Fidal, the largest lawfirm in France,  put out the results of a very detailed survey on new gtlds and how brands are using them.

They conducted a survey that delved into a lot of topics that brands face when dealing with the new namespace.

I read the whole report and I think it is well worth your time to take a look at and bookmark to refer back to.

From the report:

A large majority of the surveyed companies (64.9%) say they are informed about the launch of several hundred new top-level domain names.

However, 57.4% admit not having assessed the risks related to this launch, the most significant of which being cybersquatting. Also, 95% of the survey participants admitted not having carried out an audit on this subject.

85% of the companies surveyed have not set up any monitoring to detect online infringement of their trademarks. In the current context of the massive launch of new domain names, not using a trademark monitoring tool is a sizeable risk factor for businesses, particularly in detecting fraudulent reservations by third parties.

Lastly, in the event of a dispute, 56.1% of the companies declared they would prefer an amicable transfer, as this solution has the advantage of retrieving the domain names registered fraudulently more quickly and at a lower cost.

In 26.3% of cases, the companies opt for legal action or extrajudicial action such as UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution).

About the survey

255 companies took part in the survey during the first half of 2014 and answered a series of 18 questions

Over 35% of the surveyed companies operate in the services industry (mainly B2B), followed by the retail (19.1%) and manufacturing (17.9%) sectors (excluding the food industry).

It is interesting to note the participation of companies in the construction/real estate (6.8%) and food (5.6%) sectors, which reflects the general trend of developing online communications across all industry sectors and aimed at all target customers.

55% of participants are from companies with less than 49 employees, whereas 45% come from companies with over 50 employees,

They asked 16 questions which you can read in the full report here.

About FIDAL

With 1,400 lawyers in France and partner firms in 150 countries, FIDAL is the no. 1 business law firm in France in terms of size and revenue* and the leading French law firm in the top 100 worldwide.FIDAL’s lawyers advise 80,000 companies and organizations of all sizes. FIDAL reported €322.6 million in revenue in 2013.