Emmanuel Gillet

Domain Name Management

.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.

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Domain Name Management

.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.

New gTLDs · Online Brand Protection

1 August 2023

Initially published on iptwins.com

Domain Name Management

Cybersecurity and Log4shell: the situation at IP Twins

On 10 December 2021, researchers disclosed Log4Shell, a critical vulnerability in Log4j, the ubiquitous Java logging library. The article documents IP Twins' immediate assessment, offering registrar clients transparency: the core systems — Domainarium 2, the EPP tools and the DNS architecture — contain no Java and are therefore not exposed. Only two resources use Java: the third-party database supporting domain name registration monitoring, and the VMware solutions supplied by hosting partner OVH for private cloud management; both sit behind strict IP whitelisting, reachable only from IP Twins' internal addresses, which forecloses external exploitation. After full technical verification, the company confirmed that neither its registrar services nor its nameservers were at risk, and invited clients to contact support with any questions. A model of the prompt, factual communication expected from infrastructure providers when a major vulnerability breaks.

16 December 2021

Initially published on iptwins.com

Domain Name Governance

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.

Cybersecurity · Cybersquatting · Domain Name Law · Domain Name System · ICANN · Online Brand Protection · UDRP

28 September 2026

Initially published on iptwins.com

Blockchain & Law

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.

Blockchain · Cybersquatting · Domain Name System · ICANN · New gTLDs · Online Brand Protection · UDRP · URS · Web3 Domains

24 September 2026

Initially published on iptwins.com

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Article Information

Author

Emmanuel Gillet

Publication Date

20 March 2023

Jurisdiction

Topics

New gTLDs · Online Brand Protection

Industry

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