Abstract
This chapter examines the role of trade marks in the creation of brand portfolios online, including internet addresses or domain names. It first provides an overview of branding and trade marks in the global business environment, trade mark characteristics, and the distinction between registered and unregistered trade marks, and then looks at domain names as address tools and brand identifiers. The chapter also considers early disputes over rightful ownership of trade marks and domain names, examining the development of cybersquatting case law before the UK and US courts. It discusses the allocation of new generic top-level domains under the New gTLD procedure and examines the legal safeguards for trade mark holders under the procedure. The primary focus of the chapter is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy and its domestic counterpart in the UK, the Nominet Dispute Resolution Service.
