Domain monitoring

Why domain monitoring?

Through our domain monitoring service, you are kept up-to-date if an already registered, existing domain is taken into service. That is, if it becomes active and, for example, starts sending fraudulent emails. We are saying that you can keep track of when a domain becomes weaponized.

It may be that at the time you discover a registered domain name you don’t see any threat or don’t legally have sufficient grounds to take legal action. But the threat can quickly change and a domain that one day appeared to be dormant can next day become an active domain that starts sending out emails or the like.

We fully understand that if you don’t see a direct threat from a registered domain that you are also unwilling to initiate a litigation process. Then it may be smarter to monitor a domain, which is inexpensive, and the moment the domain starts to be used you can reassess whether it has now become a threat or not and then act accordingly.

More specifically you will have control over

• When changes occur on a website’s front page
• If the domain changes information in WHOIS. For example, changes owner, registrar, or DNS
• Changes that occur in the zone file on the DNS associated with a domain. For example, if mail servers are added or if an IP address is entered, etc.

Taking action

Monitoring is just one of several available tools for detecting domain name infringement.  It is also the cheapest option, apart from taking no action whatsoever. In general, it can be said that if you detect an infringement you have the following options: do nothing, monitor, snapback/backorder, dispute, or acquisition, where acquisition is usually the most expensive option.

If, upon detecting domain infringement that you consider to be a threat to the trademark, you decide to build a legal case, the service is structured in such a way that screenshots of the home page of that domain name are automatically taken daily. This is done on an ongoing basis as soon as something changes. In other words, if another party sets up a website that in some way infringes a trademark, we have automatically saved the evidence which in turn creates the optimal conditions in a judicial process.

The service can also be a tool from a technical perspective, where we monitor whether e-mail starts to be sent from the domain or if registrar or owner information changes.   

The difference between Domain watch and Domain monitoring

Domain watch - keeps an eye open for new domain registrations
With domain watch, we keep an eye on new domains registered that may be confusingly similar or identical to yours. For example, it can be a misspelling or similar wording to yours.

Domain monitoring - monitors already registered domains 
With domain monitoring, we monitor daily if something starts to happen on a specific, already registered domain. If the domain suddenly becomes active and starts publishing on its website or starts to be activated to send out emails.

Domain watch hits in Abion Core

In the customer portal, Abion Core, you as a customer can see the domain watch hits that are received during domain watch and monitoring. When the system gets a hit, you as a customer can export the results of any hits and personally flag them as a risk in the system. Afterwards, you have the option to click on a domain watch hit and order monitoring (or a domain investigation). So a direct order will be sent to our administrators. This means that you, as a customer, have the opportunity to interact in the customer platform and personally review the domain watch hits/infringements.