Press release and ICANN Meeting, New gTLD topics

It has been longer than usual since our last blog, the reason being the many activities regarding ISSCIO.com that we have been doing.

To begin with, ISSCIO.com was announced in Japan through a press release to our colleges, partners and clients. Immediately after the press release we experienced a spike in visits to the site, as expected. But what is more importent, many of our clients and partners are now enquiring about the site when we visit them. They want to know more about it, its potential as a communication tool and the ways to get involved. It may take some time until everybody "gets" ISSCIO.com, but surely we are heading in that direction.

We also had the chance to introduce ISSCIO.com to some participants of the 39th ICANN meeting in Cartagena, Colombia. Most of them were Top Level Domain (TLD) registries and some registrars, meaning that many Domain Name topics will get information directly from the source.

Additionally, in the ICANN event we had the chance to meet with many potential New gTLDs (which were one of the main "attractions" of the meeting). New gTLD initiatives are expected to be launching once the program starts and will revolutionize the domain name space, today limited to .com and other few generic TLD and country code TLDs (like .jp).

From an Intellectual Property perspective, many new TLDs means that trademark holders do have to know how to protect their rights in every one of them. Thus knowing in advance what each New gTLD initiative has planned for trademark protection mechanisms is very useful information. Therefore, from this month we are adding New gTLD topics to ISSCIO.com, like DotXXX (.xxx) or DotFree (.free). More important we are contacting directly the people behind each initiative to help us complete the information in each topic. So please keep visiting ISSCIO.com to be up to date with these New gTLDs.

Finally, let me wish everybody in the ISSCIO.com community a happy holiday season. We also would like to thank you for your support and for helping us make ISSCIO.com community a little better every day. Let that continue next year.

Best wishes,

Lucas Vall
General Manager

Good news for ISSCIO.com community

ISSCIO.com is everyday looking like a better portal for Intellectual Property thanks to an ever growing expert directory (more than 150 firms now) and great content. On top of that, as I hinted in last blog, we have much good news coming this way that will take ISSCIO.com to the next stage.

First, Ms. Olga Yevetska has joined me in the ISSCIO.com project team. This will allow us to develop a better site and improve the relationship with experts and users, something that is always a priority.

Second, and if you have been visiting the site in the last week you may have noted, we have made some design adjustments. We gave more space for information and less for navigation, and we put the log in and sign up buttons in a better location. On top of that we remade the homepage. Also we have fixed some bugs when using older browsers, even thou we still recommend browsers such us Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. These seem small changes (and some too in the tech side) but we believe will improve the experience of using ISSCIO.com.

Finally, important news comes from our funding company, Brights Consulting Inc. Now that the site has starting to gain momentum, our parent company will start making a more intensive use of ISSCIO.com. From tomorrow we are going to start posting questions in the Q&A section as Brights Consulting Inc. to engage experts directly through the site. Moreover, other company systems (used by our clients) will start using ISSCIO.com as reference for information and will heavily link to the site. Last, and this is very important news, we have decided that ISSCIO.com has reached a point where it can be introduced to the Intellectual Property Community in Japan. Therefore Brights Consulting Inc. will announce the site to thousands of IP specialist within Japanese companies by November 25th. This is, needless to say, a great opportunity for all experts in ISSCIO.com. Thus we encourage them to update their profiles and to contribute to topics information (and questions) to gain more visibility.

With all these good news is exciting time for ISSCIO.com and it means, no doubt, that the site will become an even better portal for Intellectual Property.

Lucas Vall
General Manager

A critical mass of content and a new phase

NOTE: It has been about 1 month a half since my last blog: sorry but holidays, earthquakes and the like has delayed this monthly blog.

Since day one I have always talked about content and making ISSCIO.com useful (that also applies to many websites). As a matter of fact, we worked hard for the site to have a critical mass in terms of content. Without this critical mass the site would appear empty, users won’t come or if they do come they won’t return, search results won’t show the site and so on. Therefore it has always been important to create information and provide experts and law firms.

Today there are over 110 listed experts, not only IP law firms but also Domain Name registries and consulting firms. If that number does not seem that large, you may also consider that these 110 experts are from over 70 different countries. I have added a map to show how diverse the locations of the experts are. ISSCIO.com is indeed a great place to start when you are looking at intellectual property all around the globe.


We also have more that 60 topics that have some information and that are already indexed in search results on the Internet. The more complete topics are more popular and thus we always encourage experts to add as much information as possible. But with such a range of diverse topics even experts use ISSCIO.com as reference.

Looking at ISSCIO.com achievements in terms of experts and topics we think we have reached the critical mass needed to move forward; moving forward in terms of starting to actively show the web site to professionals in Intellectual Property, dedicated websites, blogs and many other audiences that would definitely find ISSCIO.com useful. We are not a web site that will become viral and growth 1000% overnight. We are indeed a very specific web site targeting a small yet important market. However stay around because in this new phase we believe ISSCIO.com will start to grow more rapidly and be more useful both to experts and users.

