The decision to liberalise the domain space was made in 2008. According to ICANN as many as 500 new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) are expected to be applied for when the first application round opens on January 12 2012.The introduction of possibly hundreds of new gTLDs, as well as the Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) that are currently being introduced, are likely to have a major impact on the domain name landscape.

Thomsen Trampedach is closely following the development and progress of the liberalisation of the domain name space through attendance at ICANN meetings and through our international network of IP law firms and Registry Software Providers.

The new domain name landscape is highly likely to influence search engine and end-user behaviour. Brand owners are recommended to consider how these changes will affect their online branding and brand protection strategies.

Thomsen Trampedach has over 30 years combined experience within the domain name industry. We guide brand owners through the process of applying for, acquiring, and managing their .brand extension. Through our unique, consultative approach and comprehensive industry knowledge, we advise and support facilitation of the best suitable technical and administrable package based industry best practice and our clients’ individual needs and wishes.

Applying for and managing your own .brand extension requires financial, administrative, and technical ability. Implementing your own .brand TLD will give you some obvious marketing and security benefits, including:

• Full control over your .brand extension.
• Gatekeeping - the ability to decide who is able to register second level domains under your .brand extension.
• The ability to register country.brand, city.brand, dealer.brand, sponsor.brand, product.brand, etc.
• The ability to create secure partner sites.
• The ability to brand local languages under your extension.
• The ability to increase relevance scores in search engine rankings.
• Increased ability to protect your IPR online.

You may decide that a .brand extension is not suitable for your business. We recommend that you consider infringement applications, new .industry or other relevant extensions and internationalised domain name extensions.

Please see our blog on the topic. Here you get updates on the "new gTLD" process from a brand owner perspective, and you can find our recommendations for companies that wish to apply, as well as for companies that are not interested, or choose to "wait and see."

For further information please contact us, read our short introduction PDF,
or continue reading on the topic at ICANN's website.