Brand owners unaware that the first New gTLDs have recently launched

Reed Smith, an international law firm, wrote an article on the upcoming explosion in the number of global top-level domains (“gTLDs”). They believe that the vast majority of the public, and even the majority of brand owners, is unaware that the first new gTLDs have recently launched.

They then present a report on the .BIKE New gTLD launch. There are approximately 150 brands of bicycles in the United States (according to the National Bicycle Dealer Association), but most of these brands are relatively small.

Reed Smith searched to see if the top 20 bike brands in the US registered their .bike domain name and if not who did.

The results show that of the 20 brands selected for the study all 20 were registered as domain names in .BIKE. However, only 4 of the 20 brands have clearly been registered by the actual brand owner: GIANT.BIKE, JAMIS.BIKE, KESTREL.BIKE, TREK.BIKE. Three domains are reserved by the registry Donuts: FUJI.BIKE, HARO.BIKE, SCOTT.BIKE (not part of DPML).

The other 13 are all being held by third parties who seemingly have no relation to the brand owner, quite possibly cybersquatters.

Most bicycle brands either were not aware of the .BIKE launch or did not take protective steps to prevent potential cybersquatting once the launch occurred.

Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

4 comments

  1. Zournas,

    The issue you raise here presents an opportunity for someone to provide a service that would allow anyone to search all gTLDs; and I have a domain name if they want it:

    SearchAllgTLDs.com

    Can be purchased from iGotMineOnline.com

  2. Registrations like that will only push generic domain investors reputations down, down, down with the cyberskids. Mentioning you “invest” in domains may be harmful to our health in a real way……
    Rick should put up a “Cybersquatter Hall of Shame” for these pinheads.

  3. The vast majority is unaware of new gtlds? I agree, it will take a while to get mainstream, who knows how long.

  4. It’s not that they are unaware. It’s that they do not care.

    The gtld’s are and will continue to be a total dud.

    Don’t let your .com’s lapse.

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