How are domain names enforced and secured?

Domain names can be registered under more than 350 different domains. Add to this that the domain name system in general is not categorized in trades as for instance trademarks.

This implies that the trademark can be registered as a domain name for different companies or persons. This might be due to the fact that the same trademark is used by two parties who both have equally good rights to the domain name and therefore have registered the domain name under different domains. In other cases the registration is made by so-called pirates who only register a well-known trademark or variants hereof with a view to reselling it to the trademark owner with a profit.

In Denmark cases concerning the right to a domain name can be brought before the Domain Name Tribunal. The tribunal, which is composed of experts within i.a. trademark rights, has a broad competence to settle such cases. Other countries also have or are introducing such tribunals.

With regard to the generic domains and a number of country domains a case regarding the right to a domain name can be brought before an international tribunal with a view to obtaining a fast and - compared to law suits - cheaper decision. The most known tribunal belong under the UN organization World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO.

Therefore it is important to prepare a strategy covering which domains a company's trademarks have to be registered under and to be aware of the possibilities of acting towards other companies' or persons' registration of the same trademark as a domain name.