New Top Level Domains: Trademark Clearinghouse protects your Trademarks

ICANN has created a "Trademark Clearinghouse", which enables priority registration in "Sunrise Periods" of all New Top Level Domains and sends alerts about domains of third parties, using trademarks.

With the introduction of over one thousand new top level domains, it will certainly be very useful for brand owners to register with ICANN’s newly created Trademark Clearinghouse.

Brand owners who do not wish to register their brand name with Top Level Domains will receive an e-mail from Trademark Clearinghouse when an attempt is made to register a domain with their name thus enabling the brand owner to make steps against the domain registration. Because of the large quantity of future new top level domains, only Trademark Clearinghouse will be able to create a clear overview for brand owners.

Until now, the introduction of a brand name with Top Level Domains included the right to priority registrations. Furthermore, both introduction and registration could be completed in one step. From here on forward this will no longer be possible. Anyone who wants to register a domain during the "Sunrise Period" will have to register with Trademark Clearinghouse. When the registration with Trademark Clearinghouse has been successfully completed, the brand owner will have the right to register all of the possibly more than one thousand domains during the given "Sunrise Period".

You probably also own important names that are not protected under a brand name. The guidelines of the Trademark Clearinghouse allow for other branding rights to be considered. We will gladly advise on how to obtain such branding rights and have the best possible chance to have them accepted as such.

A large registrar has analyzed past "Sunrise Periods" and came to the conclusion that registrations during the "Sunrise Period" had a 40-50% rejection rate. The rejection rate is not due to applications for inadmissible Trademarks rejected by an approving institution but rather to incorrect records and applications that were filled out incorrectly. "We have vast experience dealing with brands and trademarks and the respective approving institutions," says Hans-Peter Oswald, CEO of ICANN accredited Registrar Secura. "The up to date rejection rate of Secura with Sunrise Periods has been lower than one percent."


Marc Mueller
http://www.domainregistry.de/tmch.html