Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in modern pop culture. But for new generic top-level domains, it was the eve of that day that turned out to be unlucky. Yesterday, it became known that the registries of 13 previously delegated dot-brands notified ICANN that they do not wish to run these domains any longer.
Richemont announced that it is abandoning .CARTIER and .PIAGET. It is worth noting that Richemont was among the ardent enthusiasts of the new domain program, applying for nine brand domains. Now the company has dropped all of them without exception. L’oreal applied for 14 domains (mainly brands), but dumped the majority before concluding contracts with ICANN. The company just discarded its last dot-brand, .LANCOME, but retains the generics .SKIN, .HAIR, .MAKEUP and .BEAUTY. According to Domain Incite, only one of them − .MAKEUP − is currently in use.
The car company Chrysler is getting rid of five dot-brands in one go − .CHRYSLER, .DODGE, .MOPAR, .SRT and .UCONNECT. At the same time, the company still has .JEEP at its disposal − however, it is not used. The Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica parted with its .MOVISTAR and .TELEFONICA. Rounding off the list are the domain brands .LADBROKES, .LIASON and .WARMAN, which were rejected by the Ladbrokes bookmaker, Liaison Technologies software developer and industrial equipment manufacturer Weir, which makes pumps under the Warman brand.
None of the 13 dot-brands have ever been used, though the registries paid six-figure fees to ICANN under the contracts. Thus, the number of self-terminated new gTLDs has reached 66.
