Company files trademark applications for .tickets and dottickets.
.Tickets is up there on the list of most contested top level domain applications. Five companies have applied for the name.
Applicant Shubert Internet last week filed two intent-to-use trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The applications are for “.tickets” and “dottickets”.
In addition to goods and services related to event ticketing, the company says the names are for “registration, transfer and account management services of domain names for identification of users on a global computer network”.
As we’ve seen dozens of times (over 100?), the USPTO will reject these applications. Whether the intent is to somehow get a leg up on the competition or to protect the “brand” once it becomes a top level domain, the USPTO doesn’t grant trademarks on top level domains.
The applicant could have asked its registry provider, Minds + Machines, for advice on trademark filings. I bet it would have told Shubert not to waste its time.
The other applicants for .tickets are CloudNames, Donuts, Tickets TLD/Afilias, and Famous Four Media.
Schubert Internet is connected to The Shubert Organization. The company bills itself as “America’s oldest professional theatre company and the largest theatre owner on the Great White Way.”
