Choosing a domain name: extension, trademark, security

The domain name is the address of your website and your email: martin-bakery.com, dupont-practice.com. It ends up on your business cards, your shop window, your van, your Google profile. Changing it later means reprinting everything and telling everyone your new address.

So it is best to choose it carefully, register it in your name, and never lose it. Here is how, based on the recommendations of Afnic (the .fr registry), INPI (the French intellectual property office) and Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr.

A short name, which can be dictated without spelling it out

Afnic had the reading and typing of domain names tested. Its conclusions (2016):

• short names are read and typed faster, especially on a phone;
• hyphens slow down both reading and typing; if your name is long and you keep a hyphen, also take the version without it;
• an invented word reads as fast as a dictionary word, if it stays short.

Do the phone test: dictate your name to someone and see whether they write it right the first time. Homophones, double letters and numbers (“2” or “two”?) are traps.

The technical rules of the .fr are simple. A name has at most 63 characters, with letters, digits and the hyphen, with no hyphen at the start or the end (Afnic, naming policy 2026). Accented letters are allowed, but not everyone thinks of typing them: if your name contains any, also register the version without accents. Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr likewise advises registering the obvious variants of your name.

The .fr or the .com?

The .fr is the favorite extension of small French businesses: 62% of very small and small-to-medium businesses with a domain name chose the .fr first, against 33% for the .com (Afnic, 2026). It counts more than 4.5 million names, and says right away that you are in France.

It has its conditions. A person must reside in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland; a company must have its registered office or main establishment there. You must also provide accurate contact details and remain reachable for the whole life of the name. Afnic can check this information at any time, on its own or at a third party’s request: without supporting documents, the name is frozen, blocked, then deleted.

The .com sets no residence condition and is understood worldwide. For a small business, INPI considers that the .fr and the .com are generally enough. Registering both prevents someone else from taking the one you leave.

Checking trademarks before registering

A domain name goes to the first person who registers it, and gives no industrial property right. The registrar, the company that sells it to you, doesn’t check whether it copies someone else’s trademark or name (INPI). It is up to you to do so, before registering:

1. Search for the name in INPI’s Marques database, available online on data.inpi.fr. It covers French, European and international trademarks.
2. Search for it among company names and in a search engine, in your sector and your region.
3. If in doubt, INPI offers a more thorough search, which also finds similar names, from €50.
4. If your name is also your brand, think about filing it: Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr advises registering the name as a trademark with INPI, in addition to registering the domain.

A name that copies someone else’s trademark can be challenged. The holder of prior rights can go to court, or use faster procedures, such as Syreli for the .fr (INPI).

Registering it in your name

The holder is the person who has rights over the name. If an agency, a relative or your provider registers the domain for you, check that it is indeed registered in your name, or your company’s. Afnic is clear: a third-party administrative contact has no rights over the holder’s domain name.

Keep your access to the account at the registrar, and know where to find the “auth-info” code. It is what lets you transfer the name to another provider, at any time.

Renewing it on time

A domain name is registered for one to ten years. At expiry, the .fr registry renews it on its own, unless your registrar asks for its deletion. It may do so if it has had no contact with you before expiry, so as not to pay the fees in your place (Afnic).

A 30-day redemption period then opens, during which you can still recover it. After that, the name falls back into the public domain: the first person to ask for it gets it. Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr warns that a released domain can be taken over by a third party for malicious purposes. Afnic adds that recovering it can be expensive, especially if it ranked well.

To avoid this:

• turn on automatic renewal, and check before expiry that it doesn’t require any action from you;
• keep the contact email address and the registered bank card up to date;
• register for several years at once;
• note the expiry date in your calendar, with a reminder one month before.

Locking it

Domain name hijacking exists: it can redirect your visitors elsewhere or make your site unreachable (Afnic). Two protections reduce this risk:

• the registry lock, called .fr Lock for the .fr: no technical change to the name goes through without your authorization. All registrars accredited for the .fr can offer it;
• DNSSEC, a signature that guarantees the answers giving your site’s address haven’t been forged. Afnic and Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr both recommend it.

Finally, protect the account at your registrar like a bank account: a unique password and two-factor authentication, which Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr advises wherever it is possible.

In short: choose a short name, easy to dictate, in .fr, and in .com if possible. Check trademarks with INPI before registering, have the name registered in your name, turn on automatic renewal and the lock. A lost domain goes to the first person who asks for it.