- Registrar EnCirca offers first Web3 domains trademark search engine
- Paid service monitors blockchains domains outside ICANN scope
- Effort comes in face of scepticism about alternative roots
ICANN-accredited domain name registrar EnCirca has launched ‘AltRoots.com’, which claims to be industry’s first Web3 domains trademark search engine. Speaking to WTR, the company’s president expanded on the offering and addressed the scepticism that surrounds blockchain domains.
At last month’s ICANN meeting, blockchain domains – which sit outside the organisation’s remit – were a hot talking point, with a recent ICANN report warning that alternative roots could result in a fragmented online world. The challenge for brand owners is that the decentralised environment also complicates traditional online watch activities, which tend to be geared towards the ICANN-administered domain name system. EnCirca’s offering therefore seeks to provide a search option that works in the blockchain environment.
The service will tell trademark owners if their name is available, reserved, or already taken across multiple blockchains. It claims to be able to monitor exact trademarks or close similarities within the eight million (and growing) blockchain domains that exist across several ecosystems. If available, the company can help register it. If reserved, it says it can help claim the term. While sitting outside of ICANN’s control, Thomas Barrett, president of EnCirca, notes that some blockchain domains do have Sunrise-like ‘reserved well-known brands’ offerings in place.
At launch, the service will monitor three blockchains: Ethereum, Handshake and Polygon. In the future, they plan to add Polkadot, which offers ‘.dot’ domains, and Solana (‘.sol’), which has over 30,000 names, according to Barrett. In terms of pricing, monitoring exact matches is $59 per year. For comprehensive close similarities, the first-year cost is $2,000, followed by a $500 renewal every year after.
[huge_it_slider id=”15″]Of course, one of the challenges of blockchain domains is that, where a conflict or infringement is found, there are not any common rights protection mechanisms in place. Additionally, blockchain is built to accommodate anonymity and is unchangeable. “Since there are no ICANN policies or laws for protecting trademark rights on the blockchain or for publishing owner identities, companies face an uphill battle if their trademark is already taken on Web3,” EnCirca acknowledges in its launch press release.
For Barrett – who is chair of the INTA Blockchain Subcommittee – the initial priority after meeting with trademark professionals has been to facilitate an assessment of their brands and any gaps/risks in the space. Web3 domain names are akin to non-fungible tokens, and “are used for digital wallets, digital identities, website hosting, email, and metaverse storefronts”. In that environment, says Barrett, it is important to survey the landscape and “I realised I wanted to solve that first step for the trademark legal market”.
In building the system, Barrett drew on his experience in search and watch. He was previously at Thomson CompuMark (now Clarivate) and built its SAEGIS platform for trademark screening. While searching alternative routes would involve running copies of the various blockchains and scraping or data mining, then going through all the transactions on their ledger to determine which ones are “NFT-dependent”, he designed the new system to index the scraped data in order to find all close similarities. The system then gives real-time updates, adding new domains into the database as they are registered. His business model is also akin to online brand protection companies that combine registrar and watching options.
Blockchain domains are referred to as ‘utility NFT’s’, Barrett explains. The service will therefore also check if matches are listed on marketplaces such as Open Sea. “Keep in mind that the marketplaces will not list all domains that are available,” he warns. “But the presence of an active listing is a good way to rank the risk level.”
That said, there will be sceptics. At the INTA Annual Meeting, for example, a packed-out session on blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFTs provoked mix responses. For some it addressed an environment of increasing importance, while for others some of the claims made about the risk levels in the space were “irresponsible” (with one law firm partner taking to Twitter to warn: “The fear has been monged”).
Asked about the scepticism surrounding whether Web3 and blockchain domains will really be the next big thing, Barrett responds: “Web3 is designed for consumers to be able to manage their personal identity. The existing 8.8 million blockchain domains are primarily owned by consumers (individuals) rather than small-medium businesses or major brand owners. The mass market for Web2 domains are new business start-ups. For Web3, the mass market are individuals.”
Thus, he reflects: “The ecosystem is still incomplete, but the pieces are coming together.”