[gnso-rpm-wg] Action Items, Slides and Notes from the Working Group call held earlier today

[Bret Fausett]

> It seems like the whole argument is on the basis of some strawman argument that brand owners 
> are using the TMCH to take common words out of circulation.  

As a registry operator, we have some insight into who is using the sunrise period. By and large, the sunrise is used for brands to register names that would not have any use for anyone except the brand owner. In other words, the trademark owner is not taking a registration opportunity away from someone else. Most of these registrations come from the registrars typically used by brands. Call this Group 1.

At the same time, somewhere around 3-5% of the names registered in sunrise have been registered by companies who appear to have registered a mark solely for the purpose of gaining access to the sunrise period. These names are typically registered at registrars other than the ones used by brands. Call this Group 2. 

So I don’t think anyone is claiming that “brand owners” are taking common words out of circulation, but there are trademark holders in some jurisdictions who appear to have gamed the system. They are not taking the name out of circulation, but they are trying to get first access to a name at registration price which may have a high resale value on the secondary market. 

(At our registry, we tried to anticipate this potential abuse by including restrictions on the subsequent sale of sunrise names. See Section III of our policy document here, http://uniregistry.link/registry-policies/?file=1449 <http://uniregistry.link/registry-policies/?file=1449>. So, yes, if you are a trademark owner with a trademark registered solely to get into the sunrise, you can use the sunrise, but the name has no resale value.)

If this group could come up with a way of preserving sunrise for Group 1 while excluding Group 2, that would be worthwhile, in my view. 

           Bret 

Bret Fausett
General Counsel
____________________________

 <http://www.uniregistry.link/>
Uniregistry, Inc. 
2161 San Joaquin Hlils Road
Newport Beach, California 92660

Mobile +1 310 985 1351 
Office +1 949 706 2300 x4201







Bret Fausett
General Counsel
____________________________

 <http://www.uniregistry.link/>
Uniregistry, Inc. 
2161 San Joaquin Hlils Road
Newport Beach, California 92660

Mobile +1 310 985 1351 
Office +1 949 706 2300 x4201
bret at uniregistry.com <mailto:bret at uniregistry.com>



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