Are .中国 (.China) and a Domain Trademark Clearinghouse Game Changers?

The 37th ICANN meeting wrapped up on Friday in Nairobi, Kenya. One of the largest news items to come out of Nairobi was the announcement that ICANN passed a resolution stating that China will get its own IDN ccTLD that will be approved as early as April. The Xinhua news agency reported excitedly on the forthcoming .中国 (.China) IDN ccTLD that “Chinese Internet users will be able to surf the Internet with [their] native language.” This is significant as by some reports, there are approximately 384 million Chinese Internet users, one fourth of global Internet users. Whoever captures this target audience wins big.

Next, ICANN will be moving forward with a Trademark Clearinghouse as described here. If this is implemented correctly, it could be great for domain investors and for the health of the Internet. In a best case scenario, imagine that great care and attention is given to the trademarks that are included in the clearinghouse so that “SteveMadden” is included but generics such as “Shoes” are not. This could eliminate the arbitrariness from the UDRP rulings and instead result in a blackline rule, which clearly and fairly differentiates domain squatters from domain investors and developers.

On the other hand, if there is little screening before someone’s trademark claim is included in the clearinghouse, one might be able to register “Shoes” as a trademark in a tiny country and then reverse hijack through the clearinghouse process. As this clearinghouse process is still in its embryonic stages, it is worth keeping an eye on.

Lastly, decisions on .xxx were postponed until the ICANN Brussels meeting from June 20th-25th. Kudos to Michael Berkens for this prediction.

For more, see Rod Beckstrom’s interview below, which covers IDN variant issues and the .xxx postponement.