The Trademark ClearingHouse (TMCH) which was set up/ contracted by ICANN to protect those famous worldwide brand names from abuse by those nasty domain name squatters resulted in a whole new industry.
Those playing the TMCH for their own benefit to get first jump at new gTLD domain names to get registered in Sunrise ahead of all other under common words like “the”
Actually there maybe no better example than those domain names obtained on the world-famous trademarks as of the word”the”, which is the most used word in the English language.
The world-famous trademark for the word “the” was obtained by Goallover Limited of London who according to DomainTools.com owns an amazing amount of domain names approaching nearly 100, but was able to get all of the following new gTLD’s using their globally well-known trademark on the word “the” under the ICANN trademark clearinghouse rules which allows them to obtain the domain names ahead of all other applicants.
Of course the company could have had obtained even more “the” new gTLD domain names in Sunrise but apparently did not apply for more.
Somehow the company doesn’t appear to own the domain name The.Com
For all Trademark Holders its nice to know the world is a safer place:
the.car
the.career
the.cars
the.casino
the.doctor
the.earth
the.foundation
the.furniture
the.game
the.group
the.ltd
the.mba
the.pub
the.report
the.run
the.school
the.services
the.storage
the.tools
the.university
the.watch
the.wine
Well played.
“For all Trademark Holders its nice to know the world is a safer place:”
ROTFL 🙂
Wtf
Even the @ is trademarked
So you don.t need to stand up to orrow morning
The ? Is already trademarked
You can add these to the list:
the.blog
the.id (Indonesia)
I was trying to get the.casino , then i changed my mind and got Le.Casino which is shorter and more elegant 🙂 , but takin over all these The names are killing the G’s value…
when you think you’ve seen everything…
It is as we saw with the sunrise period and .EU when launched in 2005 (11 years ago… feels like yesterday!) and Benelux fast track trade marks were popular with many entities looking to get ahead of land rush, filing for trade mark protection for interesting common words, SEX for example was popular amongst domain name applicants. As ever all systems unfortunately get played. I would be interested to understand what proof of use was provided. It is supposed to be a sample that evidences an effort on behalf of the trademark holder to communicate to a consumer so that the consumer can distinguish the products or services of one from those of another….
This is clearly an abuse of Trademark Clearing House mechanism that was meant for protection of the trademark holders. That’s a way to save spending on the EAP auctions and still have domain with better success.
Trademark clearing house should watch for such abuses and should debar miscreants from participation in the sunrise period.
Domains should be taken back from those who have already exploited the system.
There was an accounting office out of the Uk, can’t remember the name.
Also was it the .build, who tried to TM cloud by selling novelty pens.
There are many of these.
The gall.
Additionally laughable is the acceptance of single character trademarks, Below is a list trademarks not only listed in the TMCH but verified for “Proof of Use” to trade during Sunrise …
1
2
5
7
8
w
x
y
The TCH isn’t about protecting “famous” trademarks, it is about protecting trademarks registered prior to a specific date who are willing to cough up the money to be registered in the TCH database.
Anyone with the forethought and money could have done so, with the only restrictions being those enforced by the appropriate body/bodies that grant trademarks.