Trademark Clearinghouse

The Trademark Clearinghouse (TMC) is a database of trademarks that was established by ICANN in order to enhance the protection of intellectual property on the Internet. The main role of TMC was to serve as a central repository for the information related to the rights of trademark owners to be stored, authenticated and distributed. Use of the TMC is included in process of applying for a new gTLD, as stipulated by the Draft Applicant Guidebook (published in November 2010).

Structure

The Trademark Clearinghouse is divided into two branches.

Validation Centre

The Trademark Clearinghouse's Validation Centre authenticates intellectual property rights (IPR) claims through research. The TMC also helps applicants to rectify mistakes made in their IPR validation request. Each IPR validation request is assigned with a unique case number. Cases may be awarded with the status of "Verified," in which case the case is transferred to the Data Centre using EPP/XML. The validation centre also periodically revalidates already-verified cases stored in the data centre.

The TMC is unbiased in its researching, and does not reject IPR validation requests simply on the basis that the same term is already owned in their system by another party.

Data Centre

The Data Centre holds all "Verified" IPR cases. A reference number is applied to each case that works as an identification number for the term and owner. The Data Centre also saves copies of all cases in escrow and operates in a database known as the ‘WhoHas,’ in which third parties can access the records. It also supports accredited registrars by providing a case reference number to it so that it can be used in a registration request. It also pushes lists of the ‘Verified’ cases to registries which are in accordance of the eligibility requirements of that registry. It also supports the IP Claims process by sending out the IP Claims whenever a third party applies for a ‘Verified’ term that is stored in the Data Centre. The Data Centre of the TMC doesn’t award the domain name registrations nor does it prioritize any ‘Verified’ case over the others. It also doesn’t provide disadvantage to any of the ‘Verified’ case as it is not ASCII script nor does it support front-running.