Domain Blocking Tools
Defend your rights with domain blocking and digital trademarks protection
Intercept scammers and cybersquatters, and secure your revenue online
Take decisive action to defend your domain presence
Cybersquatters hold crucial assets to ransom, but for legitimate businesses, powerful protection tools let you take control of your domains.
The most expensive domain sale ever clocked in at almost a billion dollars.
Domain name disputes spiked by 18% in the third quarter of 2023.
GlobalBlock can protect brands across hundreds of top-level domains.
What are domain blocking tools?
Securing your company’s premises requires robust infrastructure and equipment, like a fence, cameras, and locked doors. Protecting your domains also requires the equivalent digital measures, including strategic domain tools from Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), Domain Protected Marks List (DPML), and GlobalBlock.
TMCH and AdultBlock
The Trademark Clearinghouse creates a vital conduit between your traditional trademarks and online property. As ICANN’s most important rights protection mechanism for new gTLDs, the TMCH functions as a domain and IP database, where you can submit your trademarks to establish control over related domains.
TMCH’s business benefits
Submitting your trademarks to the TMCH establishes a crucial line of defence against infringing registrations.
Once accepted, the TMCH works actively to enforce your IP, informing anyone who registers a potential infringement, and escalating from there. Your TMCH acceptance also lays the foundations for other domain protection mechanisms.
While defending your domain and deterring cybersquatters, TMCH protection also notifies you any time someone begins a registration that infringes on your brand.
These real-time insights deliver threat intelligence and clarity about the landscape, informing your domain strategy going forward.
The TMCH focuses on new gTLDs, a field which regularly expands to welcome new domain extensions.
Registering your trademarks with the TMCH grants your brand access to “Sunrise Periods” whenever ICANN approves a new domain extension launch, giving your team first priority over any new registrations you need for your brand.
Whether you’re a family-friendly brand or an IP-focussed entrepreneur, explicit impersonations on adult domains inflict series damage to your online business.
Brands tackle this threat with a solution called AdultBlock. This advanced solution blocks scammers and impersonators from registering domains that infringe on your brand across four key extensions:
- .ADULT
- .PORN
- .SEX
- .XXX
For more information about AdultBlock, and how it could help your business, check out our purpose-built guide.
Domain Blocking versus DPML
As new domain extensions pop up all the time, along with new scammers, brands need a proactive way to block cybersquatting. That’s where the DPML (Domain Protected Marks List) comes in. Establishing DPML protection for your brand blocks scammers from registering their infringements. This prolific and comprehensive new gTLD portfolio curbs scams and impersonations, while securing your presence online.
What DPML brings to your brand
DPML Plus
If you like the sound of DPML, you’ll love DPML Plus. This enhanced solution goes above and beyond, delivering ten-year protection, coverage across premium gTLDs, domain variation blocking, and more, as you’ll learn from our experts.
GlobalBlock
While brands must protect themselves across new, generic domain extensions, country-based domains also present a crucial battleground for your online presence. A new service called GlobalBlock addresses this concern, as a union of gTLD and ccTLD operators collaborate to deliver security and stability for modern brands. Also known as Global Block, this service offers concrete brand protection across 570+ top level domains with a single transaction, delivering an effective tool for your company’s digital arsenal.
GlobalBlock’s benefits for your online presence
With GlobalBlock, the numbers speak for themselves.
This solution’s widespread coverage across domain formats makes it an essential tool for any well-protected brand.
AutoCatch, one of Global Block’s smartest features, clocks any already-registered domains that infringe on your brand, and provides priority registration to your team as soon as they come back on the market.
This plug and play solution streamlines the process of returning digital IP to its rightful owner.
Dynamic strategies require flexible solutions, and GlobalBlock accommodates your team’s evolving portfolio.
If you want to register one of the domains you’ve blocked, simply unblock and claim the domain to expand your online presence.
EBRAND domain blocking solutions
Your domains, the cornerstones of your online presence and key IP assets in their own right, require an effective digital solution to support your business and deter scammers. Exploring options like TMCH, DPML, AdultBlock, and GlobalBlock informs your team about the best strategies and technical solutions to get the job done.
With EBRAND domain blocking, you’ll reinforce your digital branding, identify infringements, and recoup your IP as soon as possible. Reach out to our team, and we’ll find an stress-free, concrete solution to meet your needs and protect your domains.
Comparing each domain blocking tool
| AdultBlock | DPML and DPML Plus | GlobalBlock and GlobalBlock Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of TLDs covered | 4 (.adult, .porn, .sex and .xxx) | 260+ | 570+, including DPML TLDs |
| Premium name coverage | No | Only with DPML Plus | Yes |
| Priority autocatch | No | No | Yes |
| Minimum term | One to ten years | One, three, five, or ten years | One, two, or three years |
| Eligibility | Trademark holders accredited via the TMCH. For more details, reach out to our experts. | Trademark holders accredited via the TMCH. For more details, reach out to our experts. | Trademark holders accredited via the TMCH. For more details, reach out to our experts. |
Domain Blocking FAQs
What is domain blocking?
Domain blocking registers your brand’s keywords with domain authorities so nobody else can register matching domains. It started with the .xxx extension and now covers hundreds of extensions. It doesn’t give absolute protection, but it safeguards your trademarks and brand identity across many extensions at once.
What are DPML, AdultBlock, and GlobalBlock?
DPML, AdultBlock, and GlobalBlock are domain blocking services. DPML (Domains Protected Marks List) blocks your trademark and related terms across hundreds of new gTLDs. AdultBlock covers .xxx, .sex, .porn, and .adult. GlobalBlock offers the broadest coverage: a bundled service that blocks your brand across 570+ top-level domains, including gTLDs and ccTLDs, in a single transaction.
What are the limits of domain blocking?
Domain blocking has a few limits. Blocks run for fixed terms of one to ten years and need renewal. They don’t remove domains registered before the block, and they don’t cover every extension. Moving a block from one domain to another can get complex. Used strategically, blocking strengthens your brand protection.
What is the difference between a gTLD, a new gTLD, and a ccTLD?
A gTLD is a generic extension such as .com, .org, or .net. New gTLDs are generic extensions that ICANN added through its 2012 round and later, such as .app, .blog, or .shop. A ccTLD is a country code extension, like .fr for France or .ca for Canada, which ties a website to a location.
What is a sunrise period for domains?
A sunrise period is the launch phase of a new top-level domain, when trademark holders register matching domains before the general public. To take part, you submit your trademarks to the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), which verifies your eligibility.
What is cybersquatting?
Cybersquatting means registering, using, or selling a domain name to profit from someone else’s trademark. Cybersquatters typically register similar or identical domains and use them for phishing, selling counterfeits, or diverting traffic away from the real brand.
Why do brands need domain blocking tools?
Brands need domain blocking tools because they stop unauthorized registrations before they happen, often for less than registering every variation of a name defensively. TMCH, DPML, and GlobalBlock protect your intellectual property and help prevent phishing and fraud.
Which domain extensions does DPML cover?
DPML covers more than 260 generic top-level domains, and DPML Plus extends that coverage to premium names. The supported list changes over time, so check the current list with your EBRAND expert before you rely on it.
How does GlobalBlock work?
GlobalBlock blocks your brand across more than 570 top-level domains, including gTLDs and ccTLDs, in a single transaction, so third parties can’t register those names. Its AutoCatch feature also gives you priority registration of infringing domains as soon as they become available again.
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