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Trademark

A legally protected mark identifying a brand's goods or services, central to many domain disputes.

FBFenwei BianAuthorVZVictor ZhouEditorJune 22, 2026
  • glossary

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.

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Contributors

Fenwei Bian

Software Developer & Writer • Namefi
Author

Fenwei Bian is a software developer in her thirties who spends her working hours in pull requests and her weekends with her hands in soil or sawdust. Years of open source on GitHub taught her that names are interfaces: a good one is clear, honest about what it does, and kind to whoever has to use it next.

She gardens because it rewards patience and punishes wishful thinking, and she does woodwork because a joint either fits or it doesn't. Both habits show up in how she writes about naming — measure twice, check the source, and don't sand over a rough spot and hope no one notices.

For Namefi she writes about how domain markets actually move, the practical trade-offs of tokenizing and flipping names, and picking a domain you'll still be glad you own in twenty years.

GitHub

Victor Zhou

Founder & Standards Editor • Namefi
Editor

Victor Zhou is a technology founder and standards editor focused on digital identity and trust. He founded Namefi, edits Ethereum Improvement Proposals, and previously led smart-contract architecture work at Google Labs.

His work sits at the intersection of naming, ownership, and the systems people use to establish identity online. That perspective makes him especially interested in the way names move between personal meaning, public recognition, and digital infrastructure.

For Namefi, Victor edits and writes about domains as durable digital identity: how names become ownable onchain assets, how tokenization changes custody and trust, and what naming can learn from the systems people use to establish identity online.

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