August 17, 2015
'The Donald', or more accurately; those acting on his behalf, appear to have been extremely busy buying up domain names related to his name and brands.
The American real estate developer, television personality, politician, author and presidential hopeful understands a thing or two about being in the spotlight; namely, it sometimes attracts the wrong type of attention. These days folks with an axe to grind against someone may consider setting up a "sucks" type domain to air their grievances.
They may be finding it a little more difficult to find one relating to Mr. Trump or his various interests.
Business Insider Australia decided to do a little investigating as to how many domain names have been registered on his behalf. They found over 3,100 and it appears this is just the tip of the iceberg. According to Mr. Trump's son, Eric, these just a fraction of the “tens of thousands” of names registered by the Trump Organisation.
The Trump Organisation's focus on defensive domain registration might have some small business owners wondering, "If Donald Trump does it, do we need to too?" Defensive domain registration has also become a more prevalent issue with the launch of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).
It's not just disgruntled customers businesses need to be concerned about, it's also cybersquatters - those who register names belonging to a business with the goal of selling the business the name at an exorbitant price.
The problem is even just registering a name across all the possible extensions isn't economically viable for many small businesses and if a mischievous party wishes to register a "sucks" type domain name; there are plenty of derogatory terms they can use.
With regard to cybersquatting and as we reported in 2012, Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, believes most small businesses would be better off investing their hard-earned into ensuring people can easily find them at their primary address.
Still, Australian businesses who have registered a .com.au might want to also consider registering the .com equivalent if it is available as .com awareness is very high and particularly if the business also serves international customers.
Related:
Cybersquatting And Australian Domain Names
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