Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ
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We suggest you first review the product sheet and the online slide show
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.xxx Sunrise Overview
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Trademark Fact Check Questions
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Resellers for Trademark Fact Check Questions
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General .xxx Sunrise and Validation Process Questions
.xxx Sunrise Overview
What is the .xxx launch schedule?
What are the .xxx sunrise periods?
Trademark Fact Check Questions
What does Trademark Fact Check actually check?
What trademark jurisdictions are supported by Trademark Fact Check?
What does the deliverable for the service look like?
How long will it take to get my report?
What do I do after I order your service?
Can you help me build my trademark portfolio?
Resellers for Trademark Fact Check Questions
Can ICANN registrars use Trademark Fact Check?
Can corporate resellers use Trademark Fact Check?
How do you handle confidentiality of my clients?
What interfaces are available for resellers?
Do you offer volume discount pricing?
How do we pay for the service?
General .xxx Sunrise and Validation Process Questions
What are the qualifications for sunrise?
What are the sunrise eligibility requirements?
What is the .xxx sunrise validation process?
I pre-reserved some time ago. Do I need to do anything else?
Can I use an application number instead of a registration number?
How do you determine the valid registration date?
Why does the registration need to be active?
My trademark is a design or logo. Can I use it?
How do special characters in a trademark convert to a valid domain name?
.xxx Sunrise Overview
What is the .xxx launch schedule?
- Sunrise - September 7 - October 28
- Landrush - November 8 - 25
- General Availability - Starts December 6
What are the .xxx sunrise periods?
The Sunrise period is the trademark owner's time to apply and then Opt-in or Opt-out of .XXX. It will be available for simultaneous participation by those from within and outside of the Sponsored Community.
Sunrise A
Sunrise A is aimed at applicants from within the Sponsored Community. In general, these applicants may participate in Sunrise A on the basis of one of the following two qualifications:
- Applicants are engaged in eligible commerce for registration under an issued qualifying trademark registration and they satisfy the sponsored community definition, or;
- Applicants own and operate an existing domain name in another gTLD or ccTLD (in connection with eligible commerce for registration in the .XXX) and they satisfy the Sponsored Community definition. This process is often referred to as Grandfathering (from an existing TLD).
Sunrise B
Sunrise B is aimed at Sunrise applicants from outside of the Sponsored Community. These applicants are owners of a qualifying trademark registration that are seeking to reserve names in order to ensure these corresponding names in .XXX are not registered as domains names by others. At the close of the Sunrise period, if a conflicting application by another Sunrise A applicant has not been made then these names will be reserved from registration (blocked).
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Trademark Fact Check Questions
What does it cost?
Trademark Fact Check is just $10 per verified application. If we can't locate your trademark record in our sources, there is no charge. Included in the output is the source trademark record that we found. There are no signup or minimum account fees.
What does Trademark Fact Check actually check?
Here are some of items that Trademark Fact Check verifies:
Trademark Eligibility- Is it a registered active trademark?
- Does the registration number exist for the jurisdiction specified?
- Was the registered trademark registered before September 1, 2011?
- Is the registered trademark active? Is the trademark on the Supplemental register? (this is prohibited)
- Is there a textual component of the trademark? (only the textual portion can be protected)
- Is any part of the trademark disclaimed? (The entire trademark can not be disclaimed)
- Does the trademark contain ".xxx"? (this is prohibited)
- Does the trademark appear designed to "game" the sunrise period with special characters?
Domain Name Eligibility
- Does the domain name match the trademark?
- Is the domain name valid? (no special characters present, valid length, etc.)
- Is the domain name an exact match of the trademark?
- Special characters may be removed or replaced with hyphens or transcriptions
- Company designations, such as "Inc." and "Gmbh" may be removed
- Trademark designations, such as TM and SM, may be removed
Owner Eligibility
- Does the applicant match the trademark owner? (For applicants claiming the capacity of "Owner")
- Is the applicant organization listed in the trademark record?
- Is the applicant address listed in the trademark record?
- Is the applicant city listed in the trademark record?
- Is the applicant state listed in the trademark record?
