For Trademark owners

As an ICANN-accredited registry, .ART is committed to protecting intellectual property. We respect the rights of trademark owners, and we carefully follow the procedures for trademark claims established by ICANN.

The .ART domain registration policies are clear in that registrants must not violate third-party rights when registering a domain. It’s up to you to manage the relationship between you and your related parties.

Between December 2016 and February 2017, the .ART registry ran an ICANN-mandated registration phase, called the “sunrise period,” where trademark holders registered with ICANN’s Trademark Clearinghouse had priority to register their domains before everyone else. Now in general availability, these domains are registered on a first-come-first-served basis. This means that having a trademark doesn’t necessarily guarantee a priority registration. If another party has registered your trademarked name, you may have legal solutions at your disposal, described below in the FAQs.

In addition to conventional legal solutions, ICANN has two dispute resolution processes that can be used to address possible trademark infringements:

• Under this policy, trademark-based domain name disputes must be resolved either by agreement between the parties, by court decision, or by arbitration. If the decision is in favor of the complainant, the respondent must cancel the domain name registration or transfer the domain name registration to the complainant.
• Read more here: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/policy-2012-02-25-en

• This is a rights protection mechanism that offers a fast, low-cost path to relief for trademark holders experiencing the most clear-cut cases of infringement. Under this policy, a trademark complaint against the registrar can be filed with any ICANN-approved dispute provider. If the trademark owner prevails, URS provides only a temporary suspension of the infringing domain name. In a majority of cases, examiners deny URS complaints on the grounds that the complainant failed to use a priority registration offer during the sunrise period.
• Read more here: https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/urs/procedure-01mar13-en.pdf

If a trademark-based dispute occurs, the complainant can file a court proceeding. In this case, a general jurisdiction court in the UK has the authority to grant control and ownership over domain names.

If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact [email protected].