Name.space Claims Trademark Protection Over 482 gTLDs

An American company has filed for trademark protection for a number of its existing portfolio of 482 of what it claims to be generic Internet Top-Level Domains (gTLDs), many of them plurals of a variety of words.Name.space was founded in 1996, and describes themselves as a privately held TLD registry company based in New York City. The company also claims to own the world’s largest exclusive portfolio of gTLDs and that they are the bona-fide originator of hundreds of gTLDs.”This is an exciting day for all of us here at name.space,” said Alex Mashinsky, CEO of name.space. “We have been using these gTLDs in commerce since 1996, and so we already have trademark protection for these and our other gTLDs. But filing for formal recognition is part of our strategy to help the market realize the value of our existing portfolio of gTLDs and the high quality of service name.space provides and that users actively associate with these gTLDs and name.space.”name.space say they will be participating in the 2012 ICANN application round, both to file applications for ICANN recognition of name.space’s gTLDs and to protect name.space’s existing rights. In addition, name.space will apply for ICANN recognition of 118 gTLDs that are still pending from the 2000 application round.Some of those gTLDs name.space will be claiming their rights to include some of the more hotly sought after strings including .MUSIC, .GREEN, .SHOP, .GAY and .NYC. A full list is available on their website here.”ICANN will have to resolve these open applications to preserve the integrity of the application process,” said Paul Garrin, name.space’s founder. “We have noted the plans of other registry hopefuls to participate in the 2012 application round. But none of those other entities has our combination of longstanding origination and use and existing unresolved applications from the 2000 process. That puts us in the leading position.”