San Francisco-based multimedia ecommerce company BRS Media will launch radio’s new “Global Domain Extensions,” or Radio GLDs, with a “sunrise period” for trademark owners worldwide.
CEO George Bundy told Radio World that, in layman’s terms, this is an expansion of what BRS already does within “dot-AM” and “dot-FM,” so as to include “dot-radio-dot-AM” and “dot-radio-dot-FM” and reach a slightly different audience.
“As it grows and changes, there’s going to be a need for different varieties,” Bundy said.
They’re accepting registrations of companies or organizations that want to block their trademarked names, “as a courtesy” before the general public has the ability to register within the space, according to Bundy.
TM.Biz will operate this phase of the Radio.am and Radio.fm global domains process, validating both trademark applications as well as trademark “Mark IDs” from ICANN’s Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), according to a release from BRS.
The rules and procedures for the Radio Global Domain Sunrise Period will follow the same rules published by ICANN for the validation of trademarks into the Trademark Clearinghouse.
According to the release, the sunrise phase will offer an industry first, flat rate application fee with validation-block on both GLDs. To accredited registrars, it will cover the trademark application, and upon validation a full 10-year block awarded in both Radio.am and Radio.fm Global Domain Extensions.
“It’s a standard process registries go through these days,” Bundy said. “The ‘landrush period’ will be the first time anyone is able to register for that space. We have priority in place for licensed radio stations that want to register their call signs, which also can be somewhat used without the station’s approval. They’ll get a priority.”
Any radio station that has a licensed call sign can submit an application. The landrush period begins on July 1.
The list of “sunrise registrars” is available here.
