Firm offers .xxx trademark checks

We’ve seen domain “reservation” services and “preregistration” services, now the soon-to-launch .xxx top-level domain is getting a pre-sunrise trademark verification service.

Trademark Fact Check is a new offering from EnCirca president Tom Barrett and Mark Kudlacik, formerly of NetNames and now president of Checkmark Network.

It’s an automated tool for checking whether a trademark will qualify for the .xxx sunrise period – and the sunrise periods of other new gTLDs – according to the service’s web site.

The output, among other things, consists of a list of domain names you qualify to register in the sunrise.

It supports about 30 national jurisdictions.

Checks will cost $10 a pop, but Barrett and Kudlacik think they can save applicants money.

If a sunrise application is rejected due to a filing error, the only option is to pay again to file again, which for .xxx is likely to cost at least $200 with the cheapest registrars.

There’s a money back guarantee if Trademark Fact Check says an application will pass and it does not.

I’m not sure how much of a market there will be for this kind of thing when the new gTLDs start to launch in 2013 and sunrise trademark validation will be largely handled by the Trademark Clearinghouse.

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Tagged: checkmark network, encirca, icm registry, new TLDs, trademark fact check, xxx