ICANN's Trademark Clearinghouse Launching Today 49
itwbennett writes "If you want to protect your brand before ICANN rolls out the new gTLDs (generic top-level domains), here's your chance. The clearinghouse will allow trademark owners to register their marks for an annual fee of between $95 and $150. The clearinghouse 'doesn't necessarily prevent trademark infringement or cybersquatting, but it does help trademark owners and brand owners somewhat in mitigating the damage that might occur,' said Keith Kupferschmid, general counsel and vice president of IP policy and enforcement for the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA). 'We've been telling brand owners it's not that expensive to protect themselves and they ought to do it.'"
All of the new TLD registrars will be required to check the trademark clearinghouse before issuing domains, preemptively squashing trademark disputes.
Who gets .apple? (Score:5, Interesting)
Who gets .mcdonalds? Who gets .burgerking ("The burgers are better at Hungry Jack's")
And I could repeat trademarks that apply in different geographical areas, and in different business areas. I sell computer services under the name Coca Cola, does that mean I can prevent a global beverage company from squatting on .cocacola?
In other words, as previously mentioned, this whole this is a scam.