TransPerfect Technologies LLC, operators of Translations.com, have filed for the registration of the matching trademark, TRANSLATIONS.COM.
The USPTO application involves standard characters without claim to any particular font style, size, or color, for the following services:
- Consulting services in the field of internet marketing, namely, website localization and software localization; search engine optimization for sales promotion; business consulting services in the field of globalization management; development of advertising content, namely, content authoring and website content development; business consulting services in the field e-commerce
- Language translation and interpretation services
- Updating computer software, namely, software localization; Testing of computer software; technological consultation in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine translation, content management systems, e-commerce systems, voice response systems; Information rights management in the nature of cybersecurity services, namely, restricting unauthorized access to computer systems featuring documents containing sensitive information
- Regulatory compliance consulting in the field of language translation and interpretation
Registered in 1995, the domain appears to have been used commercially by the current registrant since 1999, according to the trademark application. There are no records of the domain’s sales that we could locate and WHOIS records only go back to 2003.
Ergo, Archive.org to the rescue! This page from 1999 reveals that the domain was available to acquire from its registrant at the time, WordTel. By May 8, 1999 the domain had been sold.
And that’s not all: Here’s a list of 32 domains available from the same seller at the time, some of which were marked as “sold:”
ASIACONSULT.COM
BICYCLETOURS.COM
CANOLAOIL.COM
CHAMBEROFCOMMERCE.COM
CHINACOM.COM
CHINAFRANCHISE.COM
COMMODITIESWORLD.COM
CONSULTANTSWORLD.COM
CORPFINANCEASIA.COM
CUSTOMSBROKER.COM
EDIBLEOILS.COM
ENGINEERINGCOM.COM
ENVIRONMENTLAW.COM
FASTFOOD.COM
IMPORTEXPORT.COM
IMPORT-PHIL.COM
INTERNATIONALAW.COM
INVESTASIA.COM
JOBMARKET.COM
LAWCENTER.COM
MERCHANTBANK.COM
OIL-GAS.COM
PACRIM-LAW.COM
PERSONNELWORLD.COM
STOCKBROKER.COM
TAXATIONLAW.COM
TRADEINTERNATIONAL.COM
TRANSLATIONS.COM
WEBCASH.COM
WORLDCONVENTIONS.COM
WORLDPERSONNEL.COM
YELLOWEBPAGES.COM
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.
