Reopened at the beginning of the last year, the .TM extension was put at first like a “different” domain with a registering duration of 10 years minimum allowing to take advantage of a domain name in which it was free of renewals and in a price into a report for dissuading cyber-squatters. Even if the registry be possible in “first come, first served” mark owners seem sensitive to these arguments since that the Registry has just announced that more than a third of the 100 “more well known marks in 2003”, according to the famous Business Barometer Week, has been registered in .TM by its legal owners, with six marks of the top 10 like Coca-Cola, INTEL, Mercedes and, of course, Microsoft!

See http://www.domaine.info/archives/news/13_20040205/www.nic.tm] and [http://www.domaine.info/Redirect/bwnt.businessweek.com/brand/2003/index.asp

JCV & SB