Brand protection

Protecting your digital identity is crucial. You can secure your intellectual property and prevent unauthorized domain registrations across various top-level domains (TLDs) using STACKIT brand protection services.

Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH)

The regulatory foundation of your global brand protection strategy

For proactive protection of your trademark rights in the digital space, registering in the TMCH represents a crucial strategic step. The TMCH forms the official core system established by the internet governance body ICANN to secure corporate identities within the Domain Name System (DNS}.

What is the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH)

The Trademark Clearinghouse is the only central database for verified trademark rights authorized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

With the continuous introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs such as .gmbh, .shop, .app or .expert), the risk of trademark infringement rose. The TMCH serves as a global authority that provides trademark owners with an automated tool to enforce their rights across all new registries.

Central validation principle

Instead of proving your intellectual property rights separately to each new domain registry, you complete a one-time, central validation process with the TMCH. Specialists verify the legal validity of your trademark according to strict criteria. After successful verification, the global DNS stores your trademark as a protected entity.

Strategic benefits of the TMCH

A TMCH registration activates two essential protective mechanisms and unlocks eligibility for advanced security applications. This reduces the workload for both your legal department and your brand management:

1. Exclusive priority right: the Sunrise phase:

Before the public launch of a new domain extension, registry operators must legally offer a Sunrise phase of at least 30 days.

• Your privilege: Only trademark owners registered in the TMCH possess the exclusive right to purchase domains that match their exact trademark name during this period.
• The benefit: You secure business-critical domains before competitors or third parties can access them, which prevents expensive recovery proceedings.

2. Preventive early warning system: the Trademark Claims Service Following the Sunrise phase, a two-stage automated warning mechanism triggers during general registration if a third party attempts to register your trademark name as a domain:

• Warning obligation for registrants: The system displays a binding notice to the potential buyer during the real-time ordering process. This notice informs them that the registration may infringe upon an active trademark. This process results in a high abandonment rate among opportunistic cybersquatters.
• Real-time notification to the trademark owner: If the applicant ignores the warning and completes the registration, the system automatically notifies you or STACKIT as your consolidating partner.
• The benefit: You receive maximum transparency and minimal response time to initiate immediate legal action (such as UDRP proceedings) before the unauthorized website goes live.

3. Technical foundation for advanced protection programs (such as DPML):

Successful validation in the TMCH is the mandatory technical and legal prerequisite to activate highly preventive blocking services such as DPML or GlobalBlock. You only obtain access to these cost-effective blocking and protection programs through the Signed Mark Data (SMD) file issued by the TMCH.

The validation process: efficient and secure

The registration process requires legal precision and deep knowledge of the ICANN guidelines. As your strategic partner, we manage the entire process:

1. Data collection: We review your existing trademarks (national trademarks, EUIPO, and WIPO etc.) and prepare the data.

2. Compliance check and submission: We submit the documents to the TMCH verification body in compliance with all formal requirements.

3. Certification (SMD generation): After successful validation by the TMCH, the system generates the encrypted Signed Mark Data (SMD) file – your digital license for priority domain protection.

4. Lifecycle management: Depending on the selected term (one, three, or five years), we monitor the validation status and manage the recertification process in a timely manner.

The following table compares the scenarios without Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) protection to the strategic advantages of registering your trademark:

Scenario without TMCH protection	Strategic advantage with the TMCH
Reactive action: You often detect infringements only after unauthorized third parties launch harmful websites, such as phishing or counterfeit sites.	Proactive detection: You receive immediate, automated notifications upon attempted or completed registrations by third parties.
Loss of core domains:: Competitors or cybersquatters block strategically important new domain extensions.	Exclusive market access: You receive a priority registration right during the legally mandated Sunrise phases.
Inefficiency and high costs: You face fragmented administrative effort and repetitive verification procedures for each new gTLD.	Scalability: A single validation offers universal protection across all participating top-level domains.

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Domains Protected Marks List (DPML)

What is the Domains Protected Marks List (DPML)?

DPML stands for Domains Protected Marks List. This represents a preventive brand protection mechanism provided by Identity Digital (formerly Donuts).

Instead of registering hundreds of individual domain extensions (top-level domains or TLDs such as .gmbh, .tech, .online, or .app) separately to prevent third parties from abusing your brand name, DPML blocks your name across all participating extensions with a single application.

How the protection mechanism works?

You can think of DPML as a digital shield. Once the system records your brand name, it blocks registrations by third parties.

• No active website: The blocked domains remain inactive and do not redirect visitors anywhere.
• No cybersquatting: Only you can purchase a domain with your exact brand name under the covered extensions.

Prerequisite: the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH)

To use DPML, you must register and verify your trademark in the Trademark Clearinghouse TMCH — the central database of ICANN for registered trademarks. The TMCH issues a Signed Mark Data (SMD) file to you. This file serves as your digital credential, which we use to activate DPML for you.

Concrete benefits of DPML for your organization

Manually monitoring and registering brand terms across hundreds of domain extensions presents a significant challenge for marketing and legal departments. DPML provides you with key advantages in this area:

1. Significant cost savings Registering and renewing hundreds of individual domains (such as your-brand.tech, your-brand.global, and your-brand.business annually) quickly adds up to five-figure sums per year. A DPML subscription blocks all these extensions at a fraction of the cost of individual registrations.