Lucas Vall
General Manager

About professional directories, Internet content and ISSCIO.com lists

ISSCIO.com is getting better and better by the day. We surpassed the 50 experts mark, over 30 topics have been edited and we are getting more new additions all the time. But better than that the site is starting to be useful to Internet users looking for information thanks to the content provided by the experts. Indeed, thanks to Google many users have come looking for things like “trademark renewals spain”, “indonesia trademark opposition” or “registration and protection of collective trade marks in Tanzania” (wow!).

The site is indeed growing and now many more experts are added every day into our Expert list. ISSCIO.com, like many professional directories, has a list of experts where you can find an IP lawyer firm in many countries. This is indeed a very useful function for users that are looking for a lawyer in a specific country. For lawyers’ firms it is a chance to be listed and make their profile available to Internet users. They can even add their logo, for free (not like other directories). Moreover, they can even have a link back to their web page (great for SEO!).

But, and I think I have said this before, ISSCIO.com is much more than just lists of Experts. ISSCIO.com provides content, and with content, lists of experts that are knowledgeable about it and have proven so by providing that information. These expert lawyers’ firms are not only listed in the Expert list, but also in TOP EXPERTS, right in the same page with the information. TOP EXPERTS are part of the content (in other words, “Information & experts in one page”).

Why do we have TOP EXPERTS? Very simple: this way ISSCIO.com can rank experts based on their participation, and can list experts according to their expertise. This way ISSCIO.com promotes participation and creation of up to date and accurate information.
And you may ask, why would we want to have this information? Very simple: most users do not look for a lawyer, they look for information, and then for an expert lawyer. Well, with information and TOP EXPERTS in one page, a topic page contains all a user needs. That is why ISSCIO.com, and its content, are more than a simple professional list.

There is one final point I would like to make about content: topics are freely created, meaning that experts can add or delete information at will.
We have added some guideline questions to simplify edition but experts could also freely add links to a newsletter (even their own), news sources, or an interesting blog related to the topic. This is another way ISSCIO.com can become a very useful tool for the IP community.

Lucas Vall
General Manager

Good contributions and Google rankings

Since we started with ISSCIO.com we have concentrated our efforts on making the web site useful. We have come up with a system for contribution that actually allows you to see what each expert has added. On top of that we have designed a completely new rating system, both for topics and for questions, which encourages contribution and accuracy. Moreover, we added other features like the dashboard, follow topics and investing points. However, at the end of day, what makes a web site like ISSCIO.com useful is the information that it contains.

Indeed ISSCIO.com is developing little by little and starting to contain very useful information. This makes the site useful as reference when it comes to issues like trademarks in different countries. In addition to this reference data, it provides another important kind of information: lawyers that you can contact in those countries. This makes the site even more appealing to people that have to manage intellectual property and need to contact experts on the spot.

But the great news today is how that useful information has translated in to something very important for a web site: internet rankings. The first topics on ISSCIO.com, such as TM:Cyprus or TM:Turkey, today rank in the top page in google.com search results for keywords like “TM Cyprus” and “TM Turkey”. This means that this useful information is easier to find and already companies are coming to the site because of this.

Rankings are possible thanks to the content of those topics and the lawyers that contribute to them. The ISSCIO.com team would like to thank them and at the same time encourage other experts to contribute useful information. By doing so not only do they make the web site more useful but they get to be connected with more and more people that are looking for their services.

Lucas Vall
General Manager

INTA Meeting and first editions

Last week we took ISSCIO to the INTA 132nd Annual Meeting. Boston was a great host city; the weather was a little hotter than expected but nevertheless we were able to enjoy the city’s charming architecture and famous universities.

Mr. Kengo Matsumoto and myself participated as members of Brights Consulting Inc. It was a great chance to introduce ISSCIO (http://isscio.com) to partners and participating lawyers. In total we introduced the site to over 130 experts. These explanations included half day sessions at the Seaport Hotel during which we explained in more detail about the concept behind ISSCIO and invited lawyers to participate. In this way ISSCIO was “officially” launched within the expert community.

The reception from the lawyers who attended was great. The majority showed interest in participating as experts and even some logged in during Boston, despite their hectic schedules. We look forward to seeing them as experts in ISSCIO. We also received great feedback and questions that will definitely help us to make a better ISSCIO.

For those experts who could not come to the presentations, or that we did not have the chance to meet during INTA, we invite you to join ISSCIO. It’s free and it is a great way for companies around the globe to find you and your firm.

There have also been some more exciting developments in the last few weeks. We started to receive topic editions from expert firms. Topics such as Trademarks in Cyprus, Peru, Brazil and Turkey are already filled with great information. These topics have become a great starting point of reference for any firm looking to, for example, register a trademark in those jurisdictions as well as way to find experts to assist them.

