Minds + Machines

The reason for the latest delay to ICANN’s plan to introduce new TLDs — and the reason it’s been 10 years in coming — is the fact that domain names and trademarks don’t work together that well.

Now a plan to protect trademark holders (Powerpoint 2004, 1.2MB) across all gTLDs for about $150/yr (final price not yet set) might solve the complaint of trademark holders that they are being held for ransom by the introduction of new extensions. As an example, Xerox would pay about $150/yr to protect its brand “xerox” no matter how many gTLDs were introduced in the new ICANN round. This paltry cost takes away the largest objection from trademark holders.

On March 2 at the 4 pm session called “New TLDs and Branding,” Bart Lieben of the Belgian law firm Laga presented a plan to make trademark protection in new gTLDs workable. The plan is based on the over 50,000 validated trademark records that Bart has collected in doing the .EU, .ME, and five other Sunrise periods.

The trademark database, which would be continually re-verified, and to which new records would be added on an ongoing basis, would include information on 37 attributes such as trademark class, date, jurisdiction. Registries could implement their own policies (such as whitelisting, blacklisting, blocking, etc.) using the records, and registrars, who would also have access, would be able to submit error-free Sunrise apps. Currently, according to Bart, the average error rate of submissions from trademark holders is in excess of 50% and has reached as high as 80%, which has added substantially to the cost of new TLD Sunrise periods.

The response from those in the room, which included well-known trademark attorneys and TLD-denying consultants, was an excellent indication that the plan was sound. One criticized the process, saying that it should have gone through various ICANN working groups. Another criticized Bart’s affiliated company Deloitte as untrustworthy. No-one criticized the substance of the plan.

I think we may have a winner.