Update on new gTLD application process; description of trademark clearinghouse and protections available for brand owners

1. Protecting Your Trademarks
In The Domain Name Big Bang
Jamie Nafziger
Mark Wagner
Dorsey & Whitney LLP
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2. Highlights
• Quick Overview of Domain Names
• Recent Round of Expansion
• Application Process
• Applications Filed
• Disputes
• Political Wranglings
• Strategic Considerations
• Trademark Clearinghouse
• Timeline
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3. What is a Domain Name?
• Unique memorable, 170.149.168.130
NYTimes.com
address for an
electronic resource
on the Internet
• Stands in for an IP
Address
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4. What is a TLD?
• NYTimes.com
• NPR.org
• UMN.edu
• SourceFourge.net
• CBC.ca
• Wedge.coop
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5. Current TLDs
• .com, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .net, .org
– originals, created in 1980s
• .uk, .ca, .il, .de, .au, .it, etc.
– ccTLDs; first ones created in 1985, now over 250
• .biz, .info, .name, .pro, .aero, .coop, .museum
– 2000-2001
• .asia, .cat, .jobs, .mobi, .tel and .travel
– 2003
• .xxx
– 2011
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6. Current TLDs – By Type
• Open Generic TLDs
– .com, .net, .org, .info, .name, .mobi, .tel – open to
anyone
• Restricted gTLDs
– .aero, .coop, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .biz, .asia, .cat,
.jobs, .museum, .pro, .travel, .xxx – restricted
• Country Code TLDs
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7. Cast of Characters
• Registry • Registrar
– DB of DNs registered – Retail sales of DNs in
in a TLD registry
– Operated by separate – E.g., GoDaddy,
entities Network Solutions,
• Verisign = .com, .net TuCows
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8. Cast of Characters cont’d
• ICANN
– Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers
– Responsible for all of the Internet's unique identifiers –
I.P. addresses and domain names
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9. To Expand or Not To Expand?
2000 - 2011
• Expansion round in 2000 (7 gTLDs added)
• Mid-decade (7 more gTLDs added)
• Several years of debate
– Objections from brand owners
– Economic studies
• June 20, 2011 ICANN approved current
expansion
– Accept unlimited number of applications
– Add no more than 1,000 new gTLDs to root zone in
given year
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10. Expand!
• Application period began January 12, 2012
• No requirement to disclose intention to apply
• Hundreds of pages of application materials (business
plan, financial, technical)
• Multiple vendor agreements
• $185,000 filing fee per application
• Multiple issues and delays
– Security breaches – file names, user names
– Reveal day – June 13, 2012
– Disclosure of contacts’ personal information
– Digital archery
– Customer service portal security bugs
– Head of gTLD program resigned 10

11. 1,930 Applications!
• 1846 “standard”
• 84 community-based
• 66 geographic names
• 116 internationalized domain names (IDNs) in non-Latin scripts
• 60 countries represented
• 751 applications in competition with other apps for identical or
similar gTLDs
• 911 North America; 675 Europe; 303 Asia Pacific; 24 Latin
America; and 17 Africa
• 6 have been withdrawn
• Link to view list: tinyurl.com/7ddhekq
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12. 1,930 Applications!
1409 Unique TLDs
696 .brand applications
• E.g., .Visa, .Fujitsu, .TJMaxx, .XBox, .Mattel, .HBO, .Fox,
.Cialis, .McDonalds, .Datsun
• Surprising absences: Apple (beyond .apple) and Facebook
• 693 are “single user”
• Some competition:
– Different brand owners applied for .guardian, .monster, .goo
and .now
– Competition from generic apps, e.g., .coach, .live and .spot
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13. 1,930 Applications!
Some Big Players
• Donuts.co = 307 applications, all generic. Claims to
have raised US$ 100 million for its gTLD applications
• Google = 101 applications, some for brands, mostly
generic
• Amazon = 57 generic, 19 brand
• Uniregistry = 54
• Demand Media = 26
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14. 1,930 Applications!
