Since the end of August, the TradeMark ClearingHouse (TMCH) has added .com to its notification service. TMCH will notify subscribers if a .com domain is registered that corresponds to a trademark they have registered with TMCH, a monitoring mechanism to fight cybersquatting.
The TMCH notification service monitors your domain names
Beyond being able to access the priority registration phase for trademark holders (also called “Sunrse”) when a new top-level domain (TLD) launches, registering a trademark with TMCH also allows you to benefit from a monitoring service. Basically, if a third party registers a domain name that corresponds exaclty to a trademark registered with TMCH, the owner of the trademark is automatically notified, letting them take the adequate measures to protect against cybersquatting. Initially reserved to new top-level domains, the notification system has been extended to registrations of .com domains since the end of August 2020.
The limit of this service rests on the fact that TMCH only monitors exact matches of trademarks (or variants registered individually as brand names). As such, if this system is the only one you use to protect your intellectual property online, it’s important that you register all of your brand names to cover your trademark portoflio.
However, in order to insure more complete protection, we recommend you opt for dedicated products like our monitoring service or blocking services that have been implemented by the registries.
Products dedicated to protecting your property online
A monitoring service on domain names and subdomains for your trademarks
Acquired by Gandi in June 2020 in order to offer companies a full range of services offered directly by Gandi in the area of trademark protection related to domain names, the Captain Domain service lets you detect illegitimate uses of domain names and subdomains. With more than 1,200 TLDs covered by the service, including country code TLDs (ccTLDs) not included by TMCH, as well as subdomains and IDN homoglyphs, nearly 200 million domain names are monitored daily, enabling the ability to alert trademark owners of a potential threat within 24 hours. This service ensures more comprehensive monitoring and not just “exact match” monitoring like TMCH’s service, all while ensuring rapid notification so you can take the necessary defensive measures.
Blocking products like the domain name protection service
In contrast to monitoring services that are intended to alert the owner of the registration of a domain name corresponding to or similar to a trademark, blocking products act like a literal roadblock against illegitimate uses. This defensive approach lets you block third-party registrations in certain TLDs, all while giving you the flexibility to unblock them when you need to use them.
There are now four of these online trademark protection services implemented by registries and included in the Gandi Corporate Services package:
- DPML by Donuts (covering 241 TLDs)
- Uni EPS by Uniregistry (covering 23 TLDs)
- TRex by the Trademark Registry Exchange (covering 43 TLDs)
- AdultBlock by MMX/ICM Registry (covering 4 TLDs)
See the table below for a comparison between different blocking products available to you. For more information, see our article on the topic.
Whatever you choose, implementing a domain name protection strategy is essential for preventing cybersquatting and all other illegitimate uses of your trademark.
To learn more about these different products and for assistance in choosing the monitoring service that best fits the needs of your business, please feel free to contact your Account Manager or the Gandi Corporate Services team at corporatecontact@gandi.net.
Tagged in .comcorporate
