9 September 2013
Trademark Claims support services for the Trademark Clearinghouse launched today. These services include:
- Transmission of Domain Name Label (DNL) List.
Registries can access a list of all labels subject to Trademark Claims based on records in the Trademark Clearinghouse. - Claims Notice Information Service (CNIS) Lookups.
Registrars may obtain data for Trademark Claims notices to be displayed to prospective registrants because their requested domain names match existing marks recorded in the Clearinghouse. - Upload of the List of Registered Domain Names (LORDN).
Registry operators must upload their list of domain names registered during the Trademark Claims period.
All new gTLD registries are required to offer a Trademark Claims period of at least 90 days to support the protection of trademark rights during the initial launch period. During the Claims period, anyone attempting to register a domain name matching a mark recorded in the Clearinghouse will be notified of the match. If the notified party proceeds to register the domain name, the Trademark Clearinghouse will send a notice to the relevant rights holders, informing them that the name has been registered.
As communicated previously, ICANN has worked with Trademark Clearinghouse service providers Deloitte and IBM to implement Claims protection for domain name labels that have been found to have been abusively used or registered in the past. Rights holders may submit these domain name labels for association with existing Clearinghouse records as early as 11 October 2013. Once previously-abused labels have been verified, they will be integrated into the Trademark Claims service. ICANN expects this to occur by 18 October 2013, ahead of the earliest anticipated new gTLD Claims period.
Trademark Claims services are supported by the Trademark Clearinghouse database, which is administered by IBM under contract with ICANN. The functionality now in place will support startup periods for the first new gTLDs, expected later this year.
We encourage registries and registrars to work collaboratively in the Trademark Database test environment, and to participate in the series of webinars hosted by IBM about Trademark Claims services.