DNSSEC: all gTLDs are secure

A milestone for DNS security: on 23 December 2020, ICANN announced that DNSSEC was deployed on all 1,195 generic extensions. The protocol adds cryptographic validation to DNS responses, foreclosing cache poisoning and other manipulations of name resolution that feed phishing and traffic hijacking. The article places the announcement in the continuity of ICANN's 2019 call, issued after waves of attacks on the DNS, to generalise DNSSEC across the naming chain. The work is not finished: many country-code extensions still lack the protocol, and ICANN says it will work with ccTLD registries to close the gap; nor does signing a zone dispense registrants, registrars and resolver operators from doing their part. Still, with every gTLD signed, a structural layer of trust now covers the generic namespace.

.music sunrise period. The wait is over!

Announced for more than a decade and long delayed, the .MUSIC extension finally arrives: its sunrise period opens on 11 August 2023 and runs until 13 November 2023, before general availability. During this window, trademark owners whose marks are recorded in the Trademark Clearinghouse can register the corresponding names with priority. For the music industry — artists, labels, publishers, venues, platforms — but also for any brand exposed to musical uses of its name, the advice is the usual one: secure the key names during the sunrise period rather than pay later, through negotiation or proceedings, for names captured by opportunists. IP Twins can assist right holders with these registrations.

1 August 2023
Initially published on iptwins.com

.WATCHES domain names: be on time!

Identity Digital — born of the merger of Afilias and Donuts, and the largest gTLD registry operator — is launching the .WATCHES extension: sunrise period from 28 March to 27 May 2023, reserved for trademarks recorded in the Trademark Clearinghouse, before opening to the public. For watchmaking houses and retailers, an extension that says the product in a word deserves consideration in the portfolio — both to build addresses that speak to customers and to deprive counterfeiters, whose appetite for the sector is well documented, of names combining a brand with .WATCHES. Be on time: registering during the sunrise period costs little; recovering a squatted name later costs much more. IP Twins accompanies brand owners through the operation.

20 March 2023
Initially published on iptwins.com

DNS Abuse: How Can Domain Names Linked to the Same Actor Be Connected?

On 18 August 2026, ICANN published for public comment the Initial Report of its DNS Abuse Mitigation Policy Development Process (PDP 1). Among its proposals are Associated Domain Checks: when a registrar acts on an abuse report, it should also examine the other domain names held by the same customer. In its comments of 25 September 2026, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center supports the approach but points out its main limitation: the checks stop at the edge of a single registrar's portfolio. Bad actors know this and spread their registrations across several registrars, which hampers consolidated UDRP proceedings. WIPO suggests exploring cross-registrar mechanisms without saying which data could link the names. The article argues that payment data, pseudonymised, could serve as that common denominator, while acknowledging its limits (prepaid cards, fraud, multiple payment methods): an indicator rather than proof. It marks a shift from a one-domain, one-investigation logic to a network approach.

28 September 2026
Initially published on iptwins.com

DNS and Web3: How Can We Avoid Importing Cryptosquatting into the DNS?

The DNS and blockchain-based alternative naming systems are converging, with projects such as .BLOCKCHAIN and the .ROBOT cryptoTLD seeking to operate the same string in both worlds. In August 2026, ICANN's Technical Study Group released an Initial Report on integrating gTLDs with alternative naming systems, built on a "string + controller" principle: the same name must remain under the same control across systems, with its status kept in sync. In September 2026, the SSAC supported this synchronisation but noted that applying the UDRP and the URS becomes difficult when a registrant exists only in an alternative system, without conventional registration data. The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center warns that cybersquatting is already widespread in these systems: mapping names automatically into the DNS would import existing infringements. Trademark owners therefore need functionally equivalent protection mechanisms, including a way to prevent infringing names from being activated, as initiatives like Unstoppable Domains joining GlobalBlock have begun to show.

24 September 2026
Initially published on iptwins.com

Article Information

Author

Emmanuel Gillet

Publication Date

4 January 2021

Jurisdiction

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