This year, hundreds of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are changing the landscape of the Internet. The long-awaited result of ICANN’s new gTLD program, top-level domains such as .NYC, .WINE, and .WTF will now join the familiar ranks of domains such as .COM and .NET. As we’ve written about previously, ICANN provided brand owners, trademark holders, and distinct communities the opportunity to object to proposed gTLDs before they were approved or “delegated” to registry operators. The window for filing these objections ended in March of 2013 and the final objections were resolved in early 2014. While some top-level domains were successfully blocked by this objection process, the majority of objected-to domains were cleared for delegation. However, even though ICANN’s gTLD Objection Procedure has closed, brand owners may now have a second opportunity to object to top-level domain registry operators’ complicity or participation in trademark infringement, whether stemming from use of a gTLD string itself or second-level domains registered in the domain.
