It’s been a shocking revelation (to me at least) that almost 30 years have passed since I wrote my dissertation on ‘trade marks and domain names’ as part of my law degree at the University of Southampton.
In a trip down memory lane, I dug out my old dissertation (yes, I still have it in hand-coded HTML!) and thought it would be entertaining to reflect on my predictions and their accuracy (or lack thereof) in the world of domain name disputes and brand protection.
I’ll periodically share some highlights and lowlights from my dissertation, starting with typo registrations.
Back then, I used ‘coke.com’ and ‘c0ke.com’ as examples and predicted that the registration of similar domain names could lead to ‘a number of repercussions’. I said:
For example “http://www.coke.com” (“Coke” is a registered trade mark) and “http://www.c0ke.com” (note the zero instead of the letter “o”) could co-exist as separate domain names without any technical difficulties. Such similar domain names could potentially result in a number of repercussions. Another company, for example the registrar of “www.c0ke.com” could use the power of the “Coke” name for their own advantage.
Fast-forward to today, and a quick glance at our dispute records at Com Laude reveals that we’ve successfully recovered around 175 typo domain names from cybercriminals on behalf of our clients. So, it seems my prediction wasn’t too far off the mark, although ‘a number of repercussions’ may have been something of an understatement!
It’s intriguing to look at my dissertation’s predictions and their relevance decades later and I plan to share more in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, rest assured that the team at Com Laude remains at the forefront of dispute services, dedicated to staying ahead of the curve in protecting your online brand identity. Get in touch with me to explore how we can safeguard your online ecosystem.