In 2017, Ballet Makers, Inc. acquired the registration of the mark DANCE.COM. The mark consists of the wording “DANCE.COM” with “DANCE” stylized in handwritten script, capitalized, and underlined; and “.COM” in a sans serif font and a significantly smaller font size than “DANCE”.
Oddly, the company has re-applied for the registration of a (seemingly) identical mark for DANCE.COM for the same products and services as before: Providing consumer information and related news in the field of dance.
It is not clear what this fresh application for registration would achieve. What is interesting, however, is that the applicant provided proof of use of the mark as seen on their Facebook page. The domain name Dance.com forwards to Capezio.com, an online store of dance gear.
Registered in 1995, Dance.com has not been reported as sold via NameBio.
Applying for the registration of matching marks is an ongoing trend among owners of generic domain names, following the decision by SCOTUS on the Booking.com trademark application.
Since then, dozens of generic domain names have been applied to be registered as trademarks, inclusive of the TLD.
As of January 5th, 2021, BOOKING.COM is a registered trademark with the USPTO.
Will these applications become the new norm? Watch this video from NamesCon Online 2020.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dancecom-debuts-as-the-first-editorial-website-dedicated-to-covering-the-full-spectrum-of-dance-300412365.html
Robert – I see that Dance.com is owned by Capezio but the domain itself is forwarding so I don’t see how it’s being used in the USPTO sense.
I remember seeing online when this change first came about, then later it forwarded to capezio.com.
I just used the archive to see one of the first pages, it also shows a picture of the facebook header page on there.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170302042832/https://www.dance.com/