What is the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH)?
The Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) is the ICANN-mandated database of verified trademarks behind every new gTLD launch. A verified record produces a Signed Mark Data (SMD) file. That file unlocks Sunrise priority registration, triggers Trademark Claims notices, and feeds Ongoing Notifications for as long as the record stays active. Sunrise registrations and some blocking services are dependent upon active TMCH status. It is an outsourced service run by Deloitte.
Think of it as a passport office for trademarks. You bring proof. They check it. If it holds, you get a document the rest of the system recognizes.
ICANN created the TMCH in the run-up to the 2012 new gTLD round as part of a wider commitment to implement rights protection mechanisms to satisfy some of the concerns of the IP community when the namespace grew from a handful of extensions to more than a thousand. Its job has two halves. First, it authenticates rights holders and verifies trademark records. Second, it stores those records in a database that registries and registrars consult during launches. The SMD file is the token that ties the two halves together.
Three things the TMCH is not:
- Not a registrar. It does not register domain names. You still need a registrar to act on the rights it verifies.
- Not a trademark office. It verifies marks that already exist. Applications still pending at a national or regional office cannot be verified.
- Not a watch service for the whole internet. Sunrise and Claims apply to new gTLD launches. They do not reach into legacy extensions such as .com or into country-code TLDs.
What marks does the Trademark Clearinghouse accept?
The Clearinghouse verifies three kinds of marks: registered trademarks from a national or regional office, marks protected by statute or treaty, and court-validated marks. Registration alone is not enough. You also file proof of use: a signed declaration plus a sample showing the mark on an actual product or service. In the Markmonitor New gTLD Report interview, the TMCH’s Kenny Van Cauter named the unsigned declaration as one of the most common reasons verification stalls.
Subscriptions run one, three, or five years. Proof of use is valid for five. At renewal, the TMCH re-confirms that the information on file is still accurate.
What forms of rights protection mechanisms does the TMCH offer?
Each new gTLD launches in phases. Each phase has a TMCH mechanism attached, and the sequence matters, because each one has a clock.
| Protection | What it does | When it runs | What it does not do |
| Sunrise | Lets verified rights holders register the exact-match domain before anyone else | The opening phase of a launch, typically 30 to 60 days | Does not run indefinitely. Does not cover variants or typos. |
| Trademark Claims | Shows a would-be registrant a notice that the name matches a verified mark; notifies the mark holder if they proceed anyway | The first 90 days after Sunrise closes | Does not block the registration. A registrant can read the notice and continue. |
| Ongoing Notifications | Alerts the mark holder when a matching name (or an added variant) is registered in any new gTLD | Indefinitely, as long as the record is verified and active | Does not prevent anything. It is an early-warning system, not a wall. |
Sunrise: the first brand TMCH protection phase
Sunrise is the only protection that acts before the infringement, not after it. A verified record gives you the SMD file. The SMD file gives you the right to register your mark in a new extension before general availability and any early access or landrush phase. Van Cauter’s phrase for it in the interview: the TMCH can “stop infringers before they even get the chance to infringe.”
That is the whole value. When the window shuts, the value goes with it.
Trademark Claims: brands receive warnings of infringements
For 90 days after Sunrise, anyone trying to register a name that matches a TMCH record receives a notice. It tells them that the name they are registering may infringe another party’s rights. Most bad actors stop. Some do not. If they continue, the TMCH notifies you, and the decision on what to do next (a UDRP filing, a cease-and-desist, or nothing) is yours.
Claims informs. It does not enforce.
Ongoing Notifications: the long watch over your validated brand marks
The Claims period ends. Registrations do not. Ongoing Notifications carry the alert function forward for the life of the record, and they add something Sunrise and Claims cannot: variants. A rights holder can register a set of altered strings, with characters added, removed, or swapped, including homoglyphs (e.g., a zero standing in for the letter O), and receive notice when any of them is registered. Over the first decade of the service, the TMCH sent roughly 1.5 million of these notifications.
Why the Trademark Clearinghouse is even more essential for online brand protection in 2026
ICANN’s second application round opened in April 2026 with a 15-week window that has since closed. Every string delegated from this round will launch with its own Sunrise and Claims periods, even if it’s a dotBrand TLD, and the TMCH is the mechanism that lets you use them. Fourteen years ago, brands learned this in real time. This time, the calendar was known in advance.
