What is domain blocking?

Domain blocking, also commonly known as trademark protection or defensive registration, refers to the practice of preventively registering a verified trademark across various domain extensions. This helps prevent the registration of these domain names by third parties, who can then use these domains for fraudulent purposes. 

As hundreds of new gTLDs entered the market in the 2010s, it has become harder to register a trademarked name with all new extensions manually and to keep track of these registrations. This is why specific “domain blocking” services have entered the market. These services “block” one domain name at once for tens or hundreds of extensions, meaning that your trademarked name is safe and that you do not have to worry about its unauthorized use. Of course, in case you decide you want to start using a blocked domain, the domain name will be released to you for your use.

Why use domain blocking?

As a trademark holder, you will want to prevent other people from registering your trademarked name with other domain extensions. However, it is a lot of work to manually register your trademarked name with the hundreds of new gTLDs on the market and to renew these domain names, year after year. A domain blocking service takes care of these registrations in bulk. It is also significantly cheaper than paying for all of these registrations separately.

Using domain blocks means saving yourself manual work while keeping your trademarked name safe.

Benefits of domain blocking 

Domain blocking is a powerful tool to protect your brand’s identity online. Its benefits include:

• Brand protection: By defensively registering domain names related to your trademarks, you prevent others from using your brand name in their domain names, protecting your brand identity and reputation online.

• Prevention of typosquatting: Typosquatting, where individuals register domain names related to well-known brands to use them for malicious purposes or sell them at inflated prices, is a significant threat. Domain blocking helps prevent this by registering all relevant domain names before typosquatters can.

• Reduce customer confusion: By controlling domain names that contain your trademarked name, you reduce the risk of customers being misled by similar or misspelled domain names that could redirect them to competitor or malicious websites.

• Control over your brand image: Owning various or all domain names related to your trademark gives you greater control over your online brand image. Besides parking them, you can also use these domains to your advantage by redirecting them to your main website or using them for specific marketing campaigns, new product launches, or customer service portals.

How does domain blocking work?

To register a domain block, you will need to have verified your trademark with the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH). The TMCH is a centralized database of registered trademarks within the domain industry. It is responsible for the verification of trademarks and for the storage of trademark information in a centralized database.

You can find the steps to register your trademark with the TMCH in this guide. You can either do this directly with the TMCH or through the domain registrar that you are working with, such as Openprovider.

After the TMCH has verified your trademark, you will be able to register domain blocks. Domain blocks are available exclusively at domain registrars, usually at those that cater to large, enterprise customers. You can’t order a domain block directly from the supplier. 

The registration process is slightly different for every registrar. To register a block at Openprovider, you have to open a support ticket and add the file you received from the Trademark Clearinghouse as an attachment. After submitting your ticket, our support team will contact you as soon as possible to set your order in motion.

It is possible to order multiple blocks at the same time. We even recommend this to enjoy the highest amount of coverage.

Who should use domain blocking?

Domain blocking is beneficial to any organization or individual interested in protecting their brand identity online. This includes businesses of all sizes, from startups to multinational corporations, across various industries. Non-profit organizations, celebrities, and public figures can also significantly benefit from this, as well as institutions like universities and government agencies.

How much does domain blocking cost?

The cost of a block depends on the particular block you purchase. At Openprovider, we offer seven domain blocking services at different prices.

• TMCH TREx: $299/year per label

• Donuts DPML: $6000 per five years

• Donuts DPML Plus: $12000 per ten years

• Uni EPS: $329/year

• Uni EPS+: $799/year

• AdultBlock: $299/year

• AdultBlock+: $549/year

TMCH TREx

TREx is a joint effort between the Trademark Clearinghouse and various registries. This block protects your verified trademark across 43 different new gTLDs, including a range of geographic TLDs. TREx blocks only exact matches of your verified trademark. There is no premium version of TREx available that covers additional labels.

TREx covers 43 extensions. These include 21 generic gTLDs: .beer, .casa, .college, .cooking, .earth, .fashion, .fishing, .fit, .garden, .horse, .moe, .rent, .rodeo, .surf, .tube, .vip, .vodka, .wedding, .work, .xyz, and yoga, as well as 22 geographic TLDs: .bayern, .boston, .capetown, .cat, .cologne, .de, .durban, .eus. .frl, .gal, .joburg, .koeln, .la, .london, .miami, .nrw, .osaka, .quebec, .ruhr, .scot, .tirol and .wien.

