugo Boss (Hugo Boss) and the well-known jewelry brand Swarovski were once They successively filed arbitrations with WIPO regarding "boss. mobile phone" and "Swarovski. mobile phone" respectively.

It is reported that this ?.mobile phone? domain name is a global top-level domain specifically oriented to the mobile Internet. On the one hand, it is a Chinese domain name, easy to identify, and the suffix ?.mobile phone? directly indicates that it is oriented to mobile terminals; on the other hand, it is a Chinese domain name, which is easy to identify. In view of the decentralized and fragmented communication characteristics of the mobile Internet platform, the ?.mobile? domain name can collect various applications such as corporate Weibo, WeChat, direct accounts, micro sites, APP downloads, etc. through the micro entrance to build a unified entrance. Mobile users can browse through You can directly access this unified entrance by accessing ?XXX.mobile phone?. From this point of view, it is not surprising that the cornworm has set its sights on mobile phones.

As we all know, trademarks and domain names are important brand assets, which are related to the brand's logo and reputation. Being preemptively registered means losing the initiative of the brand domain name. So, how do companies protect their brands on the mobile Internet?

Three strategies to protect corporate domain name security

Industry insiders pointed out that there are three difficulties in domain name protection in the current Internet environment: 1. Firstly, it is difficult to determine jurisdiction over domain name protection; secondly, it is difficult to determine the subject of infringement; thirdly, it is difficult to determine the liability of network service providers. In order to avoid negative events caused by domain name squatting, experts suggest that companies can use three strategies to deal with it.

The next best option: legal arbitration. Arbitration is a legal act and requires strict legal procedures, which can take as short as ten days or as long as several months. Arbitration companies also have to pay the cost of personnel, energy and money. In short, it consumes time, manpower and financial resources, and the probability of success is low. Is it also immeasurable? The failure of the iPhone is an example. Therefore, unless the domain name squatting has caused a vicious event or the domain name repurchase price is too high, few companies will directly apply for legal arbitration.

China strategy: Negotiate repurchase. This is the most common way for companies to deal with domain name squatting. The high repurchase price is an important factor that worries many companies. For example, Wang Sicong once repurchased the domain name "wanda.com" at a sky-high price of 60 million yuan. When Wang Zhihe, a time-honored brand in Beijing, entered the international market, he also faced a situation where the domain name was registered by a German company and ultimately had to pay 1 million euros to acquire the domain name. Repurchase. It should be pointed out that negotiating repurchase also requires attention to methods. Method 1: Use the identity of an unrelated third party to negotiate on the grounds of investment acquisition, thereby significantly reducing the other party's asking price; Method 2: Find a relatively professional intermediary agency and use favorable evidence such as holding the well-known brand trademark as a basis for negotiation chips, lowering the other party’s expectations of huge investment returns, and ultimately achieving low-price redemption; of course, if the other party also has evidence to prove that the trademark has the same name, the difficulty will undoubtedly increase.

So, in addition to the two "passive" behaviors of legal arbitration and negotiated repurchase, are there any "active" ways to protect domain names?

Let's look at the best strategy: register early. The brand protection strategies of many companies are still stuck in the traditional trademark/brand rights protection stage. However, with the development of the Internet today, domain names have become a very important part of brand protection in the development of companies. Many far-sighted companies, especially well-known international and domestic companies, have hired professional domain name protection consulting companies to keep an eye on the dynamics of the domain name industry, formulate domain name protection and registration strategies that are in line with the development of the company, and put them into practice. , to avoid serious consequences caused by squatting. Therefore, instead of waiting for domain names to be registered and spending a lot of time, manpower, and money to repurchase them, companies should register domain names as early as possible to seize the "advantage opportunity."

See the trends clearly and plan in advance, and start as soon as possible to be prepared

Industry insiders remind that the concept of enterprise domain name protection needs to be separated from the protection scope of traditional domain names ?.com? and ?.cn? , extending outward, with the rapid development of the mobile Internet, mobile domain names will become another front for enterprise domain name protection in the future, and the Chinese usage habits in the Chinese market will also affect the development direction of mobile domain names. The value of Chinese domain names for corporate domain name protection will also continue to increase.

As mentioned above, the ".mobile phone" domain name, as a Chinese top-level domain name approved and filed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, is the same as the traditional domain name and has "uniqueness". In the context of today's mobile Internet era, brand mobile phone domain name registration has become an imperative move for many companies. As the first Chinese top-level domain developed for mobile addressing, the future development prospects and commercial value of ..mobile phone are not high. It goes without saying that companies need to pay more attention to Chinese domain names on mobile phones, register as early as possible, and take the initiative in corporate domain names. So, maybe you should immediately go to the website of the domain name registry to check the whois and see if the domain name of your brand name is still there.

The failure of the iPhone trademark monopoly appeal is like a loud alarm that makes many business people suddenly realize: there is no shortcut to domain name protection. Only by registering first and taking precautions can we avoid the situation of "squatting". . Trademark registration