Since 2014, the company Donuts registry has been providing brand owners with an effective blocking service, to protect against domain squatting. Anybody who already has their brand registered with the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) can use this service. Furthermore, by entering a brand-related term in the Domains Protected Marks List (DPML), 238 new TLDs containing this brand term are also blocked following the sunrise phase. Each new top level domain has an obligatory sunrise phase which lasts for at least 30 days. This service therefore goes much further than the trademark claim service which is purely a notification service in the general availability phase.
The Donuts service represents a much cheaper alternative than the defensive registration of individual domains, although it does protect your company’s brand just as securely from unauthorised third-party registrations.