We will return to our regularly scheduled Branding 101 posts next week, but this week we wanted to share an alert with you about a way brand owners can protect their rights against infringers in the new online gTLD environment.

The generic top-level domain (gTLD) initiative of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is well under way. This initiative will soon unleash hundreds of new domain name extensions on the Internet, including .tech, .music, .app, .news and many more. Brand owners should consider registering their marks with the Trademark Clearinghouse, which is collecting information to be used for sunrise periods and the trademark claims service. These programs aim to help brand owners protect their rights against infringers in the new online gTLD environment.

To read the full alert, click here.