Controversial new top level domain name registry wants to trademark “.sucks”.
Vox Populi, the domain name registry for .Sucks, has applied for the trademark “.Sucks” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.
The goods and services for the mark are “Domain name registration services; registration of domain names for identification of users on a global computer network.”
The USPTO does not grant trademarks for top level domain names, so I’m not sure what Vox Populi hopes to accomplish with this application.
Vox Populi also recently applied for a trademark for “How Do You Really Feel?”
Scripps Networks Interactive, through its top level domain name company Lifestyle Domain Holdings, recently applied for three trademarks related to its new top level domains: Living, Lifesytle and Vana.
“The USPTO does not grant trademarks for top level domain names…” FOR domain registration services per se.
First, the USPTO is not in the business of “granting trademarks”. The USPTO is in the business of conferring federal registration of trademarks. Trademarks are established by use of a distinctive term in commerce on or in connection with goods/services so-marked.
Secondly, the USPTO does not register trademarks for strings or characters or symbols in a vacuum. It makes no sense to talk about what the USPTO “does not register” absent the goods or services for which the mark cannot be registered. Can “.example” be registered as a brand of domain registration services? No. Can it be registered as a brand of cat food? Yes.
OK, for what Vox Populi wants this trademark for, the USPTO does not register trademarks.
Yep.
The USPTO is littered with these things, and they issue the same refusal every time…
86250345 .LUXURY
86098054 .GOP
85668880 .ART
85578367 .SHOP
85463049 .MED
85463040 .LAW
85440185 .ONLINE
85433495 .WEDDING
85409200 .FRANCHISE
85388986 .MAIL
85371597 .AUTO
85371547 .FOOD
85367334 .STORE
All refused, all for the same reason.
Now you will occasionally find either figurative registered marks which include the TLD as a textual component, or you will find “TLD string” marks for services other than domain registration per se.
For some TLD’s where the domain registration is incident to membership in an organization or adherence to certain standards, a certification mark or collective membership mark might fly. Also, cases where the TLD is already a brand for something else, and registration is controlled by the brand holder (e.g. .BMW), are a different kettle of fish.
But, as always, the entire point of offering domain registration services in a TLD is not to use the TLD string to identify one’s goods/services, but to allow *others* (i.e. the domain registrants) to use the TLD string however they’d like to use it. That’s why I can’t figure out why so many so-called IP attorneys keep doing this over and over to the same foregone conclusion. It is kind of silly to claim rights in a “mark” when the entire point of it is to let others use it on an unrestricted basis.
I left the domain name industry when this .sucks crap got up, this is an immoral blight on the industry IMHO and it doesn’t surprise me one bit these low life’s at Voxpopuli are trying to trademark it, people should avoid dealing with this corrupt company.