Trademark counsel should pay attention to the latest TLD to enter sunrise.
A lot of people have focused on .sucks as an example of a top level domain “shakedown” in which companies will feel compelled to register domains for protective purposes.
There’s a similar domain name entering sunrise today that hasn’t received much attention: .exposed.
It can be used in much the same way that .sucks and .gripe can be used, so it’s worth paying attention to if you’re trying to protect your company’s brand.
Trademark counsel might be comforted that the domain name is controlled by Donuts. They aren’t charging $25,000 for sunrise registrations, and the domain is part of Donuts’ Domain Protected Marks List program. Companies that have paid for the service will have their brands blocked in .exposed, just like all of the other Donuts domain names.
Ryan says
Loss leader extension for .donuts, do not see much upside in regards to profit coming from this, more of a novelty for bitter ex wives, and maybe disgruntled employees, and customers.
Andrew Allemann says
Loss leader? Don’t see how that would apply to a typical registry.
I’m not sure how much they’re wholesaling these for, but even at 10k registrations Donuts can turn a profit. Domains like this also drive DPML registrations.
Joseph Peterson says
So … .SUCKS .SUCKS
And this article would be …
.EXPOSED .EXPOSED
Maybe a general rule of thumb would be this:
If repeating your TLD twice consecutively sounds like an insult or a condemnation of your TLD, then maybe that TLD should not have been introduced.
I call first dibs on naming rights for that principle: “Peterson’s Razor”