# What is Trademark Clearinghouse?

## Question

What is Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH)?

## Answer

Trademark protection is one of the core principles of the release of new extensions. In order to have a uniform process in trademark validation, ICANN appointed the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) to provide a centralized database of verified trademarks, that is connected to each and every new TLD that will launch.

Initially, a validated trademark only provided priority over domain registrations in the so-called Sunrise phases, but over time additional services (like "[protected marks lists](https://openprovider.help/books/domains/page/what-are-the-advantages-of-protected-marks-lists-dpml-uni-eps-and-adultblock)") have been introduced which use the services of the TMCH to check existence validity of a trademark.

If you are, or your customer is, a trademark holder and want to benefit from the priority treatments of new extensions, the first step is to let the TMCH [validate your trademark](https://openprovider.help/books/domains/page/how-do-i-validate-a-trademark-through-the-tmch).