The largest new gTLD operator in terms of number of new domain extensions, Donuts Inc. today announced DPML Plus, an enhancement to its existing Domains Protected Marks List product that it developed in partnership with the IP community.
Donuts already has the DPML which allows brand owners to protect their marks across all of Donuts’ current 197 domain name extensions at a fraction of what it would cost to defensively register the same terms.
The limited-time DPML Plus promotion enhances DPML by allowing brand owners to widen protections, including, for the first time, common misspellings of their marks.
With DPML Plus Brand owners also are able to:
Block their marks and mark-related terms from registration for an initial 10-year period.
Block one exact match term and three additional strings (legacy DPML covers one string) that contain a mark or common misspellings of the mark (further “contains” or misspelled terms beyond these three strings are available to block for an additional fee).
Also for the first time, block a mark in premium second-level domains across all Donuts’ gTLDs.
DPML Plus blocks are not subject to overrides by other parties with the same trademark. DPML Plus subscribers may submit unlimited overrides of their own blocked terms (for no wholesale override fee) if they elect to register and use their previously blocked terms.
Registration for DPML Plus will open October 1, 2016, and close December 31, 2016.
The suggested retail price for DPML Plus is $9,999.
Donuts also announced that effective January 1, 2017, the price of its “legacy DPML service will be increased in order to better align the service’s benefits with its marketplace value”.
“Existing DPML subscribers can renew their subscriptions at current pricing before January 1.”
More extortion…
DPML blocks are annoying, sledgehammer approach to an issue which blocks extensions that shouldn’t be an issue with legitimate uses by others.
If someone opts for a DPML block, they have to consider why and how effective they are at protecting their interests in doing so.
There are perfectly sound reasons to opt for a DPML block, but doing so is not the all round solution it may appear to be.
Basically a protection racket.
What does $10,000 cover? There will be hundreds of other TLDs to pay.
When .Bike was introduced in 2014 I registered endurance.bike and owned the domain for a year then let it drop. Later conducted a whois search discovering a DPML block, currently in effect.
Endurance is a main category for bike manufacturers, so it wasn’t right for a company with an endurance trademark in some other private business to block the word.
Scrivener
The $10K covers all 197 new gtlds operated by Donuts for 10 Years so $1K a year for the mark and three typo’s
Reminds me of “Goodfellas”