The round also changed what the SMD file is for; even a dotBrand application requires one. In fact, Stuart Fuller, Markmonitor Group SVP, Commercial and new gTLD expert, noted that, “the ICANN application system would not let you submit your dotBrand application without a valid SMD file.” Com Laude and the TMCH co-authored a white paper on that path this year, and its counsel was blunt: start TMCH verification well before the deadline, because any gap in certificates, evidence, or documentation creates delay.
When does the new gTLD pre-launch brand protection shield stop working?
These are the periods that need to be accounted for and your legal and domain management teams mindful of.
Sunrise closes
Thirty to sixty days, then general availability. Miss it, and you are in line with everyone else, including the parties who were waiting for you to miss it.
Claims expires
Ninety days. After that, registrants see no warning notice at all upon registration.
Records lapse
A record is verified for its designated term and no longer. The day it expires, notifications stop. The TMCH published its own numbers on this in August 2026: nearly one in three matching domain registrations went unreported to the trademark holder because the record was expired, deactivated, or otherwise invalid at the time of registration. That is more than 500,000 notifications that were never sent, roughly 50% more than the service actually delivered. Each one was a potentially malicious registration that a rights holder wasn’t notified of by the TMCH due to their expired record.
Proof of use ages out
Five years, then you re-confirm or re-submit the proof-of-use of your mark. So, if the product or service has changed in that time, then the submitted sample required by the TMCH has to change accordingly.
Ownership moves
The SMD file represents the mark and the holder as verified. Assign the mark, rename the entity, or restructure after an acquisition, and the record has to move with it. A file that names the wrong holder is a file a registry will not honor.
Some Domain Blocking services rely on the SMD
Some domain blocking solutions, which allow a brand to keep a string out of many extensions without registering it in each one, use the SMD file in the ordering process. No active record, no block with those services.
Exact match has limits
Sunrise and Claims work on identical-match rules. The typo, the hyphenated version, the extra letter: those live only in Ongoing Notifications, and only if you added them.
A five-point check for your brand’s legal counsel
- Inventory. Which marks are in the TMCH, under whose name, and with what expiry date?
- Tier. Markmonitor’s domain strategy guidance recommends TMCH records for every Tier 1 brand. Confirm the record set matches the current tier list, not the one from the last rebrand.
- Term. Where a mark is core to the business, the five-year term removes four renewal dates from the risk register.
- Variants. Decide which altered strings and homoglyphs belong in Ongoing Notifications and add them.
- Calendar. Map the 2026 round’s expected launches against the records you hold. Markmonitor’s new gTLD experts can guide and assist with this brand protection exercise.
How do Markmonitor and the TMCH work together to protect your brand online?
Most trademark holders do not deal with the Trademark Clearinghouse directly. They work through an official TMCH agent, and Markmonitor is one. We prepare and submit the records, manage renewals and proof-of-use refreshes, hold the SMD files, and use them on your behalf: Sunrise registrations, blocking orders, and the dotBrand application file if you are in the round. When an Ongoing Notification arrives, your Domain Portfolio Advisor is the person who reads it with you and lays out the recovery options.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Trademark Clearinghouse?
The Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) is the ICANN-established database of verified trademark records used in new gTLD launches. It authenticates rights holders, verifies marks, and issues a Signed Mark Data (SMD) file that enables Sunrise registration, Trademark Claims notices, and Ongoing Notifications.
How do I protect my brand marks online before a new extension launches?
Verify the mark in the TMCH, obtain the SMD file, and use it to register the exact-match name during the extension’s Sunrise period. After Sunrise, keep the record active so Claims notices and Ongoing Notifications continue, and consider a blocking service for extensions you do not intend to use.
What is a Sunrise period?
Sunrise is the opening phase of a new gTLD launch, typically 30 to 60 days, during which only holders of verified TMCH records can register domain names matching their marks. It closes before general availability.
What is the Trademark Claims service?
Trademark Claims runs for the first 90 days after Sunrise. Anyone attempting to register a name that matches a verified TMCH record sees a notice of the potential conflict. If they proceed, the mark holder is notified. Claims warns; it does not block.
Does the TMCH protect my mark in .com or country-code domains?
No. Sunrise, Claims, and Ongoing Notifications apply to new gTLD launches and registrations. Legacy extensions and ccTLDs require separate registration, monitoring, and recovery strategies.
What happens if my TMCH record expires?
Notifications stop, the SMD file is no longer valid for Sunrise or blocking orders, and any launch that occurs during the lapse proceeds without your priority rights. The TMCH reports that nearly one in three matching registrations has gone unreported for this reason.