TREx blocks are billed yearly. The costs are $299 per year for one label.

Donuts DPML

Donuts DPML is a protective service by Identity Digital (formerly called Donuts Registry), one of the largest registries in the world. This block protects your trademarked name across more than 200 different new gTLDs. DPML also includes protection against homographs and Unicode IDN variants. Their premium service, DPML Plus, includes three additional labels (such as common misspellings) and premium domain names within its price.

Donuts DPML covers the following 240 extensions: .academy, .accountants, .actor, .agency, .airforce, .apartments, .army, .associates, .attorney, .auction, .band, .bargains, .bike, .bingo, .boutique, .builders, .business, .cab, .cafe, .camera, .camp, .capital, .cards, .care, .careers, .cash, .casino, .catering, .center, .charity, .chat, .cheap, .church, .city, .claims, .cleaning, .clinic, .clothing, .coach, .codes, .coffee, .community, .company, .computer, .condos, .construction, .consulting, .contractors, .cool, .coupons, .credit, .creditcard, .cruises, .dance, .dating, .deals, .degree, .delivery, .democrat, .dental, .dentist, .diamonds, .digital, .direct, .directory, .discount, .doctor, .dog, .domains, .education, .email, .energy, .engineer, .engineering, .enterprises, .equipment, .estate, .events, .exchange, .expert, .exposed, .express, .fail, .family, .fan, .farm, .finance, .financial, .fish, .fitness, .flights, .florist, .football, .forsale, .foundation, .fund, .furniture, .futbol, .fyi, .gallery, .games, .gifts, .gives, .glass, .gmbh, .gold, .golf, .graphics, .gratis, .gripe, .group, .guide, .guru, .haus, .healthcare, .hockey, .holdings, .holiday, .hospital, .house, .immo, .immobilien, .industries, .institute, .insure, .international, .investments, .irish, .jewelry, .kaufen, .kitchen, .land, .lawyer, .lease, .legal, .life, .lighting, .limited, .limo, .live, .loans, .ltd, .maison, .management, .market, .marketing, .mba, .media, .memorial, .moda, .money, .mortgage, .movie, .navy, .network, .news, .ninja, .partners, .parts, .photography, .photos, .pictures, .pizza, .place, .plumbing, .plus, .productions, .properties, .pub, .recipes, .rehab, .reise, .reisen, .rentals, .repair, .report, .republican, .restaurant, .reviews, .rip, .rocks, .run, .sale, .salon, .sarl, .school, .schule, .services, .shoes, .shopping, .show, .singles, .soccer, .social, .software, .solar, .solutions, .studio, .style, .supplies, .supply, .support, .surgery, .systems, .tax, .taxi, .team, .technology, .tennis, .theater, .tienda, .tips, .tires, .today, .tools, .tours, .town, .toys, .training, .travel, .university, .vacations, .ventures, .vet, .viajes, .video, .villas, .vin, .vision, .voyage, .watch, .wine, .world, .works, .wtf, .zone, .企业, ..商店, ..娱乐 and .游戏.

Donuts DPML blocks are billed every five years. The price for the regular block is $6000 for five years. The DPML+ block, which includes three additional labels and premium domains, is billed every 10 years and comes at the price of $12000 for 10 years.

Uni EPS

The Uni EPS block is offered by registry UNR (formerly Uniregistry). This block protects your trademarked name across this registry’s 10 new GTLDs. UNR also offers a premium service called Uni EPS+, which includes all Unicode IDN variants and additional labels from the SMD file within its price. Both the regular and the premium block cover premium domain extensions.

The Uni EPS block covers the following 10 extensions: .click, .country, .gift, .help, .hiphop, .hiv, .juegos, .link, .sexy and .tattoo.

Uni EPS and Uni EPS+ are billed yearly. The price for the regular block is $329 per year, while you can get all the benefits of the premium block for $799 per year.

AdultBlock

AdultBlock protects your trademark across four different extensions used by the adult industry. Besides verified trademarks at the TMCH, this block is also available to holders of unverified trademarks and celebrities. AdultBlock’s premium service, AdultBlock+, also includes Unicode IDN variants and additional labels from the SMD file.

AdultBlock covers the following 4 extensions: .xxx, .adult, .porn and .sex.

AdultBlock is billed yearly. The regular block costs $299 per year, while the premium block comes in at $549 per year.

Ready to register your domain block? Open a support ticket to order your blocks today. Our support experts are also happy to help you with any additional questions about blocks!