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Melbourne IT involved in 100+ gTLD applications

Kevin Murphy, January 10, 2012, 13:53:04 (UTC), Domain Registrars

Melbourne IT says it has prepared applications for over 100 new generic top-level domains on behalf of clients including members of the Association of National Advertisers.
The registrar’s CEO, Theo Hnarakis, said in a press release:

Big brands from around the world have already engaged with Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services to help them apply for more than 100 new TLDs.
Big name companies in the financial sector, plus the retail and consumer goods industries have shown the most interest in applying so far, and roughly a quarter of the companies we are assisting are members of the Fortune Global 500. Applicants working with Melbourne IT also include members of the U.S. Association of National Advertisers.”

The company agrees with the emerging industry consensus which estimates 1,000 to 1,500 applications between Thursday and April 12, with roughly two-thirds of those “dot-brand” applications.
It’s an open industry secret that many companies ostensibly opposing the new gTLD program with the ANA are also preparing applications, but their level of enthusiasm is still open to question.
Anecdotally, many potential dot-brand applicants appear to be under the misapprehension that a new gTLD application is necessary to defend their brands from top-level cybersquatters, which is not the case.

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Comments (1)

  1. Avri Doria says:

    Any chance any .brand applications will withdraw their applications for a nearly fill refund when they discover they don’t need the defensive application.
    Then again I have trouble understanding why they would not understand this already, as I am sure the good folks at Melbourne IT and every other registry service provider explained this to their .brand customers in excruciating detail, probably even making them sign a statement indicating that they had understood, so as to protect the registry service providers from liability.

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