Completing another key milestone in the New gTLD Program, Sunrise support services have been launched for registrars and registries that will interact with the Trademark Clearinghouse ensuring that the users of the Clearinghouse benefit from Sunrise services.
The Sunrise service is one of the two key protection mechanisms the Clearinghouse offers as all new gTLD registries are required to offer trademark holders an opportunity to register domain names corresponding to their marks before names are generally available to the public.
The Trademark Clearinghouse will enable new gTLD registry operators to implement sunrise periods based on verified trademark data from the Clearinghouse. The Trademark Clearinghouse database is administered by IBM under contract with ICANN, and the functionality is now in place to support sunrise periods for the first new gTLDs, expected later this year.
The services will be available to new gTLD registries and ICANN-accredited registrars. User manuals and other supporting materials are available on ICANN’s website.
The Clearinghouse will also support Trademark Claims services for all new gTLD registries. Implementation of these systems is continuing and these are expected to be available beginning in September.