Village Gamer

Webnames.ca, a Vancouver-based provider of online services to Canadian businesses, is happy to announce the launch of the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), Trademark validation process for Trademark holders. The Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) is a database of trademarks that will be established by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) in order to enhance the protection of intellectual property on the Internet. The main role of TMCH is to serve as a central repository for the information related to the rights of trademark owners to be stored, authenticated and distributed.

“The internet is about to experience a huge explosion with the launch of the new generic top level domains (gTLDs). New domain extensions like .BLOG, .WEB, .SPORT & .FOOD, names that were not previously available to businesses and corporations, will open up new possibilities and offer great opportunities for branding on the web,” says Webnames.ca Co-Founder and President, Cybele Negris. “With this huge explosion comes more concern for Trademark holders who want to protect their names. Because of this, the Trademark Clearinghouse has been launched to help streamline the process for these Trademark holders and Webnames.ca wants to ensure this process is simple and convenient for our customers.”

All trademark holders will need to validate their trademarks through the TMCH in order to register new gTLDs during the special “Sunrise Period” (a priority registration period for trademark owners). Once a trademark has been validated and stored by the TMCH, if a third party attempts to register a new domain and the domain matches up with a trademark existing in the TMCH, the third party will receive a warning that the creation of the domain may be considered cybersquatting. If that party ends up registering that domain name, the original Trademark owner gets notified.

“Webnames.ca has a great new system in place,” explained Ms. Negris. “Trademark holders can take advantage of our years of industry experience while saving time and money as our dedicated team goes through and reviews any submitted trademark details to ensure all information provided is submitted correctly the first time. This ensures you only submit once, and only pay once.”

Webnames.ca is advising Trademark holders to submit their Trademark information as soon as possible to avoid infringement by third parties. The TMCH process is simple if you know what you’re doing and our team is on hand to help.

“By submitting your Trademark information to the TMCH through Webnames.ca you will benefit from our experience with Trademarks and Brands in the domain landscape,” says Webnames.ca Managed Services Manager, Nick Caristinos. “The process of submitting your Trademark information is easy and can be completed in a few short steps. Your trademark information including the details needed to apply for upcoming Sunrise phases will be stored securely through our clients’ accounts and will be easy to use when Sunrise applications are available. Webnames.ca is planning to offer as many new domain extensions as possible so you can count on us to provide you up to date information on any of the new domain extensions and assist you with the application process.”