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Trademark Clearinghouse(TMCH)

How to get a trademark

TMCH(Trademark Clearinghouse)

TMCH is an information database enabling trademark holders to register their trademarks. It is a means of protecting the intellectual property of new gTLDs approved by ICANN.

Trademark registration with TMCH results in the issuance of an SMD file needed at application time for Sunrise 1 (priority registration for trademark holders). This code can be used for all new gTLDs. Thus, with respect to new gTLDs added after registration, it affords the opportunity during the Sunrise 1 period—before general registration—to register domain names that coincide perfectly with trademarks.

After the fixed Sunrise 1 period, applicants will still be warned against trademark rights infringement when their applications to register a domain name infringes on a trademark registered with TMCH.

Even if a domain name is not registered within the Sunrise 1 period, a trademark holder will be notified when a domain name corresponding to the trademark is registered by a third party in the general registration period.

It is necessary to go through the Registrar to deal with the process of TMCH trademark registration, which will take about two weeks after filing an application.

Applicable trademarks

Non-applicable trademarks

Note: The Madrid system is an international system for registering trademarks under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It simplifies procedures for trademark registration in multiple regions.

Applicable character strings

A trademark character string must coincide perfectly with the domain name character string applied for with TMCH.

  Trademark character string Character string applied for
Allowable application kcgedu kcgedu
Non-allowable application kcgedu kcg

In the following cases, there need not be a perfect match to file an application.

  Trademark character string Character string applied for
When the trademark character string includes a space that could be deleted or replaced by a hyphen kcg edu kcgedu
kcg-edu
When the trademark character string includes an “&” or “@” that could be deleted or replaced by a hyphen or suitable spelling
Suitable spellings must be official and conform to the sense of the language.
kcg@edu kcgedu
kcg-edu
kcgatedu
When the trademark character string contains special characters considered unusable in a domain name, or punctuation marks, which could be deleted or replaced by a hyphen. kcg+edu kcgedu
kcg-edu
When forms and marks are pluralized kcgs kcg