How to protect your online brand against cybersquatters

The potential for cybersquatting has grown since the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - the international body responsible for co-ordinating all these addresses - began issuing hundreds of new generic top level domains (gTLDs), such as .xyz, and .nyc, as well as controversial ones like .sucks and .porn.

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So how do you protect your brand online?
Registering it as a trademark is a good first step as it gives you more rights over related web addresses.
Under ICANN's Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) rules, a domain registry must provide a "sunrise period," during which trademarked brands registered in the TMCH can buy domains before they are publicly available.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34792296