The Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) has sent over 17,500 trademark claims notices to trademark owners since the first new gTLDs went into general availability four weeks ago.
A trademark claims notice is usually sent out whenever somebody registers a domain name that exactly matches a trademark listed in the TMCH’s database.
Experts note that not all of these matches are due to cybersquatting attempts. Many trademarks in the TMCH database are acronyms that stand for different brands, or dictionary words with no exclusive ownership.
Still, this is rather worrisome, as it appears that every 10th of the close to 180,000 domain names in new gTLDs can be contested by registrants and trademark owners.