2. Efficient protection against cybersquatting and phishing Threat actors use typos or alternative extensions of well-known brands to set up phishing sites or damage corporate reputations. DPML proactively deprives these actors of this opportunity, as they cannot register the domains in the first place.

3. Reduction of legal costs (UDRP/Legal Actions) Blocking a domain from the start is far more cost-effective than recovering it later from a cybersquatter through expensive legal counsel or arbitration proceedings, such as the WIPO UDRP process.

4. Flexibility for your business (DPML override) A major advantage of DPML is that the block only applies to third parties. If your organization decides to launch a new product under one of the blocked extensions (such as your-brand.shop), you as the trademark owner can lift the block (override) at any time and register the domain for your own use.

DPML features overview

The following table provides an overview of the features of DPML and DPML Plus:

Feature	DPML	DPML Plus
Number of TLDs	More than 240 extensions (such as .business, .live, and .world)	Same as DPML
Protection period	Flexible selection (typically one to 10 years)	Same as DPML
Exact match	Blocks the exact trademark name	Same as DPML
Extended protection	No standard protection	Option to protect terms that contain the trademark or include typographical errors

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AdultBlock

Preventive brand protection within adult top-level domains

For companies of any scale, the protection of a good reputation and brand integrity is a core asset. A specific challenge in corporate brand management is the unauthorized registration of trademark terms in connection with adult content. The risk of reputation damage (tarnishment), blackmail by cybersquatters, or targeted phishing is disproportionately high in this sector.

With the rights protection programs AdultBlock and AdultBlock+ (initiated by the ICM Registry), globally operating companies have a highly effective toolkit at their disposal to proactively and comprehensively neutralize trademark names in this sensitive digital space.

What are AdultBlock and AdultBlock+?

AdultBlock and AdultBlock+ are specialized, defensive blocking services. They enable trademark owners to completely block the registration of their protected names across all four established adult top-level domains (TLDs) with a single mandate:

• .xxx
• .porn
• .adult
• .sex

As soon as the block is active, the corresponding addresses cannot be registered by unauthorized third parties. Unlike a defensive registration, no nameservers need to be maintained for these domains—they exist in the DNS as blocked, non-resolving entities.

Strategic benefits for corporate customers

The deployment of AdultBlock systems is a pure governance and risk minimization measure. It offers your legal department and your brand management significant advantages:

Uncompromising protection against brand tarnishment

The association of an established corporate brand with content from the adult industry—whether through malicious intent or free-riding—can have devastating consequences for customer trust and brand value. AdultBlock removes the technical foundation for these scenarios before any damage can occur.

Drastic reduction of monitoring and legal costs

The classic defense of a brand via reactive monitoring services requires permanent screening and leads to cost-intensive legal disputes (such as UDRP proceedings before the WIPO) in an emergency. AdultBlock transforms your strategy from reactive defense to proactive prevention: where no domain can be registered, no legal dispute arises.

Efficient portfolio management and cost advantages

Manually registering, paying for, and managing individual domains across multiple TLDs binds administrative resources and causes significant, recurring fees. Bundling via an AdultBlock mandate reduces the administrative effort to a single asset and is highly cost-efficient compared to four individual registrations over long terms (up to 10 years possible).

Integrated “AutoCatch” principle

If a relevant domain under one of the four extensions is still occupied by a third party at the time of your block application, the automated monitoring of the registry takes effect: as soon as this third-party registration expires, is deleted, or fails, the domain is immediately intercepted by the system (AutoCatch) and permanently integrated into your existing protection block.

Technical prerequisites for activation

To maintain the integrity of the system, blocks can only be set up for legitimate trademark owners. A valid entry in the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) and the resulting SMD file (Signed Mark Data) serve as primary proof. Alternatively, the system has its own verification process for state-registered trademarks, trade names, or company labels.

Summary: Direct comparison of protection tiers

Protection feature	AdultBlock	AdultBlock+
Covered TLDs	.xxx, .porn, .adult, and .sex	.xxx, .porn, .adult, and .sex
Exact trademark name	Yes	Yes
Premium domains included	Yes	Yes
AutoCatch (for occupied domains)	Yes	Yes
Homoglyph and typo protection	No	Yes (unlimited variants)
Terms	1, 3, 5, or 10 years	1, 3, 5, or 10 years

Fully protect your brand identity

The AdultBlock infrastructure closes a critical flank in your company’s digital risk management. It ensures that your trademark rights remain untouched even in the most sensitive zones of the internet.

Our corporate service team will gladly analyze your existing brand portfolio, verify the validation prerequisites, and manage the full implementation of AdultBlock or AdultBlock+ for you. Contact us for a sound security analysis.

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GlobalBlock

The GlobalBlock and GlobalBlock+ services are currently under development and will be available in the STACKIT Domain Portal soon.

GlobalBlock is a proactive brand protection service that allows trademark owners to secure their intellectual property across a wide network of domain extensions (TLDs) simultaneously.

Core functionality

Instead of registering your brand name defensively under hundreds of individual top-level domains, GlobalBlock establishes a centralized block. Once active, the system automatically prevents third parties from registering domain names that match your protected trademark within all participating registries.

Service variants

The service scales into two protective tiers to match your security requirements:

• Standard block: Prevents exact matches of your trademarked name across standard generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and participating country-code extensions (ccTLDs).
• Premium block (GlobalBlock+): Extends protection by blocking look-alike names, common misspellings, and variations with special characters across the entire registry network.