A new trademark application at the USPTO for GEODOMAIN seems to introduce an alternate function for this generic keyword.
Long after domain investors started using the geo-domain reference for city, town and other landmark domains as a shorthand version of “geographic domain,” an application filed on March 15th seeks to use the word for the following classes:
“IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Providing technological information concerning possible uses for a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area; information services, namely, information services for providing online information in the field of registering geofences or virtual perimeters or boundaries and providing electronic notifications and information about geofences or virtual perimeters or boundaries, namely, geofence identification, region of interest, rules, and entitlements associated with the geofences, virtual perimeters or boundaries, ownership, and class of geofences”
In other words, the GEODOMAIN mark seems to target the “domain” word’s original meaning, but as a digital era variant.
Would owners of geo-domains, or geographic domains be in any type of danger, should this trademark application be approved?
Both Geodomain.com and Geodomains.com were registered in 1998 and are either parked or for sale.
Looks like a local level Government push to secure their regions. If that’s the case, you can not only expect more UDRP’s on Geo’s, you can also expect the filing agency to be contracted with the local target Government. I can see where, say (Example), New York (A U.S. state and Geo) could potentially be losing visitors to their official information sites, which also leads to potential revenue loss for them.
It will be interesting to see this one play out.
I own geodomains.com ? 843-384-7260
Skip – Only using “Atlanta.com” to demonstrate it’s a geo-domain. 🙂 Great name.
Thanks for putting this out there. During the USPTO process, there is a period to oppose the application. The descriptive nature of this application is too broad and should be contested. Will certainly be monitoring.