Centers of Excellence: Trademarks

“.cm” is the country code top level domain assigned to Cameroon.   It is significant to brand owners because Internet users searching for brand owners’ Web sites frequently mistype “.com” as “.cm.” For example, “google.cm” receives approximately 20,000 hits per day.   Previously, the Cameroon government restricted access to .cm and redirected every domain name query to a parking page containing pay-per-click advertising.

However the Cameroon government decided to open up registration of .cm domain names to the public. In order to accommodate trademark owners, there was a “sunrise period” wherein  trademark owners could apply to get the corresponding .cm domain names before registration is available to the general public.   The sunrise ran from June 15, 2009 through yesterday July 14, 2009.

The “Landrush Period” began today, July 15, 2009 and runs through July 31, 2009.   If a  particular trademark was not registered as a .cm domain name during the Sunrise Period, the Landrush Period may  may represent the last opportunity for trademark owners to protect their rights and prevent squatters from registering their brands as .cm domain names.  This is because there is no published dispute policy at this time, and to the extent that such a policy is established, it will likely depend on trademark rights in Cameroon, which many brand owners likely do not possess, leaving them with no remedy.  It should be noted that during the Landrush Period, unlike the Sunrise Period,  if there is more than 1 application for the same domain an auction will be held and the domain will be sold to the highest bidder.

Accordingly, it is highly recommended that brand owners wishing to protect their brands from domain name abuse and avoid the risk of significant internet traffic intended for their websites being diverted to competitors, as well as  increased marketing costs, submit an application to register their most important brands as “.cm” domain names during the Landrush Period.

These materials have been prepared by Winston & Strawn for informational purposes only. These materials do not constitute legal advice and cannot be relied upon by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties imposed under the Internal Revenue Code.