Originally appeared in the March 2002 issue of
Intellectual Property & Technology Reporter
A new top-level domain (TLD), ".us," has been recognized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as the official country code TLD (ccTLD) for the United States. For this new ccTLD, there is a time-limited opportunity for trademark owners to protect their marks from being registered as domain names by others. This memorandum provides information regarding actions necessary to protect trademarks and the steps necessary to obtain .us domain name registrations.
The new .us TLD is designed for use by those individuals or organizations that have a substantive connection to the United States. In order to obtain a .us domain name, a registrant must be in compliance with the U.S. Nexus requirement, which requires that all registrants for a .us domain name must be either:
