Sunrise Recommendation #6 In the absence of wide support for a change to the status quo, the Working Group recommends that the mandatory Sunrise Period should be maintained. |
Context:
The Working Group had diverging opinions on whether the Sunrise Period should continue being mandatory or should become optional.
Trademark and brand owners supported that the Sunrise Period should continue being mandatory. The Working Group also noted that there were 64,000+ Sunrise registrations across 484 gTLDs as of August 2017.
Some Registry Operators indicated a desire to choose between Sunrise and Trademark Claims services. The Working Group also noted that blocking services such as DPML and DPML Plus may be an alternative to the Sunrise Period, although not every Registry Operator offers blocking mechanisms.
Some Working Group members had concerns about the continuation of the mandatory Sunrise Period. Their concerns stemmed from the suspicion that trademark owners may have the potential to abuse Sunrise due to TMCH’s acceptance of non-standard character claim marks and common/dictionary words, as well as the broad scope of registration within the TMCH. However, there is a lack of concrete evidence to substantiate the suspicion.
