The Trademark Clearing House is an entity set up by ICANN where holders of well known trademarks may record their marks. The effect of registration is threefold –
- First the trademark holder gets priority on registering new top level domains (TLDs) containing its trademark;
- Second the trademark holder is notified if any person registers a domain containing its marks; and,
- Third, a party registering a domain name containing a trademark is warned of the trademark holder’s claim prior to completing registration.
There are some advantages to registering with the Trademark Clearing House – particularly it helps with claims of wilful registration of an infringing domain and to challenge any assertion of good faith by a registrant of a name incorporating a well known trademark.