NameBlock AS Domain Zone Brand Protection Service

2022: Service Creation

On September 1, 2022, the Coordination Center for the National Internet Domain (CC) announced the creation of the NameBlock AS service. It is designed to help copyright holders protect the names of their brands in the domain space. This is a very serious problem, since cases of cyber squatting and domain fraud, the names of which are extremely similar or coincide with the names of well-known brands - unfortunately, not at all uncommon.

Some registrars offer copyright holders services to block names that match the names of brands in domain zones that are managed. But not all registrars have this service, and the number of common top-level domains has long exceeded a thousand, which makes the task of protecting brand names in the domain space very difficult. The NameBlock AS service is designed to facilitate it. It is positioned as a kind of "marketplace" for blocking brand names. The service offers registrars the ability to create their own blocking mechanisms, and copyright holders - a kind of "one-window service" to protect their brands at once in many domain zones.

Of course, the success of the project will directly depend on how many registrations consider it necessary to join it. But, according to Domain Name Wire, Rolf Larsen, a specialist with vast experience in the domain business and an excellent reputation, is behind the creation of the service. Previously, he was among the leaders of the CloudNames registry, which managed the shared top-level domain.GLOBAL. Larsen also created the IQ Global brand protection service. Thus, he has both the necessary experience and connections in the domain business, which allows experts to assess the prospects of NameBlock AS very optimistically.