When the BSA team attended INTA’s TMAP meeting in Berlin last year, much of the conversation around new TLDs and AI-driven domain abuse was anticipatory. The threat was real, but for many trademark professionals, it still felt like something on the horizon.
Twelve months later, things have shifted.
In 2025, 20 million domain names were used to launch more than 26 million cyber attacks. Malicious domain registrations are being made in bulk, with many becoming the basis for business email compromise and other abuse. No longer a far-off projection, these are the conditions in which trademark professionals are now operating.
A Broader Response
The good news is that the protective infrastructure available to brand owners has also grown. In the last six months alone, GlobalBlock has added 140 new domain extensions, bringing total coverage to 841 – including the world’s two largest ccTLDs, China’s .cn and Germany’s .de. That expansion means trademark professionals now have access to proactive protection across a greater share of the global domain landscape than has ever been possible, with more to follow before the end of the year.
For portfolios that have historically relied on defensive registrations alone, the coverage and cost arguments for complementing that approach with domain blocking have never been stronger.
ICANN Reveal Day is Looming
Perhaps the most significant development on the immediate horizon is October’s ‘reveal day,’ when ICANN will publish the applications received for the second round of new generic top-level domains – the first since 2012.
The window closed with more than 1,600 new TLD applications, a number expected to settle following application fee payments, community input, contention set resolution and other ICANN processes.
For the IP community, this is a pivotal moment. The published applications will give trademark professionals the first concrete picture of how many new extensions are coming, which sectors and markets they’ll target, and what the brand protection implications are likely to be. Those who think about strategy now will be in a stronger position than those who start planning after the fact.
Meet Us In Maryland
The BSA will be at INTA’s TMAP Meeting in Baltimore from September 27 to 29, and we’re looking forward to continuing these conversations with trademark professionals from across the U.S. and beyond. If you’re attending and would like to meet with our team, please reach out at hello [@] brandsafetyalliance [.] co.
Tony Kirsch
