Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH)
The Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) is a central repository established by [[icann]] to support the rights of trademark holders during the rollout of new generic top-level domains. Rights holders register their validated trademarks with TMCH, enabling two key protections: priority registration during [[sunrise-trademark]] periods before a new TLD opens to the general public, and Trademark Claims notices that alert both the registrant and the trademark holder when someone attempts to register a matching domain. TMCH validation requires submission of trademark certificates and can cover word marks in multiple jurisdictions, providing a scalable mechanism to reduce [[cybersquatting]] across hundreds of new TLD extensions.
Example
By registering its brand in the Trademark Clearinghouse, Nike received advance notice when a third party attempted to register 'nike.photography' during the new TLD rollout, allowing it to block the registration during the claims period.