New gTLDs and Icann: what now for trade mark owners
14 June 2012
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James Nurton, London
Whether or not you were one of the 1,930 applicants for new gTLDs this week, you need to think about your trade mark protection strategy at both the top level and the second level. Managing IP answers the most urgent questions
I applied for a .brand gTLD
Congratulations. Most of the companies that applied for new gTLDs comprising their brands seem to have come out of the first stage of the process well, and there are few signs of rival applications for well-known brands as some predicted.
However, there are multiple applications for some brand names, including .guardian, .coach and .monster. There are also some brand applicants who may face opposition from other entities. For example, Ford has applied for .lincoln but could face a challenge from any of the towns or cities with that name. Dot-nationwide has been applied for by US company Nationwide Mutual, but Nationwide building society in the UK may file a challenge. Google has applied for .ing which might bring it into conflict with ING bank or even Microsoft’s Bing search engine. And there are three applications for .merck, two of them apparently from the US...
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