Initiative Files US Trademark Application — Popular .Music

.Music backer files application for U.S. trademark.

Constantinos Roussos has been aggressive in marketing his initiative for a .music top level domain name. He’s also voice displeasure that latecomers could derail his hopes by also applying for the .music top level domain.

At the June 2010 ICANN meeting Roussos voiced his displeasure regarding latecomers to fresh TLDs “gaming” the system and asked ICANN for an extra point on community application weightings for groups such as his that had done significant community outreach. (One group backing dotBerlin has asked for a similar leg up.)

Later, in July 2010, Roussos commented to ICANN:

Rest assured that if we, as .MUSIC are faced with the possibility of being gamed and abused in a manner that we find illegal, we will use our trademarks and other means necessary to do what we have to do to protect ourselves and our respective community. While trademarks alone ought to not be the sole determinant of earning a TLD, it is the only means we have of protection, since ICANN has not incorporated any mechanisms to prevent TLD applicant abuse, gaming and unfair piggybacking from other initiatives.

Everyone’s definition of “gaming” is different. If you just learn regarding fresh top level domain names during ICANN’s upcoming outreach period (which is the point of the outreach period — to find people that may not be aware of fresh TLDs) and you apply, is that “gaming”? Ought to you be penalized for not organizing a “community” around a generic term earlier?

To date Roussos has only filed trademarks outside the U.S. But on December 31 he filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a logo of .music. His first claimed use of the mark in commerce is in 2008.