Not All Generics To Be “Open”
--No third parties will be able to register at
second-level
• Amazon: 57 closed generics, e.g., .app, .book, .movie, .music,
.game, .free
• Google: 14, e.g., .app, .site, .talk and .page
• Dish: 10, e.g., .direct and .dtv, (seem similar to brands of DirectTV)
• Dominion Enterprises: 9, e.g. apartments, .autos, .cars and .boats
• IG Group Holdings: 6, all in financial category
• Other companies: Allstate, Symantec, Progressive, Fidelity,
Bridgestone, Richemont, Goodyear and Scripps Networks
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15. New gTLD Examples: Consumer Brands
.alfaromeo .dell .ibm .olympus
.amazon .datsun .intel .omega
.american .delta .jaguar .oracle
express .dodge .lamborghini .panasonic
.amex .dupont .lancome .patagonia
.android .epson .lego .philips
.apple .ericsson .lexus .sony
.avery .fedex .loreal .staples
.bentley .ferrari .macys .suzuki
.bridgestone .firestone .marriott .swatch
.buick .ford .marshalls .swiss
.cadillac .fujitsu .mattel .target
.calvinklein .goodyear .maybelline .tiffany
.canon .google .mcdonalds .toshiba
.cartier .gucci .microsoft .toyota
.chanel .heinz .mitsubishi .travelers
.chevrolet .hilton .montblanc .visa
.chevy .hitachi .netflix .volkswagen
.chrysler .holiday .nike .volvo
.cisco .honeywell .nikon .xerox
.clinique .hyatt .nissan .yahoo
.coach .hyundai .nokia .youtube
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16. New gTLD Examples: Technology/Internet
[.mobile] Chinese .computer .security
[.network] Chinese .data .site
[.online] Chinese .digital .tech
[.online] Cyrillic .email .technology
[.site] Arabic .engineer .web
[.site] Cyrillic .engineering .website
[.web/network] Arabic .equipment
[.website] Chinese .host
[.webstore] Chinese .hosting
.antivirus .ieee
.app .mobile
.blog .network
.camera .online
.cloud .search
.secure
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17. New gTLD Examples: Financial
.accountant .insurance
.accountants .investments
.bank .loan
.banque .loans
.consulting .mba
.cpa .money
.credit .mortgage
.creditcard .mutual funds
.creditunion .realestate
.estate .realtor
.exchange .realty
.finance .retirement
.financial .tax
.financialaid .trade
.fund
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18. New gTLD Examples: Retail
.[bazaar] Arabic .discount .store
.[shopping] Chinese .fashion .[store] Chinese
.ads .fashion .[store] Japanese
.bargains .[fashion] Japanese .style
.buy .free .today
.[cell] Chinese .[mall] Chinese .vip
.cheap .[online shopping] Chinese .[vogue fashion] Chinese
.christmas .review
.coupon .reviews
.deal .sale
.dealer .[sale] Japanese
.deals .save
.direct .shop
.shopping
.[shopping] Chinese
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19. New gTLD Examples: Health
.clinic
.dental
.dentist
.docs
.doctor
.fitness
.health
.healthcare
.heart
.hospital
.med
.medical
.pharmacy
.stroke
.surgery
.vet
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20. New gTLD Examples: Food
.food
.beer
.coffee
.cooking
.eat
.eco
.farm
.farmers
.green
.grocery
.kosher
.organic
.restaurant
.wine
[.food] Japanese 20

21. New gTLD Examples: Travel
.active .hoteles .sports
.auto .hotels .tour
.autos .international .tours
.camera .lifestyle .town
.camp .map .vacations
.car .mobile .voyage
.cars .motorcycles .watch
.cruise .phone .watches
.cruises .photo .world
.earth .photography .[world] Chinese
.express .photos
.flights .pics
.fly .pictures
.global .place
.[globe] Chinese .room
.holiday .ski
.hotel .sport
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22. New gTLD Examples: Non-Profits
.charity
.foundation
.ngo
.ong
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23. New gTLD Examples: Cause
.democrat
.eco
.gay
.green
.republican
.vote
.voting
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24. New gTLD Examples: Geographic/Government
.abudhabi .hamburg
.alsace .istanbul
.amsterdam .london
.barcelona .miami
.berlin .nyc
.boston .quebec
.capetown .rio
.catalonia .roma
.cologne .swiss
.corsica .[foshan]
.cymru .[quangdong]
.dubai .[shenzhen]
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25. New gTLD Examples: Others of Interest
.adult .education .law .sex
.airforce .energy .lawyer .sucks
.architect .esq .legal .ski
.art .family .llc .spa
.attorney .film .llp .sport
.audio .fishing .london .university
