Here are ten things to think about after 15 top level domain names have completed their sunrise periods.
14 of Donuts’ domain names as well as شبكة. have gone through sunrise so far.
Only one of the fifteen domains received more than 200 sunrise registrations. Add to that Donuts’ Domain Protect Marks List, and you can argue the number is a bit higher, but still less than 1,000 or 1,500 per domain.
Here are my key takeaways:
1. Intellectual property owners are taking a reactive, rather than proactive, approach to trademark protection in new TLDs. All of that talk of having to spend millions protecting their brands was bunk. I think this turnaround in ideology is smart; it doesn’t make sense to register your brand in every extension.
2. It’s possible that a lot of defensive registrations will take place after sunrise. Since new TLDs aren’t going to have the same sort of “rush to register” as previous TLD launches, TM owners might wait and save money.
3. Some strings will get more sunrise registrations that others, and it depends greatly on the niche the TLD is in. .Clothing was Donuts’ top one so far, and clothing companies spend lots of money fighting counterfeiters. Controversial terms like .sucks should also do well. Donuts hasn’t had any “true” generics yet (maybe guru?) so the verdict is out on generics.
4. I suspect the number of sunrise registrations per TLD will increase as people become more aware what is going on.
5. Registries can’t count on many of the larger registrars to offer domains in sunrise. They should work with brand protection registrars instead.
6. If your domain is in a non-Latin script, you can expect very few sunrise registrations.
7. TDAmeritrade might buy its brand in every single English language TLD sunrise.
8. Amazon will also buy up its brands in lots of TLDs.
9. There are a bunch of common words in the Trademark Clearinghouse. More on that in a follow-on article.
10. If a registry is banking on making a ton of money through sunrise registrations, it better update its business model.
Brian Chiyama says
The whole idea of new top level domain names succeeding is just a fantasy. I agree with comments during the initial consultations that these name would bring confusion. In essence we are trying to create trillions of internet addresses for millions of businesses. These domain extensions should have been rolled out gradually one at a time instead of hundreds. Small businesses are more in numbers than the big businesses. I run a small business and have no intention of investing in any other domain extension except the country I live in (U.K ), .Com ( The King ) and . TV ( because of the media industry it appeals to ). I never went anywhere near .Co. I almost invested in .SC but changed my mind. That was a good decision on my part because I don’t think it has been a success. Even .FM is struggling, whilst I wish them all succeed I do not think they would succeed.
The initial idea of these name was brilliant and certainly successful as closed domain extensions. For example .Apple, .IBM, .COKE, .Microsoft, etc operating their own extensions to enhance security.
Bob says
Brian, we agree that .TV appeals to the media industry. By the same principle, we think .HOTEL domains appeal to businesses in the lodging industry, .TAXI to taxi vendors and their suppliers, .FLORIST to florists, and so on. SMEs in those industries have affinity with those terms, like media companies have affinity for .TV.
Bob Samuelson, Donuts