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Straggler gTLD signs first ICANN contract for years
Kevin Murphy,
September 20, 2024, 09:01:47 (UTC),
Domain Registries
One of the outstanding contested gTLDs from the 2012 application round looks set to be delegated finally, after the winning bidder signed its Registry Agreement with ICANN.
Merck Registry Holdings Inc is now the officially contracted registry for .merck, and it appears the intent is to be a dot-brand jointly controlled by two unaffiliated chemical companies of the same name.
An American company and a German company, both called Merck and with common roots that were severed during World War I, now seem set to have equal ownership rights to .merck, after over a decade of legal wrangling.
Both companies applied for .merck, and according to the ICANN process the American one won because the German one withdrew its application.
However, the winning application was amended in 2021 to say that the registry intends to transfer its contract to a newly formed UK company called MM Domain Holdco Ltd.
Company records indicate that this shell firm is a 50:50 joint venture of the two Mercks, with over a million dollars cash in the bank.
It seems that the two firms intend to share the gTLD, and run it as a dot-brand for both of their benefit, which is pretty rare.
With the ban on forming joint ventures, this sort of resolution of an intractable conflict will not be possible in the next round.
JV’s are only prohibited during the application evaluation process. ROs will be free to make business deals after delegation. This change might cause applicants to move to contracting faster so that they can resolve conflict later.
In this case it seems the JV was formed years ago and the gTLD has not yet been delegated.
JVs were and will be allowed pre-application as well, like what did .sas (JV between software company and airline) in 2012.
Correction: .sas was a post-application JV formed to settle the contention. So this case wouldn’t be allowed under 2026 rules.
The separation of the two Mercks actually occurred when the US entered WWI (and not WWII).
Thanks. II’ve corrected iit.