4 new gTLDs applications withdrawn for .MII, .MITEK, .SAPPHIRE and .CONNECTORS (total at 43)

This past week 4 more new gTLDs applications were withdrawn and their status was updated at the ICANN New gTLD website. These 4 withdrawn applications bring the total of withdrawn gTLD applications to 43.

MiTek USA, Inc. from the US withdrew it’s 4 applications for the .MII, .MITEK, .SAPPHIRE and .CONNECTORS new gTLD strings. The strings received a Prioritization Number of 1815, 1892, 1910 and 1852 on the prioritization draw last December meaning that MiTek didn’t pay for the $100 tickets at the prioritization draw. The company doesn’t have any more new gTLD applications. There are no more applicants for the these 4 new gTLD strings.

The String Similarity Panel had determined that the string .mii was visually similar to an existing TLD (.mil), creating a probability of user confusion.

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 Each withdrawn application, is entitled to a refund of 70% of the $185,000 application fee that is or $130,000, since these fall “[a]fter posting of applications until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The other 39 applications that have withdrawn are: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)
• CADILLAC (General Motors LLC)
• CHEVROLET (General Motors LLC)
• TRANSFORMERS (Hasbro International, Inc.)
• CHARTIS (American International Group, Inc.)
• HEINZ (ProMark Brands Inc.)
• KETCHUP (ProMark Brands Inc.)
• OLYMPUS (Olympus Corporation)
• HOME (Go Daddy East, LLC)
• CASA (Go Daddy East, LLC)
• GLOBALX (GlobalX Information Pty Limited)
• MED (DocCheck AG)
• INSURANCE (Progressive Casualty Insurance Company)
• OVERHEIDNL (Ministery of the Interior and Kingdom Relations)
• APP (Dot App LLC)
• GUARDIANMEDIA (Guardian News and Media Limited)
• GDN (Guardian News and Media Limited)
• 盛貿飯店 (Shangri‐La International Hotel Management Limited)
• SVR (SVR GROUP)
• HEART (The American Heart Association, Inc.)
• STROKE (The American Heart Association, Inc.)
• 欧莱雅 (L’Oréal)
• BUY (PVT Registry, LLC)
• GUARDIAN (Guardian News and Media Limited)
• 普利司通 (Bridgestone Corporation)