5 new gTLDs applications withdrawn including .HEINZ, .KETCHUP, .OLYMPUS and GoDaddy’s .HOME and .CASA

This past week 5 more new gTLDs applications were withdrawn and their status was updated at the ICANN New gTLD website. 3 of them were “brands” new gTLDs. ProMark Brands Inc. withdrew 2 gTLDs: .HEINZ and .KETCHUP. The Olympus Corporation withdrew it’s application for the string .OLYMPUS. Finally, Go Daddy withdrew it’s application for the strings .HOME and .CASA. These 5 withdrawn applications bring the total of withdrawn gTLD applications to 24.

ProMark Brands Inc. withdrew it’s applications for the HEINZ and KETCHUP new gTLD strings. The strings received a Prioritization Number of 1345 and 737 respectively on the prioritization draw last December. These prioritization numbers mean that the company actually did pay the $100 to buy a prioritization ticket. The company doesn’t have any more new gTLD applications and was a FairWinds client that has criticized companies for withdrawing their new gTLD applications. There are no more applicants for the HEINZ and KETCHUP new gTLD strings.

The Olympus Corporation withdrew its application for the OLYMPUS string. The string received a Prioritization Number of 1861 on the prioritization draw last December. The 1861 prioritization number means that the company didn’t pay the $100 to buy a prioritization ticket for each application but was assigned one after all the paid applicants had received one. The Olympus Corporation has no more new gTLD applications pending. There are no more applicants for the OLYMPUS new gTLD string.

Go Daddy withdrew its new gTLD applications for the HOME and CASA strings. Go Daddy has 1 more new gTLD application that is still pending for GODADDY with prioritization number 227. .CASA has 2 more applicants left and .HOME has 10 more applicants left.

The applicants that withdraw an application are eligible for a 70% refund of the application fees to ICANN. Each withdrawn application, is entitled to a refund of 70% of the $185,000 application fee that is or $130,000, since these fall “[a]fter posting of applications until posting of Initial Evaluation results,” as described in section 1.5.1 of the Applicant Guidebook.

The new gTLD application withdrawal and refund request process may take between 2-4 weeks to complete.

The other 19 applications that have withdrawn are:

• GLEAN (Lifestyle Domain Holdings, Inc.)
• GMBH (GMBH Registry, LLC)
• EST (Charleston Road Registry Inc.)
• KSB (KSB Aktiengesellschaft)
• HILTON (HLT Stakis IP Limited)
• CIALIS (Eli Lilly and Company)
• SWISS (Swiss International Air Lines Ltd.)
• ANSONS (CBM Creative Brands Marken GmbH)
• AND (Charleston Road Registry Inc.)
• CHATR (Rogers Communications Partnership)
• CAREMORE (WellPoint, Inc.)
• SKOLKOVO (Fund for Development of the Center for Elaboration and Commercialization of New Technologies)
• ARE (Charleston Road Registry Inc.)
• THEHARTFORD (Hartford Fire Insurance Company)
• GMC (General Motors LLC)
• HEINZ (ProMark Brands Inc.)
• KETCHUP (ProMark Brands Inc.)
• OLYMPUS (Olympus Corporation)
• HOME (Go Daddy East, LLC)
• CASA (Go Daddy East, LLC)