Before the START of any of the new domains, ie NOW, is the perfect time to register your trademark or brandname. This way you will prevent it to be registered by anyone but you in future.

ICANN has created the Trademark Clearinghouse to protect the trademark owners in the forthcoming launch of over 1,000 new top-level domains in 2013 and 2014. The Clearinghouse will act as a single database of certified registered trademarks and will be used to protect trademarks and intellectual property of their owners. Registered trademark owners will receive access to a single solution that will help protect their rights and enable them to participate in the start-up period of new top-level domains (sunrise).

How does it work?

The Trademark Clearinghouse system collects and validates trademark information from the owners, and inputs in into a central repository that will be used to maintain the database records for all validated trademark owners.

How can you participate and protect yours?

The verification services of the system are now active and trademark owners can submit their information for verification through the official website or via an registered agent. Later the same system will be used for the new gTLD launches. If a trademark is verified and registered into the system, then each attempt to register a protected name in all new gTLDs, will trigger an email notification to the registrant.

More information about the TMCH (including fees, needed documents, contracts and explanations) can be found at the ICANN FAQ (http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/customer-service/faqs/faqs-en) and on their official website: http://trademark-clearinghouse.com/