You protect your home with an alarm, your car with a locking system and your computer with a password. Have you ever thought about how important it is to protect your intellectual property?

Did you know significant changes have been made to .ie registrations? From this month, the need to show a ‘claim to the name’ when registering a new .ie domain will be removed. Do you understand the implications of this for your business?

Stipulations in the Past
Previously, an applicant wishing to have a website with .ie domain name must have proven they had a valid claim to the desired name and a real, tangible connection to the island of Ireland. Now, anyone with a connection to Ireland will be able to register any name with the .ie domain without having to prove claim to the name. Registrants will still need to prove their real connection to the island of Ireland, and provide photo ID to prove their identity, but they no longer have to prove they have a claim to the desired domain.

How this impacts you?
Would you like anyone to be able to set up a website that had your name, business name or trademarked material in its .ie address?

If you have intellectual property to protect, Idea recommends you register and safeguard any .ie domains that you don’t want to fall into fraudsters, competitors or domain stockpilers hands. Over 239,000 .ie domains have been registered. Have your protected yours?

Protection:
Chief executive of the IE Domain Registry (IEDR) David Curtin maintains “Protecting .ie domain holders has always been IEDR’s first and foremost priority, and that has not changed…. we already have in place many protections to safeguard the .ie namespace against hacking and malware hosting, and we are constantly updating our own technology and best practice to ensure that the .ie namespace remains secure.”

Idea believe a company should take the necessary steps to protect themselves from unavoidable confusion and unnecessary work due to not securing .ie domains that should rightfully be theirs.    

What you can do:
Now is the time to register your .ie domain extension for your website and protect your business and company name. Register your domain with us for as little as €75 plus VAT per year.

If there are any .ie domains you want to register or protect contact Oisin to discuss in more detail. Email oisin(at)idea.ie or call 01-2500050.