Digital trust services vendor VeriSign has launched a suite of
brand management services to help companies protect their brands
and trademarks online from cybersquatters and other digital
foes.
Digital Brand Management Services offer two sets of features to
VeriSign customers: Registration and name services, and trademark
protection and promotion services, said Maigread Eichten,
VeriSign's vice-president of digital brand management
services.
The registration services will scour registries of Web addresses to
look for sites that use companies' names or the names of their
products. A list of those sites will then be returned to the client
so that the company can either register those names, attempt to buy
them from their current owners or leave them alone, Eichten
said.
The launch underlines the increasing complexity that companies face
in protecting their corporate identities online. The threat of
cybersquatting has increased along with the influx of new domain
name suffixes such as ".info" and ".biz", leaving many businesses
at a loss as to how to protect all their brands and intellectual
property, VeriSign said.
The digital brand protection service will search the Web for sites
that use a firm's trademarked materials, such as reports, logos or
art, and notify clients about that use, said Sean Downey,
VeriSign's director of digital brand management services.
Companies will then be able to take action against those sites or
sign licensing deals with them, he added. The service will also
support the use of keywords in place of full Web addresses, as well
as Web address shortcuts for wireless devices.
As part of the announcement, VeriSign said it would acquire
1GlobalPlace, which provides international domain name
registration. VeriSign said it has also entered into a definitive
agreement to buy NameEngine, a domain name and intellectual
property management firm. The deals have a combined value of $11m
(£8m).
VeriSign has teamed up with Cyveillance and Cobion to provide the
brand and trademark services. The two companies will provide
"spidering" technology, which scours the Web looking for
information, Eichten said.
Additionally, VeriSign is incorporating a Digital Brand Partnership
Programme, which allows its partners to provide digital brand
management services to their clients. Marketing and advertising
giant Young & Rubicam and interactive marketing agency SF
Interactive have already signed up to the programme.
The services are available immediately and cost between $5,000 and
$100,000.