- Is the applicant postcode listed in the trademark record?
- Is the applicant country listed in the trademark record?
What trademark jurisdictions are supported?
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* = Includes only published trademarks since 2005
# = Coming in future releases planned this summer
What does the deliverable for the service look like?
The deliverable is a file showing the application data you provided, an overall Pass/Fail as well as an indication of which of your data failed a validation check. We also include links to the eligible domain names for the trademark and the source trademark record.How long will it take to get my report?
Processing is real-time. A report with about 50 records will be ready within a minute.What do I do after I order your service?
Review the report and determine if you want to risk submitting failed applications. Submit the passed records via your preferred participating .xxx ICANN registrar. See list of .xxx registrarsDo you offer refunds?
Yes. If you are rejected by the .xxx validation agent for the identical application we said would pass, then we will refund you the Trademark Fact Check fee. This guarantee does not apply if your sunrise application is passed but trumped by a competing sunrise A or B application or if you submit different information than submitted to Trademark Fact Check.Can you help me with my entire portfolio?
Yes, Trademark Fact Check can perform owner-based trademark research across all of the jurisdictions we support and compile all of the trademark registrations for a specific owner. Contact us for a quote.
[ top ]Resellers for Trademark Fact Check Questions
Can ICANN registrars use Trademark Fact Check?
Yes! Trademark Fact Check saves time and money for ICANN registrars supporting the .XXX A and B sunrise. Trademark Fact Check takes the guesswork out of understanding the various nuances of trademark registrations in multiple countries. ICANN registrars can learn if their sunrise applications will fail the back-end validation checks before incurring a fee to the registry.
Can corporate resellers use Trademark Fact Check?
Yes. Trademark Fact Check welcomes all interested corporate resellers working to protect their client's trademarks in .xxx. You will need to submit your applications via one of the participating .xxx registrars.
How do you handle confidentiality of my clients?
Trademark Fact Check has strict contractual language in its reseller agreement to ensure confidentiality of your client data and identity.
What interfaces are available for resellers?
There is no programming required. Resellers may use our web interface or ftp interface.
Do you offer volume discount pricing?
Yes, we do. Contact us for details.
Do you offer refunds?
Yes. If you are rejected by the .xxx validation agent for the identical application we said would pass, then we will refund you the Trademark Fact Check fee. This guarantee does not apply if your sunrise application is passed but trumped by a competing sunrise A or B application or if you submit different information than submitted to Trademark Fact Check.
How do we pay for the service?
You provide a written credit card authorization, which we will charge immediately following your actual orders. You may also pay at the time of the order via credit card or, in advance via a bank wire.
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General .xxx Sunrise and Validation Process Questions
Note: For more FAQ's about .xxx, please see the registry website
What are the qualifications for sunrise?
Sunrise applicants using registered trademarks to qualify will be required to own, without qualification, a subsisting trademark or service mark registration of national effect. This will need to be issued prior to the time of the application submission, in a jurisdiction were the applicant conducts substantial bona fide commerce in connection with the trademark or service mark actually registered.In the case of Sunrise A (where the qualifying condition is a trademark) and Sunrise B, the second-level domain or opt-out being sought will be required to correspond to the entire text of a text mark. Or, alternatively, correspond to the complete textual component of a graphical or compound mark.
For Sunrise A applicants using a domain name to qualify, it will be a requirement for the domain to have been registered prior to February 2010 and be in active bona fide use with an eligible website or service that comports with the definitions of Sponsored Community. An active bona fide use with an eligible website or service will exclude domain names primarily used for parking, link farming or forwarding to a site operated by a party other than the applicant or where the registry believes the registration has been made primarily for the purpose of a bad faith attempt to qualify under the Sunrise Allocation Policy.
The Grandfathering domain name will be required to be an Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) TLD registered at the first applicable level that can normally be registered with commercial providers of registration services in the TLD.
Registrants of higher-level names registered by private operators of registered
names such as
A successful application to block a domain name by a single qualified
applicant under Sunrise B and not subject to a competing application from
a Sponsored Community applicant under Sunrise A will be designated "reserved
- trademark" or similar.
