GlobalBlock provides new options for domain blocking

Brand Safety Alliance has launched a unified domain name blocking service to offer brands a broader method of online IP protection, explains Nicole DelleDonne of GoDaddy Corporate Domains.

As one of GoDaddy’s constellation of companies, GoDaddy Corporate Domains (GCD) is keenly interested in how its sister businesses contribute to the industry. In partnership with several industry leaders, GoDaddy Registry launched the Brand Safety Alliance (BSA) in June 2023. Two years in the making, BSA focuses on helping businesses simplify and improve the protection of their brand online through a consolidated domain blocking service, with the aim of reducing both time and cost.

So far, many generic top-level domain (gTLDs) and country code TLD (ccTLD) operators across the globe have partnered with BSA to offer their domain extensions as part of the blocking service that will help protect a company’s trademarks online.

Excited to support innovations like GlobalBlock, on December 14, 2023, GCD hosted a webinar with two members from BSA: Tony Kirsch and Ben Anderson of GoDaddy Registry. They provided insights about the impending release of BSA’s GlobalBlock, which officially launched on February 29, 2024, to provide more scalable domain blocking for larger organisations.

Decades of TLD expansion = complexity
Since the internet was commercialised in the late 1990s, there has been a consistent expansion in TLDs (also known as domain extensions). Beyond .com and .net, and the hundreds of country code extensions, there are also thousands of generic extensions available, such as .shop, .reviews, .club, and so on, with more coming when the next round of new gTLDs is expected to open in 2026. This growth has become even more complex as Web3 identities gain popularity, causing brands to navigate even more TLD opportunities.

While many suggest that more TLDs are valuable to consumers and local populations, they also create new opportunities for bad actors to register domain names maliciously. Brand owners today are forced to navigate their own business needs with a myriad of prices, policies, terms, and protection mechanisms across these TLDs to protect their trademarks.
Participating in this complex online world is challenging for brand owners based on the cost, technology, and external partnerships required to manage a domain programme effectively. Multiply these factors across thousands of domain name extensions, and the complexity and cost levels become exponential.

Domain blocking—ripe for simplification

Domain blocking has historically provided brand owners with a more affordable and effective mechanism to protect their primary trademarks in the domain space. Instead of registering defensive domains, authorised brand owners can use domain blocking to prevent unauthorised registration of specific names. While domain blocking is not new, previous blocking services were limited in their coverage of TLDs, protecting only extensions that any one registry managed.

Enter GlobalBlock—a new approach to domain blocking
BSA’s GlobalBlock offers a more unified domain name-blocking service that covers a wide range of gTLDs, ccTLDs, and Web3 extensions across many registries. It allows brand owners to help protect variants of their trademarks more holistically.
GlobalBlock stands out for its innovation in combining services from GoDaddy’s industry partners and registries to deliver domain blocking protection. GlobalBlock Standard protects exact match names across all TLDs included, while GlobalBlock+ adds broader protections to include look-a-like variations of a trademark.

Picking up dropped domains 24/7
GlobalBlock delivers additional value with Priority AutoCatch, a service that automatically adds a domain name that becomes available to the brand owner’s account at no charge. This can be a substantial saving, even if you only catch a few domains yearly, and prevents bad actors from grabbing a name first. This service also preserves any domain that matches the client’s brand if it is accidentally deleted or inadvertently allowed to expire.

Launch timeline—selective participation encouraged
BSA’s GlobalBlock Early Access Program launched on January 31, 2024, with over 500 TLDs and popular third-level extensions. General availability of GlobalBlock launched on February 29, 2024.

GCD began providing both GlobalBlock products to our customers on January 31, 2024. As an enterprise-focused registrar, GCD facilitates the optimal promotion and protection of our clients’ brands. This is paramount to everything we do. GlobalBlock provides a new avenue for us to help clients achieve these goals with the optimal scale, efficiency, and flexibility available.

GCD is partnering with our clients to guide them through GlobalBlock and where to implement it as an additional tool for their brand protection strategies. Visit gcd.com to see how this programme can work for you and to schedule a consultation with our team.

Nicole DelleDonne is senior director, sales, at GoDaddy Corporate Domains, GoDaddy’s enterprise-focused domain registrar delivering advanced domain management technology and unparalleled customer service to corporate clients.

With 12 years of direct industry experience, she has worked with some of the world’s most valuable brands to implement domain management solutions designed to protect and promote their businesses online. She can be contacted at nicole@gcd.com