CircleID

In a recent survey of MarkMonitor's global corporate client base*, nearly 22% of respondents stated that their companies are intending to apply for a new gTLD.

Twenty-three percent stated that their companies did not intend to apply for a new gTLD, while more than 55% still did not know which route they would eventually take.

According to the survey results, of those planning to acquire a new gTLD, 69% said that they would be doing it for "defensive purposes only, to keep others from applying and with no immediate plans to use the new gTLD."

When asked whether the introduction of new gTLDs would require increased efforts around the policing of brands on the Internet, a whopping 76% of respondents believed that it would.

These numbers can give some insight into how corporations are approaching new gTLDs, and clearly many have begun the process of working with the various stakeholder groups within their respective companies to identify whether or not a new gTLD makes sense.

However, a majority of the companies still have not yet decided what to do, which is worrisome, as the fourth draft guidebook is expected to be released in June of this year with a final version potentially released late this year or early next.

Given this relatively short timeline, companies should begin strategy development immediately. Every corporation will need to carefully assess the impacts, choose an offensive, defensive or combined strategy, and begin developing processes to execute that strategy.

For more information on new gTLDs, visit MarkMonitor's dotBrand Resource Center.

* A total of 95 respondents participated in the survey

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MarkMonitor®, the world leader in enterprise brand protection and a Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property & Science business, uses a SaaS delivery model to provide advanced technology and expertise that protects the revenues and reputations of the world's leading brands. (Learn More)

Related topics: Cybersquatting, Domain Names, Registry Services, Top-Level Domains