During a webinar held last week, ICANN representatives provided some welcome background information on the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) and IDN processes, as well as responses to a number of the comments and questions the organization received about variant rules during its April meeting in Beijing.
You can view a recording of the webinar here.
Here are a few of the highlights:
- Deloitte representatives confirmed that to date, more than 4,000 trademarks have been filed with the TMCH
- It has been confirmed that the TMCH is accepting non-ASCII trademarks
- Less than 100 of the trademarks filed so far have been for non-ASCII trademarks in Chinese, Cyrillic, Arabic, Japanese and Hebrew
- Deloitte provided specifics about its trademark verification process, which entails two separate verifications for each trademark record to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness
- ICANN announced that it will publish details of its “Trademark+50” policy in the next several weeks, just in time to coincide with its next meeting (July 14-18) in Durban, South Africa.
- ICANN’s rights-protection mechanisms policy document for New gTLDs is still in draft form
For more information on new gTLDS’s please contact CSC Digital Brand Services, a registered agent of the Trademark Clearinghouse.