By Steven Abreu. A member of our Trademark Practice Group
Get ready for the next great land rush, because the Internet is about to expand. Top-level domains, now restricted to 22 variations like .com, .edu, .net and .gov will soon be limitless. Companies have already petitioned ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) for the right to be the official registry of new top-level domains, which may now take the form of whole words like .health and .books.[i] These new domains are called “generic top-level domains.”[ii]
As trademark owners can attest, the Internet is already a difficult place to police unauthorized uses of intellectual property. Cyber-squatters register domain names that contain the legitimate trademarks of others (or commonly misspelled variants), hoping to trick unsuspecting visitors into viewing their webpages. With the availability of thousands of new domains, cyber-squatters will have thousands of new playgrounds. The coming expansion of domain names to a theoretically limitless number is cause for concern for the trademark owner.[iii]
The trademark rights-protection community is worried that a new generation of cyber-squatters is crouching at the door. However, trademark owners have gained certain protections within the new generic top-level domain regime through negotiations with ICANN. Some of these protections are already in place, and some are still being worked out. As the launch of several top-level domains is only months away, now is a good time to plan for the protection of one’s trademark rights.[iv]
The situation remains fluid, but we know enough now to advise trademark owners about a protection regime called the Trademark Clearinghouse. This is a system which will give owners of registered marks two important safeguards – also known as rights-protection mechanisms (RPMs).
The two mandatory RPMs across all domains are: access to a sunrise period, in which a trademark owner can purchase a domain name before the general public; and notice of a potentially adverse third party domain name registration. (More)
[i] Some companies have applied to be appointed the official registry for a top-level domain so that they can levy registration charges on companies who wish to register individual domain names on that top-level domain. Other companies have applied so that they can own and administer an entire top-level domain for their own marketing purposes.
As trademark owners can attest, the Internet is already a difficult place to police unauthorized uses of intellectual property. Cyber-squatters register domain names that contain the legitimate trademarks of others (or commonly misspelled variants), hoping to trick unsuspecting visitors into viewing their webpages. With the availability of thousands of new domains, cyber-squatters will have thousands of new playgrounds. The coming expansion of domain names to a theoretically limitless number is cause for concern for the trademark owner.[iii]
The trademark rights-protection community is worried that a new generation of cyber-squatters is crouching at the door. However, trademark owners have gained certain protections within the new generic top-level domain regime through negotiations with ICANN. Some of these protections are already in place, and some are still being worked out. As the launch of several top-level domains is only months away, now is a good time to plan for the protection of one’s trademark rights.[iv]
The situation remains fluid, but we know enough now to advise trademark owners about a protection regime called the Trademark Clearinghouse. This is a system which will give owners of registered marks two important safeguards – also known as rights-protection mechanisms (RPMs).
- The Trademarks Clearinghouse has been established to protect trademark owners
The two mandatory RPMs across all domains are: access to a sunrise period, in which a trademark owner can purchase a domain name before the general public; and notice of a potentially adverse third party domain name registration. (More)
[i] Some companies have applied to be appointed the official registry for a top-level domain so that they can levy registration charges on companies who wish to register individual domain names on that top-level domain. Other companies have applied so that they can own and administer an entire top-level domain for their own marketing purposes.
[ii] It is important to understand what a generic top level domain is and how the landscape of the internet may change in the coming years. Until now, in addition to the country-specific domain names like .ca (for Canada), there have been 22 top-level domains. The best-known of these is .com, but also among the 22 are .edu, .net, .tv, .biz, .info, .mobi and .xxx. Several of these top level domains are widely used, but many are not.
[iii] Whether or not web traffic will actually funnel to any of these new top-level domains is anyone’s guess. One might expect that people seeking information about healthcare or medicine may prefer to receive that information from websites parked at .health or .drug. If key players inside an industry begin to host information on industry-specific websites, it could spur a trend where search results are tailored to top-level domains related to an industry. (Google is the second-largest applicant for top-level domains and thus has a vested interested in the vibrancy of these new domains.)
[iv] Industry insiders expect the process of launching top-level domains to take off by late summer or early fall.
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