TM Clearing House soon available

Slowly but surely more information is revealed about which procedures will need to be followed by registering a domain name under the new generic extensions (gTLD’s). If you own a trademark and you wish to protect this mark under a new extension, the TM Clearing House will play an important role.

Currently ICANN is still evaluating the new gTLD’s but once this has been done, you’ll be able to file an application to register names under the approved extensions. The release of the approved extensions will happen in the 3 well known phases: sunrise, landrush and general availability. During the sunrise, owners of a registered mark are given the chance to register their mark under one or several extensions. If you’re a mark owner and you wish to do so, it’s necessary you first register yourself at the TM Clearing House.

The TM Clearing House is the party who will check whether you definitely are the owner of this mark and will then keep you posted if someone tries to register your mark under a new gTLD. For each mark you own and which you wish to protect under such a new gTLD, you’ll have to register yourself again at the TM Clearing House. However the thing is that each registration at the TM Clearing House will cost you money. Do keep in mind: Once you’v registered yourselves with them, you’ve only indicated that you wish to protect your mark under certain generic extension, you haven’t registered a single domain name yet.

You can register you mark for 1, 3 or 5 years via the TM Clearing House. Of course it’s up to you to choose for which period you register. And once you’ve registered your mark under a new gTLD, you can extend this name every year regardless of whether you are still registered at the TM Clearing House or not. So why would you register for 3 or 5 years? Because a few hundred applications have been filed for new extensions and the sunrises of all those extensions will take quite a lot of time. And if you wish to be the first to register your mark under a certain extension during the sunrise or you wish to be the first to know when someone else tries to register your mark under a new gTLD, you’ll need the TM Clearing House during the next few years.

Of course, there are also parties who can guide you by filing an application at the TM Clearing House and who will keep everything as simply as possible by automating everything as much as possible so you’ll be able to use this service quickly and smoothly and offer it to your clients in a simple way. If you have any questions about this or you wish to receive more information you can always get in contact via info@bNamed.net.