This, in addition to the interest from lawyers during INTA Meeting, has given us confidence that ISSCIO is starting to move in the right direction. Indeed, we expect that during the next few months more content and law firms are going to be added to the site. These are the first steps to make ISSCIO a great portal to assist companies to do business around the globe and to find local experts.

Lucas Vall
General Manager

ISSCIO presentations during INTA 132nd Meeting

We are still in the process of recruiting experts to help in the initial stages of editing content. It has been a slow start as in many Internet communities. Additions are not happening. However many experts have shown great interest, logged in and agreed to participate. Indeed we are confident once one addition comes, others will follow.

Moreover, we have made it easy for experts to edit a topic. Each topic has guideline questions as reference. An expert can answer them easily. Of course as experts you are not required to answer all questions. You can even delete the questions you think are not necessary. Also, you can add your own content freely. By adding some simple words you could be listed.

Being listed as expert in ISSCIO is different. If you are a law firm, for example, and you google your firm name, you can see that likely you are already listed in other sites. Most of these sites are professional directories with no information, thus are not appealing to the businessman that wants to get started with, for example, registering a trademark. Likely this businessman will read some basic information and then look for some professional. In ISSCIO he can do both things, and more, in the same page.

We at ISSCIO and at Brights Consulting Inc., our parent company, are very excited of the possibilities of the sites. That is why ISSCIO will be doing introductory presentation during INTA 132nd annual Meeting in Boston. The idea is to meet personally with professionals and show them the advantages of the site and how simple it is to edit and start participating.

If you are an expert please come and join us May 25th, from 1pm to 6pm (starting at 30 minute intervals) at the Boston Seaport Hotel, Room A. 20 minutes can help you get started with ISSCIO and find out how to get the Internet exposure you deserve.

We are looking forward to meeting with you.

Lucas Vall
General Manager

Building Content

ISSCIO.com has been online for three weeks now.

We are however in the process of building content. We are yet to make a public launch to promote the site among potential users. We know the benefit of ISSCIO is the knowledge that is being shared. Therefore we have started contacting potential experts to introduce the system and encourage them to participate. When we introduce the system to experts we use anonymous sample names so you may see some false names at present.

If your are an expert, ISSCIO is a way to get exposure on the Internet. Nevertheless, contrary to other professional directories or Internet advertisement, ISSCIO does not charge you anything. We just ask you to contribute some knowledge. In this way you earn the right to be listed in the ISSCIO "Top Experts" lists. Even adding simple information that is already widely available on the Internet will help you to be listed.

But ISSCIO is not just another Internet list of professionals. It provides basic information sorted by topic. Users can have all basic questions answered in one place and they also have a list of experts in that topic for when the need to contact an expert arises. All in the same page. Thus, for users such as companies doing businesses in different locations, ISSCIO is a useful source of information and experts.

Moreover, ISSCIO goes beyond and allows experts and users to interact with each other. Experts can know which topics are high in demand, which are the most common questions and can therefore prepare accordingly. Users can evaluate experts after interacting with them and can choose the expert they will do business with.

We have started small and with almost no content. Wikipedia also had few pages and few contributors (and a lot of skeptics) in its early stages. Today it is the first source of encyclopedic information on the Internet with thousands of people contributing. We believe ISSCIO can be the first source of information in how to do businesses, such as registering a Trademark, and the first point of reference when needing professional help.

So, if you are an expert, you can start helping today by editing the topic of your expertise. It's easy, each topic already has some basic questions which act as a guideline. It may take you a few minutes to answer some of them and start earning points. And since ISSCIO is in pre-launch you will be already listed when users start arriving.

We are looking forward to see you at ISSCIO.com.


Lucas Vall
General Manager

Welcome to ISSCIO

ISSCIO provides its users with easy access to the right information and the right expert. Users can search for topics by expertise and location; for example 'Trademarks in Canada'. ISSCIO is a convenient way to find up to date information provided by the professional community and interact with featured experts on the spot. All for free.

So this week we start to make ISSCIO available at isscio.com and the above are our objectives as a community. We believe that sharing knowledge unites and that bringing together local experts and companies will bring benefits to both parties and make our "imperfect information market", well, a little more perfect.

ISSCIO is actually the initiative of Brights Consulting Inc., a Japanese consulting firm specialized in brand protection. So initially we start in the realms of Intellectual Property, trademarks and domain names, but believing that we can expand to more topics; topics that require interacting with professionals on the spot.

Think of a small company trying to go through a foreign legal system and on top of that trying find the right professional to get help from. ISSCIO is here to bring together that small company and a community of experts around the globe.

Welcome to ISSCIO.

Lucas Vall
General Manager