This name will be removed from the pool of names available for registration
in future phases of the registry operation and the WHOIS information will
simply list standard registry information. The corresponding domain name
will resolve to a standard informational page indicating the status of the
domain name as not available for registration or similar. Allowing the domain
name to resolve is designed to prevent "synthetic DNS" or non-DNS resolution
systems, from hi-jacking queries to these domain names.
In the event that there is more than one qualified applicant under Sunrise
B, the name will be reserved in exactly the same way as if there were only
a single applicant and there will be no refund or apportionment of fees
among such applicants.
A domain name applied for by a single qualified applicant under Sunrise
A, and not subject to a competing application from an applicant under Sunrise
B, will be allocated to the applicant.
If a name is subject to reservation by at least one Sunrise B applicant,
any Sunrise A applicant for the exact same domain name will be notified
of this, and will have the opportunity to withdraw the application(s) for
the domain name. Also, the corresponding Sunrise B rights holder will be
notified of the Sunrise A application for the domain name. Should the applicant
proceed with registration then the Sunrise A applicant will not be able
to claim lack of notice in any subsequent dispute proceeding.
Registration of the domain name to the Sunrise A applicant will proceed
subject to the Sunrise A applicant's actual notice of such claim.
In the event that a domain name is subject to competing applications by
at least two Sunrise A applicants then the domain name will be auctioned
among all qualified applicants. The registry will not be running a first
come first served approach to the Sunrise - all Sunrise applications will
be viewed as having arrived at the same time.
Documentary evidence may be required to contain at least an up-to-date:
In most national and regional trademark databases, registered trademarks
have a registration number and registration date. The absence of a registration
number normally indicates that the trademark is not yet registered. There
are a limited number of countries that use application number instead of
a registration number for fully registered trademarks. This date is specific to each new top-level domain. In the case of the
.xxx TLD, the trademark simply must be active by September 1, 2011. Normally no. However, if your design includes text representing your trademark
AND the trademark record includes the text as part of the registration,
then it can be used. To be eligible for a sunrise period, a registered trademark must be in
good standing rather than cancelled, expired or abandoned. Spaces and special characters in a trademark that can not be used in a
domain name can be replaced with a hyphen or by simply omitting the space
or character altogether. This includes punctuation such as !@#$%^&*()<>{}\/[],.?
and all non-english characters. In addition, trademark owners may also spell
out various punctuation characters, where appropriate. Common examples are: @ -- "at" For special characters with accents or coupled characters, they can be
removed, replaced with a hyphen or decoupled. For example, characters such
as "ä", "é", "ñ", "ø" "æ" or "oe", may be replaced
by "a", "e", "n", "o", "ae" or "oe" respectively. The Trademark Fact Check tool will convert hundreds of special characters
to determine eligible domain names. If you feel we are missing any, please
let us know. Non-Competing Applications
Competing Applications and IP Claims
What are the sunrise eligibility requirements?
Only the registered owners, licensees or assignees of eligible trademarks
will be eligible as Sunrise applicants. Each applicant will be obliged to
indicate eligibility (capacity) in the respective Sunrise application. In
the case of licencees or assignees, the Sunrise applicant will be required
to submit a declaration form that will be made available by the registry and
/ or the validation agent. The form will need to be completed and signed by
the licensor or transferor of the relevant eligible trademark and the applicant.
What is the .xxx sunrise validation process?
The validation agent will aim to ascertain that each of the sunrise applications
refers to an eligible trademark. This is based on a prima facie review of
the:
Applicants may, if requested by the validation agent, be required to provide
documentary evidence to verify the information provided in the application
data.
I pre-reserved some time ago. Do I need to do
anything else?
Yes. The pre-reservation was simply adding your name to a mailing list. You
still need to submit a sunrise application via an ICANN registrar.
Can I use an application number instead of a registration
number?
How do you determine the valid registration date?
My trademark is a design or logo. Can I use it?
Why does the registration need to be active?
How do special characters in a trademark convert
to a valid domain name?
& -- "and" or "ampersand"
+ -- "plus" or "and"
# -- "pound" or "number"
? -- "question" or "question-mark", etc.