A practical roadmap for trademark monitoring and objections in ICANN’s new application round
ICANN’s new gTLD round may have direct consequences for trademark owners. Once the applied-for domain extensions are made public on Reveal Day (Wednesday 7 October at 20:00 CEST), trademark owners will have only a limited period to assess whether certain new top-level domains (“strings”) create a legal, commercial or reputational risk for their trademarks. Depending on the outcome, they may choose to monitor, engage with the applicant, submit comments to ICANN or initiate a formal objection procedure.
An effective approach is to timely prepare watch lists, allocate internal responsibilities, collect evidence of trademark rights and set up decision-making and escalation processes.
This whitepaper provides a practical overview of the key milestones, potential objection grounds and applicable deadlines, so that trademark owners can act promptly and in a targeted way.