.auto .florist .love .video
.baby .football .ltd .vip
.bar .furniture .madrid .yoga
.baseball .gallery .miami [.arab] Arabic
.bible .game .movie
.book .global .music
.boston .gmbh .news
.career .home .nyc
.catholic .house .photo
.christmas .inc .porn
.college .islam .radio
.corp .international .salon
.dating .kid .scholarships
.kids .school
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26. Disputes
Actions Against Applied-For TLDs
• Application Comment
• Existing Legal Rights Objection (“ELRO”)
– Handled by World Intellectual Property Office (“WIPO”)
– Object that an applied-for gTLD infringes trademark rights
• Community Objection
• Limited Public Interest Objection
• Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (“PDDRP”)
– Trademark owners against a registry whose conduct causes
or materially contributes to trademark abuse
• Litigation?
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27. Disputes cont’d
Actions Against Second Level Domain Registrants
• UDRP – same as before
• Litigation, e.g. Under ACPA – same as before
• Uniform Rapid Suspension (“URS”)
– Supposed to be lighter, quicker complement to UDRP,
but actually has higher burden for complainant, more
defenses for registrant
– Only remedy is temporary suspension of a domain
name for the duration of the registration period
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28. Current Political Issues
• Brand owners seeking greater protection
• Complaints about one-owner generic gTLD
applications filed primarily by Amazon and
Google
• Complaints to and by governments
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29. Strategic Considerations
• Impact on the internet
• Impact on users
• Impact on search engine rankings
• Defensive registrations
• Watch services
• Post-registration disputes
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30. Trademark Clearinghouse: Benefits
• Receive notice when identical second-level DN
registered
• Potential infringer receives notice of claim before
registration
• Does not block infringements
• Validates trademark for use in sunrise period
applications
– Even with validation, need eligibility
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31. Trademark Clearinghouse: Requirements
(Based on ICANN Draft)
• Authorized contact (confirmed 1x per year)
• Trademark registration (or statute, treaty, or
court order)
– Exceptions (Supplemental, no dots)
– Characters (@, &, other) and spaces
– Other languages
• For use in sunrise, also need
– Signed declaration of use
– Sample of use
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32. Trademark Clearinghouse: Requirements
(Based on ICANN Draft) cont’d
• Anticipate $150 filing fee/mark
– Does not include sunrise costs
– May not include multiple exact matches
• Prompt notice of changes (assignment,
abandonment)
• Yearly re-verification/renewal
• Proof of use every 5 years
• Mechanism available to challenge others’
submissions
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33. Trademark Clearinghouse: Timing
• Was slated to open in October and close in
January
• Disagreement with registries over design and
efficiency
• Disagreement with brand owners over duration
and extent of similarity
• Just opened public comment period (closes
November 7)
• Launch date unknown (at least 90 days before
first gTLD launches)
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34. Current Timeline (Likely to Change)
• ICANN has started evaluating gTLD apps
• October: Government early warnings
• October: ICANN meeting in Toronto
• December: Prioritization drawing
• March 13: Deadline to file gTLD disputes
• April 2013: Government advice
• June/July: Finish evaluations of all gTLD apps
• Q3-Q4 2013: First new gTLDs launch
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35. Take-Aways
• Assess whether to file gTLD disputes
• Consider which gTLDs have marketing value
• Plan defensive registration strategy
• Prepare to enter marks into Trademark
Clearinghouse
• Select watch service provider, once available
• Monitor political developments & ICANN policy
• Monitor business realities
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36. Questions?
Jamie Nafziger
nafziger.jamie@dorsey.com
Mark Wagner
wagner.mark@dorsey.com
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