international trademark domain-name
Would Google&#39;s Alphabet Inc. have any rights to alpha.bet?
<p>If you own a "Google" trademark, then your sunrise rights to "google" in any of the newly proposed generic TLDs would likely be quite straightforward.</p>

<p>However, what about domain hacks?  There appears to be a new ".bet" zone, and "alphabet.com" has already been taken by BMW's global devision of fleet management, famously leaving Google's Alhabet Inc.'s new address as a mere "abc.xyz", even though Google's founders do mention that "Alphabet" is not just <em>the abc</em>, but also the <em>alpha&nbsp;bet</em>&nbsp;&mdash; "investment return above benchmark".</p>

<p>Would Google's <em>Alphabet Inc.</em> have any rights to <em>alpha.bet</em> during sunrise?</p>

<p>According to ICANN: only if they have trademark rights in the label "alpha". (The label is defined as the word between the dots and is determined after illegal characters are resolved with nothing or a hyphen. This means that the trademark <em>A_L_P_H_A</em> and <em>alpha</em> both become just <em>alpha</em> for the purposes of this process.)</p>

<p>If another <em>alpha</em> trademark holder also tries to register alpha.bet the applicants will <a href="https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/about/trademark-clearinghouse/faqs" rel="nofollow">end up in the clearinghouse for resolution during the claims period</a> which follows the sunrise period. </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The Trademark Claims period follows the Sunrise period and runs for at
  least the first 90 days of an initial operating period of general
  registration. 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.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>See section 2.1 in the <a href="https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/about/trademark-clearinghouse/matching-rules-24sep12-en.pdf" rel="nofollow">New gTLD Program: Trademark Clearinghouse</a> memo. The clearinghouse is the system whereby the matches are identified and processed. </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>All Clearinghouse trademark comparisons occur by comparing the textual
  elements of a mark with the second level label of the domain name
  being registered. When all and only the complete and identical textual
  elements exist in both the trademark and the label, it is considered
  an identical match. For example, the trademark  and the domain
  label “ICANN” to be used in a domain name such as “icann.org” would be
  an identical match.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>If two entities both hold a trademark in the same gTLD label they ultimately end up in auction where the domain goes to the highest bidder. (<a href="https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/auctions" rel="nofollow">Understanding Auctions</a>).</p>

<p>If the bidder who wins ends up registering a site in an infringing manner it's up to the mark holder to <a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/trademark-2013-05-03-en" rel="nofollow">resolve the dispute using their local courts.</a></p>
