New generic top-level domains

All you wanted to know about New gTLDs and ICANN's New gTLD Program

Knowledge Base CATEGORIES

What are New gTLDs?

ICANN, the multi-stakeholder organization that defines policies and manages critical parts of the Internet's infrastructure is developing plans to allow for a new expansion of generic top-level domains, alongside of .COM, .NET, .ORG and hundreds more. During a limited timeframe, in Q2 and Q3 of 2026, companies and organizations have another opportunity to reflect their identity, brand, community, city, region, or any other identifier at the top level of the domain name system.

What are your options?

Although each type of new gTLD has its own challenges and success factors, they have one thing in common: applying for and managing your own top-level domain is not an easy and straightforward task: not only does it require careful planning and preparation, domain name registries need to abide by strict policies and have to take into account contractual legal frameworks that are out of their comfort zone.

For this reason, we have developed tailored offerings, based on a collective 50+ years of experience in assisting domain name registries, registrars, brand owners, dispute resolution services providers and ICANN:

Your ultimate digital branding and cybersecurity investment

During the previous round, many brand owners were seeking to have their brand as an internet top-level domain. Although some brand owners applied for their so-called Brand TLD for defensive purposes (and either did not proceed to delegation or terminated their Registry Agreement with ICANN afterwards), quite a few tried to make the most of their investment.

As we expect that some brand owners will participate in the 2026 round of new gTLDs, we can bring a wealth of expertise in this space.

City- and Regional TLDs

Quite a few small and major cities and regions applied for their own generic top-level domains in the 2012 round, inspired by the Region of Catalunya's sponsored TLD .CAT.

In the case of city- or regional TLDs, it remains key to obtain the necessary approvals and support to not only apply for the gTLD but also to make it a commercial success. Building your audience as soon as possible is likely more key for these gTLD types, as it gives you a seat around the table with parties who will assist you at a later stage in registering domain names in your TLD.

Internationalized TLDs

TLDs in scripts other than standard Latin script have formed part of ICANN's New gTLD Program since the 2012 round, and we expect more activity in the forthcoming 2026 round.

Although there are plenty of opportunities for IDN gTLDs out there, it is important to devise a good strategy around:

  • user adoption: ensuring that those who want to register and use IDN domain names understand the concept behind the TLD;
  • technical adoption: as some new (IDN) gTLDs have not been adopted in certain areas, it is key to work with key actors in this space to ensure that your TLD is visible;
  • distribution: as is the case with true generic TLDs, you need to convince one or more major registrars to support your TLD, or set up your own distribution channels to ensure distribution.

During the 2012 round, we advised various brand owners, international organizations and regions in view of applying for, obtaining and registering their IDN TLDs with ICANN.

Generic TLDs

Generic top-level domains will remain the main focus of ICANN's Second New gTLD Round; however, various shifts in the domain name industry will require applicants for true "gTLDs" to be cautious:

  • distribution: high volume registrars may start charging registries for selling domain names in their TLDs, putting pressure on the new gTLD registries' financial plans;
  • marketing: registries need to find new ways to reach out to their target audience. Among hundreds, potentially thousands new gTLDs, this will be a challenge;
  • pricing: all of the above additional costs and expenses need to be factored in in new gTLD registries' pricing models, potentially increasing wholesale domain name registration fees, which may have a negative impact on volumes.

Challenging the Iron Triangle of Customer Service

When engaging with a service provider, especially law firms, clients are often confronted with the tradeoff that is summarised as “good, fast, cheap: choose two”: cheap and good unlikely results in a fast delivery; if it must be cheap and fast, it probably won’t be any good; and if it must be good and fast, it is probably not cheap.

For this reason, most law firms focus on quality first, then speed of delivery, which more often than not results in invoices based on “time & materials” over which clients have extremely limited control.

This “Iron Triangle” incited us to rethink the way how we engage and interact with clients.

Entrepreneur-oriented Legal Solutions

Our entrepreneurial focus radiates in each and every aspect of how we assist our clients: while most law firms segment their services in vertical offerings, like “Corporate”, “Commercial”, “IP”, “HR”, etc., we have shifted towards a more horizontal approach. In order to focus on what matters most in each and every step of your growth and the corresponding challenges you face, we have developed multidisciplinary methodologies and comprehensive “service containers” that allow for fast implementation at a reasonable cost.

The benefits of such approach for clients are manifold: first of all, clients do not lose time, since they only need to explain their challenges once to their single point of contact. Second, there is no need to have a panoply of experts around the table, each dealing with their own segment, which subsequently requires coordination and consolidated. Which, eventually, also increases costs.

Technology-enabled Professional Services

Dedicating more resources on a matter is the most common solution for a traditional law firm if they need to increase speed whilst maintaining quality. Since the “time” factor is not scalable, and the “traditional” way of doing things do not necessarily produce the right outcome, we are investing heavily in technology that allow us to achieve better results.

By standardizing and, hence, digitizing processes, we are able to significantly reduce delivery times:

  • instead of relying on “templates”, our document generation platforms allow us to generate comprehensive, high quality deliverables that are truly tailored to our clients’ needs;
  • some of the other systems we have (co-)developed use algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning components, which enable us to dedicate more time to more complex issues. By automating certain steps in the development of certain deliverables – like cease and desist letters, notice and takedown requests, complaints, etc. – we are able to significantly reduce the total cost for clients.

Hence, we are able to increase speed of delivery, effectively scale our services, keep a full focus on quality, whilst keeping cost under control.

Product Focused and Result Driven

Turning “services” into “products” is something we are passionate about, so we can step away from the traditional “time & materials” approach. Our clients know what they are paying for and how much.

When bringing all of the above factors together, we are able to provide high quality, bespoke deliverables and results within a short timeframe at reasonable and, very often, fixed fees or – in part – fees that are commensurate with the client’s success.

As ICANN has recently published the first Draft version of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook, future applicants should start preparing for submitting their applications for new top level domains in Q2 of 2026.

Based on our decades of experience in working with domain name registries, back-end registry operators, domain name registrars,  brand owners and ICANN, we have developed a comprehensive set of services that can help you making the best of ICANN's New gTLD Program. These experiences and insights go beyond "what the Applicant Guidebook says", and explain what it takes to start, operate and manage your own piece of core internet infrastructure.

Our Knowledge Base and Academy 

Whether you are a client of Pitch or not, parties who are interested in applying for their own new generic top-level domain can obtain access to our free knowledge base of articles, views, opinions, ... on our website. Furthermore you can request access to our online Academy, where we are giving a lot of information to prospective applicants (generic TLDs, brands, city- or regional TLDs, etc.):

This information not only relates to "how" you should apply for, obtain and operate your gTLD, but also background information on "why" you should take certain decisions, which impact future evolutions will have on your plans, and how to make the most of your investment.

We also show you in detail how you can use our data and technology to help you taking the right steps at the right time. So please feel free to send an email to Bart, who will coordinate your access to our Academy which, for the time being, is free of charge.

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