.ape and .magic are trying to register a US trademark
by Research » Thu 18. Jul 2024, 16:36
The US start-up D3 Global has filed trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the two top-level domains .ape and .magic. It is already known that the APE Foundation, self-appointed “steward” of the cryptocurrency ApeCoin (APE), intends to apply to the internet administration ICANN for .ape; no application for .magic has been publicly known to date. However, the application collides with the USPTO's long-standing practice of rejecting trademark applications for top level domains. Kevin Kreuser, Director of Legal and Compliance at D3, explains the move as follows: “There is no brightline rule against trademark registrations covering domain name services involving TLDs. For example, fTLD has successfully registered trademarks for .bank and .insurance. The goal of filing the trademark applications is the same for all trademarks - we want to do whatever we practically can to help guard consumers from confusion.” This statement is inaccurate; the fTLD trademarks concern logos, not word marks for .bank or .insurance. It is therefore expected that the USPTO will not grant trademark protection for .ape and .magic either.