.merck Domain

Pharmaceuticals and life science sit behind .merck, a restricted extension from ICANN's 2012 New gTLD Program, and the string is the round's clearest illustration of split trademark ownership. Two entirely separate companies hold rights to the same name in different territories, a division dating back more than a century, which meant the top-level string could not be granted to either without qualification.

The result is visible across the round: related applications appear as modified and compound forms alongside the bare string, each disambiguating a mark that a single global namespace cannot cleanly represent. Registration is closed to the public and the extension carries no aftermarket. For anyone preparing a future application, it remains the standing example of how territorial rights complicate a global namespace.