Vox Populi applies for '.sucks' US trademark
Vox Populi, the registry responsible for managing the .sucks domain, has applied to trademark the controversial suffix at the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Filed last Wednesday, July 22, the trademark application is intended to cover services for domain name registrations and registry operation.
John Berard, chief executive of Vox Populi, told WIPR that the application was a “prudent and normal action for any company investing in a brand” to take.
The .sucks sunrise period began on March 30. The domain is “designed to help consumers find their voices and allow companies to find the value in criticism”, according to Vox Populi.
Last month the domain became available for all internet users to register.
Its launch has proven controversial. Vox Populi charged registrars $1,999 to sell a .sucks address to brand owners during the sunrise period and recommended that those registrars charge their clients $2,499 for a registration.
Brand protection company MarkMonitor said it would only charge an administrative fee to brands registering a .sucks domain because it does not want to profit from a domain that is “counter to everything we stand for”.
Earlier this year, Greg Shatan, president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’s (ICANN) Intellectual Property Constituency, described the pricing structure as a “shakedown scheme”.
But Berard has repeatedly told WIPR’s sister publication TBO that the pricing structure does not break any of ICANN’s rules.
He said the price of a .sucks registration “ reflects what we perceive to be the value of the name space”.
In April, ICANN asked the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Canada’s Office for Consumer Affairs (OCA) to investigate the legality of the pricing structure.
Both offices neither confirmed nor denied whether they would investigate, but in June the FTC suggested ICANN should review some of its gTLD policies.
The OCA said in a separate statement that Canadian law “provides recourse ... to protect trademark owners and consumers” from abusive .sucks registrations.
