Court Validated Marks

Court validated marks refer to those authenticated by a court of law or similar judicial proceeding at national level. This includes unregistered (common law) marks and well-known marks. The validating judicial authority must have been a competent jurisdiction as of the date of the order or judgment.

Ineligibility Criteria

The following won’t be considered court-validated marks for inclusion in the Clearinghouse:

• Trademark applications
• US state trademarks
• International trademark applications via the Madrid system
• Registered trademarks subject to successful invalidation, cancellation, or rectification proceedings

Alternative Eligibility

While not categorized under court-validated marks, the following may be eligible under another trademark type:

• Registered trademarks
• Marks protected under statute or treaty
• Other marks constituting intellectual property

Exclusions

Even if court-validated, the following won’t be accepted by the Clearinghouse:

• Court validated marks with top-level extensions, such as “example.org” or “example.com”
• Court validated trademarks starting with a “dot” (.) or containing a “dot” (.) (e.g., “.example”)
  This prohibition does not apply to registered trademarks including a “dot” when the dot functions as:
  • Punctuation (e.g., period)
  • Abbreviation
  • Figurative part of the registered trademark
• Court validated marks lacking letters, words, numerals, or DNS-valid characters
• State or city court-validated marks