.emerck Domain Information

Applicant Full Legal Name

Merck KGaA

Legal Establishment

Corporation with general partners (in German: ʺKommanditgesellschaft auf Aktienʺ, abbreviated KGaA)

Applicant Address

Frankfurter Strasse 250
Darmstadt 64293
DE

State Jurisdiction

German Law

Applicant Website

http://www.merckgroup.com

Applied for gTLD

EMERCK

Domain Registration Status

Closed

Mission/Purpose of Domain Extension

Merck KGaA is a global pharmaceutical, chemical and life science company with approximately 40,000 employees in 70 countries. In 2010 Merck realized total revenues of EUR 9.3 Billion. The pharmaceutical, chemical and life science businesses of Merck are organized into four divisions. Merck Serono... Read more

Merck KGaA is a global pharmaceutical, chemical and life science company with approximately 40,000 employees in 70 countries. In 2010 Merck realized total revenues of EUR 9.3 Billion. The pharmaceutical, chemical and life science businesses of Merck are organized into four divisions.

Merck Serono specializes in innovative pharmaceuticals and focuses on indications mainly treated by specialists, as well as on diseases with high unmet medical needs.

Merck Consumer Healthcare offers high-quality over-the-counter products to enhance the quality of life of consumers all over the world. Its brands are available in many countries throughout Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.

Merck Millipore offers solutions that enable scientists to conduct life science research easily, efficiently and economically. With a range of more than 40,000 products, Merck Millipore is one of the top three suppliers of tools to the life science industry. This division comprises three business units: Bioscience, Lab Solutions and Process Solutions.

Merck's Performance Materials division offers highly innovative materials, advanced technologies, and high-tech chemicals to clients in the consumer electronics, lighting, printing, plastics, and cosmetics industries. Merck's market leading products include liquid crystals for LCD displays, new lighting technologies, and functional and effect pigments.

Merck KGaA operates its worldwide business through over 250 companies, with roughly 40,000 employees located in 70 countries, which work together to bring innovative healthcare, life science and high-tech chemical solutions to the world at large.


A. The E. Merck Tradition

The Merck company has its roots in the Engel Pharmacy, which was located in Darmstadt, Germany. Accordingly, the earliest "trademark" used to identify the Merck brand was a small picture of an angel. A successful pharmacist and industrialist, Heinrich Emanuel Merck undertook the mass production of alkaloid compounds in 1827, and in 1850 formed the "E. Merck" partnership together with his sons. From these early beginnings, the multi-national corporation continues to draw its inspiration, reminding the company of its commitment to quality and tradition.

Today, the significance of the E. Merck name is even greater, as online communications have become an increasingly more important aspect of Merck's business. Therefore, Merck KGaA has decided to register the ".EMERCK" TLD, which represents not only the company's longstanding history and tradition but also the company's electronic online business activities. The "E" of ".EMERCK" thus functions as a synonym for Merck KGaA's e-business and e-commerce activities. With the introduction of the ".EMERCK" TLD, Merck KGaA is building a bridge from its unique tradition as the oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company in the world to the new opportunities presented by the digital age.


B. The Merck Name

During the 1930s, the company began using a shortened version of its well-known E. Merck trademark, referring to itself as "Merck". Today Merck KGaA holds rights in the name and the trademark "Merck" in more than 180 countries worldwide. The trademark "Merck" is considered to be well known pursuant to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in various countries including, for example, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and through the Madrid System of WIPO. Merck is further regularly listed among the global Top 500 companies as published through the famous Forbes magazine.


C. The Merck Community

Merck KGaA provides a vast array of innovative healthcare, life science and high-tech chemical solutions to consumers, researchers and health concerns across the globe, and it does so through a vast network of subsidiaries, affiliates, and business associates. The nexus of these Merck Group members, who all use the Merck name in the operation of their businesses and as their "umbrella" brand, comprises the Merck Community. The ".EMERCK" space will provide the parent company of this group, Merck KGaA, with a corporate-controlled, well organized online space in which to present information relevant to the company's activities. Pages within the ".EMERCK" space may also provide appropriate links to the pages of Community members, in order to provide visitors to the space with easy access to the resources they seek.

C.1 Mission and Purpose of the ".EMERCK" TLD

Besides the tradition of E. Merck, ".EMERCK" stands for "electronic Merck". The ".EMERCK" TLD will combine all applications of information and communication technologies in support of Merck's online business activities. The ".EMERCK" space will, accordingly, provide information to Merck KGaA's online visitors from across the globe, and the space will offer users an interconnected, well-organized network of information about Merck's activities.

The ".EMERCK" TLD is intended to serve as a dedicated space for the sole use of Merck KGaA for its online activities. Merck KGaA will use this new TLD to provide information about its unique activities and its colorful, extensive corporate history, as well as to communicate with its internal divisions, external business partners, shareholders, customers and all further stakeholders.

The ".EMERCK" top-level domain will enable Merck KGaA to present its full range of online activities, and to identify itself online as "electronic Merck". The ".EMERCK" space will provide a means for Merck KGaA to maintain secure email addresses, a company intra-web, and to manage internal and external communications between its business affiliates, shareholders, customers and all further stakeholders.

The ".EMERCK" Registry Service Provider will manage the Internet space under the direct control of Merck KGaA. This will allow the distribution and exchange of information between Merck KGaA and its relevant stakeholders by means of, but not limited to, websites, social networks, email and other technologies that will reside within the ".EMERCK" domain name space.

Merck KGaA will limit registration of the ".EMERCK" space to a single-registrant model, meaning that Merck KGaA will be the sole registrant of all domain names in the space. Merck KGaA may, in its sole discretion, elect from time to time to license the use of certain domain names within the TLD to appropriate divisions or business affiliates, but at all times Merck KGaA shall remain the registrant of record for all domain names in ".EMERCK." Accordingly, Merck KGaA will have control over the content and use of all ".EMERCK" domain names, and will be in a unique position to ensure that the space is utilized in a safe, appropriate manner.×