10 takeaways from fresh top level domain name sunrise periods so far
Here are ten things to think regarding following 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 fresh 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 following sunrise. Since fresh 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 firms spend lots of money fighting counterfeiters. Controversial terms like .sucks ought to 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 ought to 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.
