A new player in the field of online brand protection, GlobalBlock now offers the most centralized domain name protection solution on the market, enabling you to reduce the risk of cybersquatting (the use of a brand name in a third-party domain name) with just one step. GlobalBlock is now part of the solutions offered by Gandi Corporate Services**.
Designed for trademark holders, GlobalBlock is the most effective way to protect your brand across a large number of domain name extensions. In an increasingly competitive economic environment, GlobalBlock offers a more cost-effective alternative to defensive registrations. It will also be available for corporate and celebrity names.
GlobalBlock services
GlobalBlock is available in two distinct product types:
| GlobalBlock | GlobalBlock+ |
|---|---|
| – Blocking exclusively on the identical trademark | – Unlimited blocking of the main trademark (e.g. with or without hyphen) – Blocking of homoglyphic characters or confusing terms (typosquatting) as defined by the variant algorithm developed by the Brand Safety Alliance. |
In addition to the record number of protected extensions (just over 400 currently announced, with more to be added), this new service offers several other advantages:
- Protection that goes beyond new generic TLDs (e.g. SALE or .COUPONS), and already includes country-code TLDs (Cctlds) such as .IO or .US, and historical generic TLDs such as .PRO, .TRAVEL, .INFO, .BIZ.
- As the effectiveness of this system depends on its responsiveness, GlobalBlock offers the Priority AutoCatch function, which continuously monitors the availability of new extensions and blocks the brand’s domain names with this new extension.
- GlobalBlock+ will integrate homographs, providing an additional layer of protection against deceptive domain name registrations that exploit visually similar characters.
- If you wish to use one of the blocked domain names, it will be possible to unblock it.
Subscriptions are available for periods of one (1), two (2) or three (3) years.
The BETA phase of the service is due to end on February 28**, at which point it will be available to all eligible subscribers.
Who qualifies for the service?
There are four types of rights that can be used to access GlobalBlock services:
- Trademark including
- geographical indicators
- trademarks protected by trademark or treaty
- Trademark in use
- Name of company or organization.
- Celebrity names
The protected brand must be at least three characters long, and will be verified by an organization designated by the BSA (Brand Safety Alliance, the organization in charge of GlobalBlock). Gandi Corporate Services, a BSA-accredited agent, will assist you with this procedure.
A centralized blocking solution
Until now, similar solutions have been offered, but were restricted to very specific extensions (adult sector extensions for AdultBlock) or to a limited number of extensions (those managed by the Identity Digital registry for DPML).
Subscribers to blocking services such as Adultblock, DPML etc. have access to the “GlobalBlock Beta Program” Beta launch. It starts with around 470 extensions available for blocking immediately, with more being added progressively in batches throughout the program.
Globalblock teams are still working on the DPML transition project, which will be aimed at rightsholders with DPMLs expiring beyond February 29, 2025.
All those whose DPMLs expire before this date will have the opportunity to switch to the GlobalBlock solution at their convenience. Feel free to contact our team to start the process.
With the introduction of the Globalblock service, trademark owners now have the opportunity to take a significant step towards countering the increasing incidence of cybersquatting.
However, it will not protect against more complex and/or compound terms (e.g. your trademarksoldefr.deals), nor does it cover all TLDs. This is why Gandi Corporate Services will continue to promote awareness so that trademark owners remain vigilant with regard to abusive registrations, notably thanks to our monitoring tools.
