Company files trademark applications for .tickets and dottickets.
.Tickets is up there on the list of most contested top level domain applications. Five companies have applied for the name.
Applicant Shubert Internet last week filed two intent-to-use trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The applications are for “.tickets” and “dottickets”.
In addition to goods and services related to event ticketing, the company says the names are for “registration, transfer and account management services of domain names for identification of users on a global computer network”.
As we’ve seen dozens of times (over 100?), the USPTO will reject these applications. Whether the intent is to somehow get a leg up on the competition or to protect the “brand” once it becomes a top level domain, the USPTO doesn’t grant trademarks on top level domains.
The applicant could have asked its registry provider, Minds + Machines, for advice on trademark filings. I bet it would have told Shubert not to waste its time.
The other applicants for .tickets are CloudNames, Donuts, Tickets TLD/Afilias, and Famous Four Media.
Schubert Internet is connected to The Shubert Organization. The company bills itself as “America’s oldest professional theatre company and the largest theatre owner on the Great White Way.”
Famous Four Media or dot Tickets Limited?
@ Bob – well, same guys. Just like Donuts is technically “Atomic McCook, LLC” for its .tickets application.
It’s also unclear to me if Cloud Names is just the consultant on the Accent Media Limited application or if it’s the applicant too.
It took the USPTO just two weeks to refuse .ART, dotART applications because they are generic and merely descriptive.
Don’t think that bundling other services will help overcome this threshold either, TTAB said that ancillary goods and services would normally be expected along with domains under a new tld in their precedential .music appeal decision.
appeal denied
I think the assertion ” the USPTO doesn’t grant trademarks on top level domains” may soon not be accurate. Looking back on the rationale for requiring disclaimer of .com and other gTLDs, I believe that within a year after delegation of the first new gTLDs, the USPTO will face a real dilemma: while .GENERIC might not be registrable as a trademark because it is generic, .DESCRIPTIVE might be registrable if used over time as a trademark and not merely as a TLD, and .BRAND should certainly be registrable if used as a trademark.
One MAJOR difficulty may be that ICANN’s Registry Agreement specifically provides that the delegation does not convey any rights in the domain name to the applicant.
It will be an interesting story.
MRG
@ Michael R Graham – things may certainly change over time. Technically ICANN grants a license to run a TLD, but applicants view it as if they “own” the TLD.