Trademark Clearinghouse
What is TMCH?
TMCH, Trademark Clearinghouse was created by ICANN as part of the new gTLD initiative, and is an integral mechanism in domain trademark protection. Official operation began on March 26, 2013.
The Trademark Clearinghouse is a unique, global repository of authenticated information from trademark holders. All trademark holders are able to register for TMCH before or during the release of new gTLD for protection.
TMCH Services
Pre-Verification:
Upon submission and payment of a trademark record, the trademark record and the provided information will be verified in order to determine whether: 1) all provided information is accurate and complete and 2) the trademark meets the eligibility requirements as established by these Clearinghouse guidelines.
Sunrise Services:
Sunrise services allow trademark holders an advance opportunity to register domain names corresponding to their marks either defensively or with a view to exploiting a valuable new web address before new names are made available to the public. New gTLD registries are required to offer a Sunrise period of at least 30 days.
Claims Services:
Claims service follows the Sunrise Period. It is a notification service mandated by ICANN for all new gTLDs – to warn both potential domain name registrants as well as trademark holders (with their marks in the Clearinghouse) of possible infringements.
Ongoing Notifications
Following the 90 day Trademark Claims Period for each new gTLD, the Trademark Clearinghouse offers a free Ongoing Notifications service. Trademark holders will be notified of potential intellectual property infringement indefinitely, beyond the original 90 day period.
Why Join TMCH
Pre-Registration
Enables early registration of brand domain name. This greatly increases the chance of registering the desired domain, also prevents costly re-acquisition that may take place afterwards.
Notification System
During the Trademark Claims period, anyone attempting to register a domain name matching a mark that is recorded in the Trademark Clearinghouse will receive a notification displaying the relevant mark information. If the notified party goes ahead and registers the domain name, the Trademark Clearinghouse will send a notice to the one or more trademark holders with matching records in the Clearinghouse, informing them that someone has registered the domain name.
Unique Repository of Authenticated Information
By enrolling in The Trademark Clearinghouse, one is protected from online infringement. It is the first-line of defense and provides authenticated proof for the brand owner.
One-Stop Shop:
Upon registration, brand owners can enjoy the convenience of Sunrise Services on every new gTLD for all registries.
TMCH Registration Pricing
TMCH Registration Term | Annual Fee (includes 10 labels) |
1 Year | 25,000円 |
3 Years | 75,000円 |
5 Years | 125,000円 |
- It is compulsory that a trademark registrant has a TMCH issued SMD file in order to register new gTLD domain names under the priority registration scheme.
- As a general rule, alphanumerical character sets for TMCH trademark registration must be a complete match to the registered trademark. Should there be any space or special characters used in original registered trademark such as “&” or “@”, registrant is allowed to either remove it or replace it with hyphen “-“ character to register it with TMCH.
- TMCH does not accept registration applications of a same trademark in multiple character sets (example: Japanese trademark in alphabet version, kanji version, hiragana version or katakana version). Additionally, a trademark logo that does not include any character is not accepted by TMCH for registration application.
- Depending on the details of the application, it will take approximately 2 weeks for the trademark to be registered with TMCH database from the time application is received.
- If required information is deemed incomplete, TMCH registration may be rejected.
- Above pricing does not include GST (8%).
- Application fee for TMCH trademark registration is non-refundable regardless of the outcome of its application.
- Bank deposit is currently the only method of payment accepted for TMCH registration application.
TMCH FAQ
Registered trademarks
The following are not considered registered trademarks and will not be eligible for inclusion in the Clearinghouse: Trademark applications; Trademarks registered by a city, state, province, or sub-national region; International trademark applications made via the Madrid system unless the underlying basic trademark registration has national effect; Registered marks that were subject to successful invalidation, cancellation, opposition, or rectification proceedings.
Marks protected by statute or treaty
Exception: Any mark protected under stature or treaty of which the statute or treaty is only applicable to a certain region, city or state.
Court validated marks
Exception: Any state or city court-validated mark