DotSPORT Continues its Trademark Frontrunning
Firm tries to get leg up in fresh TLD process with trademarks.
I’ve written a couple times regarding prospective fresh top level domain applicants trying to trademark the names of their proposed TLD (e.g. .eco).
But it appears dotSport LLC, one of the firms going following what will likely be a competition for .sport, is being quite aggressive.
As stated by filings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the firm has tried to register DotSport, RegistryDotSport, Life.Sport, and Registry.Sport, and a couple logos.
Its first two applications for DotSport and RegistryDotSport were denied. But then the U.S.P.T.O. allowed the trademark for Life.Sport, a graphical logo of DotSport, and a graphical logo.
There’s just one problem. dotSport filed these applications as “intent to use” since .sport doesn’t exist yet. Once the applications were allowed, dotSport had six months to file showing that it was now using the marks in commerce. Yet fresh TLDs still aren’t here, so the firm has had to ask for additional 6-month extensions. You can request up to five extensions. I wonder if fresh TLDs will come out in time?
The firm is still trying to get approval for Registry.Sport. It filed an application on January 29, 2009 that is right now denied for being descriptive. It filed another application for Registry.Sport on May 5, 2010.
These trademarks could create some problems given that at least one other entity is trying to get .sport as a top level domain name. If dotSport LLC loses, would the other registry be infringing on dotSport LLC’s marks?
