Utah company files trademark application for .vote.
Will .vote be among the applications for new top level domain names filed later this year?
A Utah company filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last Friday for .vote for “Domain name registration services”.
[Update: this is a refiling of .vote. The USPTO refused an earlier application by the company.]
The applicant is Pack Holdings, LLC, a company that has scarce record on the internet. However, another company that pops up in a Google search for the Utah address is a political consulting firm. The group does “get out the vote” calls, fundraising, volunteer training, etc.
It’s not entirely clear if this is the same applicant and there is a non-profit that was registered at the same address.
I could see how this could be used for a number of political purposes. But the big winner will be the owners of vote.com.
Just how many gTLD’s are expected to get passed? 500? 1,000? When is enough, enough?
Hmm.. but voting is a pretty segmented thing, by country etc.
If the traffic has high value then perhaps the .com benefits. But the value of many generics lies in their branding potential. And the new tld introduces a potentially formidable adversary – one that may become more trusted and versatile.
My own plans are in tatters thanks to uncertainties created by new tlds… not that I necessarily oppose them. Of course the new tld program may not succeed, but at the very least the future has become tougher to predict.