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III. Types of Intellectual Property
Domain Name
A domain name is a user friendly Internet address commonly used to find a website. Domain Names often contain trademarks and company names and assist an organisation to promote its brand identity.
Domain names can also be formed of generic words (e.g. chocolate), which are very valuable because they can attract new consumers to learn about your products.
Domain names may be registered at a generic top level (gTLD) which consists of the well known .com as well as other new generic and geographical names such as .london, .international, .online or at country level (ccTLD) where a two letter code is used to de- signate a speci c country, e.g. .ch, .fr .br. The latest developments allow also the use of a company name or trademark as a gTLD.
Non-Latin characters can also be used to form Do- main Names. These are the so-called internationa- lized domain names (IDN), e.g. Chinese, Arabic or special characters.
Like trademarks, domain names have an indefinite span of life if timely renewed.
lindt.com lindt-hello.com nicetosweetyou.com ghirardelli.shop lindt.swiss
Generic Top Level Domains (gTLD):
lindt.de caffarel.it
Country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD):
lindt-sprüngli.com ЛЛЛЛЛЛ.ru (=lindor.ru in Cyrillic characters)
Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)
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WHAT IS A... ?
Key Take-Aways
• Several types of rights exist to protect IP
• The combination and interplay of several IP rights form a shield of defence for our valuable products and brands
• Trademarks protect the distinguishing features of the branding
• Industrial designs protect the ornamental and aesthetic aspects of a product
Key Take-Aways
• Copyright protects the originality of a work
• Patents protect technical inventions
• Trade secrets protect confidential information
• Domain Names are user friendly internet addresses
• Geographical indications protect characteristics of a product attributable to its geographic origin