With MarkMonitor’s “Brandjacking Index” pointing to an 18% increase in cybersquatting activities over 2008, it is more critical than ever that that businesses and organizations protect their trademarks and brands. With the Landrush Registration period for .TEL closing in five days, trademark and brand owners risk seeing variants of their names snapped up in general registration

The premium fees that were applied during the public Landrush registration period to dissuade domain squatters from buying .TEL domains for resale purposes will drop by 90% on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. General Registration will see registration fees fall from nearly $400 USD to approximately $20 USD at many participating registrars.

The Sunrise registration period was reserved for Trademark owners and allowed them exclusive rights to protect their trademark names. The first-come, first-served Landrush registration period has been designed to allow anyone to apply early for brand oriented names not protected by a trademark, as well as premium names.

With the floodgates opening on .TEL next Tuesday, businesses and organizations might want to act now to ensure they control important .TEL domains related to their initiatives. While all businesses risk losing important variations of their primary domain names by neglecting to register them, it is typically high-traffic, high profile companies or organizations that are targeted.

Even if trademark laws are on your side, the Landrush registration fee is probably a bargain when compared to costs of legally wresting your domain back from a cybersquatter. The cheapest and easiest method to protecting your trademarks and variants online is to register your domains before someone else does.

Businesses and organizations should also consider registering variations of their trademarks and brands including: common misspellings and/or typos, plurals and singulars.

Register .TEL names during Landrush, or Pre-book .TEL names risk free for General Registration with an official .TEL registrar.