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ICANN announced the publication of the Draft Report of the Independent Review of the Trademark Clearinghouse. Specific considerations related to the matching criteria, Trademark Claims service and Sunrise period are assessed in the review, conducted by Analysis Group.
Key Findings:
Expanding Matching Criteria to include non-exact matches may be of limited benefit: The dispute rate of completed registrations that are variations of trademark strings is very low.
Extending the Trademark Claims Service may have diminishing value: Registrations of names matching trademarks decline after the required 90-day Claims service period ends.
Few trademark holders utilize the Sunrise period: Most users of the Trademark Clearinghouse submit proof of use to gain access to the Sunrise period. However, across eligible trademark holders.
Read the report [PDF, 1.15 MB].
The report is available for public comment through 3 September 2016. Feedback will be incorporated into a revised report.
Comment on the Draft Report of the Independent Review of the Trademark Clearinghouse.
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ICANN allows registry to block many premium names to be registered in Sunrise that actually match registered trademarks. ICANN also initially blocks two-letter names, so companies like BP, AA, GE, GM, etc. are unable to register their marks matching names. Release of blocked names later on, after Sunrise period allows such names to be registered by anyone, with no priority to trademark holders. Furthermore many such names are selected by registry as premium names with high registration and renewal costs. Rigged system! ICANN sucks and so most of nTLDs registries.