The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S Patent number 12,316,600 to the world’s largest domain registrar, GoDaddy, protecting its proprietary method to defend registrars’ domain search systems from excessive queries sent by bots or attackers.
Large domain registrars face serious challenges when their systems become overwhelmed by automated bots or malicious actors repeatedly sending bulk domain availability queries, looking for unused domain names to register and use them for illegal activity. This depletes the system’s computing resources, causing bona fide users to wait too long for a response, or receive no response at all. The newly patented system offers a viable solution.
The system analyzes a user’s request history and behavioral patterns, and, if suspicious patterns are found, temporarily limits that user’s access asking for additional authentication such as a CAPTCHA.
According to Domain Name Wire, GoDaddy’s system uses machine learning to continuously evaluate user profiles and search histories, prioritizing bona fide, trusted users, and activating protective measures in response to suspicious activity. It should be noted that GoDaddy’s patent filing was processed quickly enough: it was filed as recently as at the end of November 2024.
