Trademark

A trademark is a legally registered word, phrase, logo, or symbol that identifies the goods or services of one party and distinguishes them from others — and it sits at the center of most domain-name disputes. When a domain matches a protected mark and the registrant cannot show a legitimate interest, the trademark owner can pursue recovery through UDRP arbitration administered by bodies like WIPO, through cybersquatting claims, or via the US ACPA. The Trademark Clearinghouse lets rights-holders pre-register with ICANN to receive early-warning notices when matching names are applied for in new gTLDs. Tokenization does not exempt a domain from trademark law: an NFT representing a domain is still subject to UDRP and ACPA proceedings, and a court or panel can order the underlying DNS registration transferred regardless of who holds the on-chain token. Domain investors and speculators should always run a trademark clearance search before acquiring a name that might correspond to an existing brand. Source: WIPO Trademarks.