Court validated marks

Court validated marks refer to a mark that has been validated by a court of law or other judicial
proceeding at the national level, such as unregistered (common law) marks and/or well-known
marks. In the case of a mark validated by judicial proceedings, the judicial authority must have existed as a competent jurisdiction as of the date of the order or judgment. Any referenced authority must have the indicia of authenticity and must on its face confer the specified rights (i.e., the documentation must be sufficient to show validation of the mark without the need for the Clearinghouse to consult outside resources).

Download the complete Clearinghouse guidelines to check which information and documentary evidence you need to include.


The following marks are not considered court-validated marks and will not be eligible for inclusion
in the Clearinghouse:

  • Trademark applications;
  • US state trademarks;
  • International trademark applications made via the Madrid system
  • Registered trademarks that were subject to successful invalidation, cancellation or rectification proceedings

The following are not considered court-validated marks but might be eligible for inclusion in
the Clearinghouse under another type of trademark:

The following, even if court-validated, will not be accepted by the Clearinghouse:

  • Any court validated mark that includes a top level extensions such as “icann.org” or “.icann”;
  • Any court validated trademark mark starting with a “dot” (.) or containing a “dot” (.);
  • Any court validated mark that does not contain any letters, words, numerals, or DNS valid characters; and
  • Any state or city court-validated mark