Donuts Inc. (“Donuts”) recently announced that Sunrise Periods are open for the following seven new gTLDs (generic top level domains):
.bike
.clothing
.guru
.holdings
.plumbing
.singles
.ventures
Each of these Sunrise Periods will run until January 24, 2014.
A trademark owner with a validated trademark registration in the Trademark Clearinghouse can apply for an exact match of the validated trademark in the second level domain for these new gTLDs (e.g., www.sideman.holdings where “sideman” is the second level domain and “.holdings” is the new gTLD).
During a Sunrise Period, multiple trademark owners with rights to the same second level domain name (e.g., the “sideman” in www.sideman.holdings) will settle the contention for the same name through an auction.
Once you have had a chance to review this Legal Update, we welcome you to contact one of our attorneys in our Intellectual Property Group for assistance with submitting your registered trademarks to the Trademark Clearinghouse (it is not too late for the next round of new gTLDs) and to discuss your company’s unique circumstances and positioning with regard to the introduction of the new gTLDs in 2014.
