Website Domains
Strategy
Websites are an essential part of modern communication. An effective domain naming strategy helps people find information about Bayer, its business areas and products.
Domain names are subject to the provisions of trademark and competition law. Trademark disputes may arise when a domain name is reserved that conflicts with older intellectual property rights.
It is essential that Bayer, on the one hand, protect its own trademark rights from unauthorized use by third parties and, on the other, ensure that the rights of third parties are not infringed through reservation and use of domain names by Bayer. As such, Bayer must at all times be the registered owner of all its domain names.
The domain naming strategy provides Bayer with a systematic, customer-oriented structure for naming domains, thus embodying Bayer's branding strategy of strengthening product brands and allying them with the umbrella brand on the web. All domain names have to follow these guidelines with the aim of clearly defining each site either as:
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a Bayer website,
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a Bayer product website, or
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a topic or campaign website related to Bayer
and so enabling users to find and remember Bayer sites easily. In addition, such a clear strategy also improves the visibility of Bayer's websites to search engines.
Domains may only be registered for Bayer websites and not for other media such as social media channels.
The basic rules for domain naming cover corporate, business area websites, product websites and topic and campaign websites. They also include rules for technical domains.
Effective management of domain names for the internet and intranet requires:
- A standard registration process
- Unambiguous, responsible and continuous ownership of domains by the relevant Bayer company
- Monitoring of domain renewal and expiry
- Competent handling of associated legal and trademark issues
The Domain Registration Process
The process is documented in directive 'Domain Management' (link available only on the Bayer Intranet).
Possible domain names should be considered and requested as soon as the idea for a trademark or a specific campaign starts to evolve. Valuable names and especially common phrases are often already registered by other parties in the hope of being sold later for a big profit. Failing to check on the availability of domain names sufficiently in advance carries the risk that the domains may have already been registered, or are even in use. The Domain Name Management Team can help reduce this risk by checking on the availability of any desired domain name.
Domain Name Management Team
According to the directive 'Domain Management' (link available only on the Bayer intranet), the Domain Name Management Team is charged with the management of internet domain names such as ordering and renewal, DNS configuration and maintenance of a central database of all Bayer internet domain names.
Legal Issues
For trademark and related issues please contact Petra Luh at the Global Trademark Center, petra.luh@bayer.com.
Domain Name Spam
Domain name spam refers to e-mails from external companies encouraging the registration of domains to protect intellectual property rights.
Domains for all business areas, corporate functions, business services and affiliate companies must be registered and managed using MIRA. The costs incurred are charged centrally. The costs for design, development and technical implementation remain the sole responsibility of the website owner.
Register or manage an internet domain using MIRA. Before you can register any domain with MIRA you must already have been approved to do so. General inquiries about domains should be addressed to Domain Management Support.
Domain Registration and Change Requests
For intranet domains please refer to the intranet domain strategy.
Basic Rules
Domain names should be unambiguous, intuitively related to the content and easy to remember and communicate. When using multiple words, it is best to use hyphens to be more legible.
Domains which use "bayer" or "bay" with other words to coin new names are not allowed because they dilute the Bayer brand. For example, baydoc.com or bayer-checkup.com are not suitable domains. The only exceptions to this are campaign slogans which include "Bayer" that have been approved by Corporate Branding.
Existing domains that are not yet owned by Bayer must be transferred to Bayer.
Domains should be of the form bayer.[tld], (bayer.co.[tld] or bayer.com.[tld] in some countries such as Britain, Brazil or Japan)
The Bayer brand strategy avoids the public presentation of organizational structure.
Bayer brands are registered as trademarks and, thus, protected against infringement under the provisions of trademark law. Domain name registration plays an important role in increasing brand recognition and awareness. This can also prevent damage to Bayer's trademarks incurred through domain squatting by third parties.
Strong brands such as Aspirin™, Adalat™ and Confidor™ may have their own relevant global and regional domains:
- [domain].[tld]
- aspirin.com, aspirin.de
- bepanthen.com, bepanthen.nl
- adalat.com, adalat.br
Product sites can also be registered as subdomains of the relevant Bayer domain in the form of [subdomain].bayer.[tld]:
- aspirin.bayer.[tld]
- bepanthen.bayer.[tld]
- adalat.bayer.[tld]
In accordance with the design rules, topic or campaign sites should follow either the corporate naming strategy for corporate topics, or the product naming strategy for product campaigns.
Corporate topics
- [subdomain].bayer.[tld]
- career.bayer.com
- research.bayer.com
- animalstudies.bayer.com
Product campaign
- [product or campaign].[tld]
Also, campaign sites can be registered as subdomains of the relevant Bayer domain in the form of [subdomain].bayer.[tld].
Sometimes intranet websites must be hosted externally, or even accessible for external users. These websites require special domain names.
Internal Websites, Externally Hosted
Some Bayer websites must be hosted on Bayer’s private cloud, even though they are for internal use only. Domains for these websites are always of the form [name].int.bayer.com.
Examples
awards.int.bayer.com
youniverse.int.bayer.com
Intranet Websites, Externally Accessible
Occasionally, an intranet website needs to be available to external users. Such cases are referred to as “joint domains” because they have the same name for internet and intranet users. In practice, these might be physically separate servers. All such sites must be registered as subdomains of bayer.biz.
Applications that are designed to run in the browser should have a descriptive name. The actual domain name depends upon the hosting environment; please refer to the appropriate category above.
It is occasionally necessary to use domains for technical purposes such as mail servers, test servers, database services, logging, etc. As these names are never to be used in a browser, non-descriptive names should be used.
Examples
nvppa10.bayer.ch
p-xyz.bayer.com
When working on a new project or product, it is sometimes advisable to register related or similar domains beyond the one(s) following the basic rules listed above. This is known as “defensive registration” and is intended to prevent third parties from registering such domains themselves for disruptive or abusive purposes.
However, if you decide that some defensive registration is required, you should also follow the principle that “less is more.” Consider carefully the countries and audiences you will be targeting and do not try to register every possible combination. In particular, do not register subdomains of an existing Bayer property, as no third party is able to do this.
Websites can be configured to work with multiple domains with and without “www.” Ideally, one domain “www” should be configured as the canonical domain name: the one to which all aliases redirect to. With this approach, whichever alias domain people use, the browser will always show the canonical domain. This also avoids potential issues with search engines and cookies.
It is not permitted to use frames, meta-redirects or other client-side redirects when configuring multiple domains for a single website.
What does [tld] mean?
TLD means top-level domain, e.g., .com or .de
Domains must not be registered for social media channels. Please refer to Social Media Channel Approval & Setup for any social media questions.
Domain Management Officers
Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Health
e.g., pharma.bayer.fr, aspirina.com.br
E-mail: beat@bayer.com
Crop Science
e.g., cropscience.bayer.com.cn
Contact: Tabea Bahlke
E-mail: tabea.bahlke@bayer.com
Corporate Functions & Countries
e.g., bayer.com.tw, bayer.mx, ambiente.bayer.it
Contact: Joachim Behr
Phone:+49 214 30 58547
E-mail: joachim.behr@bayer.com
Andreas Holger Gatzen
Phone: +49 175 3014923
E-mail: andreas-holger.gatzen@bayer.com
Bayer Intellectual Property
Corporate Trademarks
Petra Luh
Legal Counsel
Phone: +49 2173 386362
E-mail: petra.luh@Bayer.com