.Co trademark program concludes.
.Co announced today that 100% of the world’s top 100 brands have secured their .co domain name through the registry’s Specially Protected Marks Program, or “SPM.â€
SPM provided a way for companies on the Deloitte Brand List to get their .co domains without the traditional expense and time required. Among the companies securing their .co domain through SPM are Facebook, Ferrari, Blackberry, Siemens, Sanyo, Amazon, Honda, GAP and Barbie.
The program is somewhat similar to the idea of having a “globally protected marks list” when new top level domain names launch. There is still a lot of debate around the idea, with much of the debate concerning which brands would actually make the list. You can imagine that brands listed 101-200 would push for an extended list.
What .co did was a win-win. It protected the rights of mark holders and won their praise. But .co can also now say that the world’s top 100 brands have secured their .co domain. That’s good publicity.
Jim Davies says
Whilst this may be a win-win for .co and the 100 trademark owners on the list, I do not think it is at all good for the wider community.
It perpetuates a myth that trademarks and domains are somehow synonymous ; and that trademark owners should have priority for a domain where there might well be legitimate alternative users.
Blackberry and Amazon are generic English words and the right to register and use them has not passed to the owners of trademarks in particular classes. Likewise, Philips is a common surname. It is easy to imagine legitimate uses for these domains (and others in the list) that would not involve infringing the rights of the trademark holder.
.co should not be applauded for having done this. It will doubtless be used as ammunition in the GPM debate relating to the new gTLDs.
EuropeanDomainCentre says
The .co launch should be THE role model for new top level domain introductions.
Made me laugh when I saw the new .jobs regulation, where they personally approve new .jobs domain, and allow themselves to take back the domain if they feel like it at any given time.