When you love the sandwich shop by your work, you join the sandwich club and get a punch card. Or maybe you get coffee every morning at the café on the corner. Join the coffee club, get a club card.

If you own a .club, now there’s sort of a way to join the .club club. Well. At least, from August 15 to August 30, if you renew your .club, you get it at a fifth-hole-punch rate of $9.38 per year for one-year renewal (at A rates)*.

So there's no better time than now to renew your .club domain and put another punch on the card. Or two. Or three.

Remember: you can renew your domain at any time. As long as you don't exceed the maximum registration period of 10 years. You don't have to wait until your domain expires.

* Price in USD. For local prices, see the .club pricing page

Edit August 19: Clarified that the promo applies only to a single year renewal.

Since we last checked in, only three new truly generic TLDs have been delegated in ICANN’s new TLD program, and we’ll get to those.

Also in that timeframe, around a hundred new Brand TLDs have been delegated. Since they’re outside the scope of what we’ll be able to offer (Brand TLDs are “single registrant TLDs”, i.e. no registrar necessary), since so many are being delegated right now, we thought it was as good a time as any to address this trend head on.

But first, our three (truly) generic TLDs added this past month:

.beauty — July 15

Overall, there were just three applications for this domain, including Top Level Domain Holdings (aka Minds + Machines) and Donuts, both of whom submitted PIC (we detailed PIC back in April).

But it was L’Oréal’s application that ultimately prevailed. It looks as though L’Oréal will open up registrations to everyone, but .beauty may in fact be yet another brand TLD of the many delegated this month.

.doctor — July 21

There were also three applications for .doctor as well, two of which were a couple of usual suspects: Radix and Donuts whose application joined The Medical Registry Limited’s application. However, Donuts was the only applicant to submit a PIC and it may well be for this reason that their application prevailed.

.latino — August 4

There were only two applicants for .latino, Dish DBS Corporation (i.e. Dish Network) and Top Level Domain Holdings (i.e. Minds + Machines). After a private auction in the fall of 2014, TLDH withdrew their application and this month .latino was delegated to Dish DBS Corporation.

This is the only “community”-oriented application that Dish submitted, catering to the global Latino community, though interestingly only TLDH’s application contained a PIC.

The Brand TLDs

In 2013 when the first round of new TLDs was announced, it was estimated that around 680 of applied-for TLDs were so-called “Brand TLDs” or .brands. This amounts to more than a third of all TLD applications in the initial round of the new TLD program.

As of yet, though, Brand TLDs are not a separate category of gTLDs as is the case with GeoTLDs and Community TLDs and the reasons companies might have applied for one are varied.

Some companies, most notably Canon, had specific marketing in mind, while others applied defensively for their .brand. Others applied not totally certain of how they would use their .brands when they were delegated.

As such, some .brands may eventually be available on the public market and while the fact that many brands have outsourced the registry backend management to companies with experience in this area (i.e. companies that operate registries that do offer domains for sale on the public market), doing so undercuts many of the main advantages of a Brand TLD.

It’s not hard to see how having a public, proprietary namespace might be beneficial to a company, even if used for purely internal purposes and some Brand TLDs may never be used for the web. But those that do will benefit from stronger branding (no generic “.com” required) and better assurance of reputation. After all, a domain name can cost less than a dollar while a TLD is much more expensive and much harder to get, which in turn insures a certain level of security in itself.

Most Brand TLDs fall under the category of single-registrant, a category created by ICANN for the new TLD program. This suggests that more than a few of the companies who have been delegated these TLDs intend to use them to more directly manage their brands online, especially on the web.

To give you an idea of just how many Brand TLDs are currently being delegated, we’ve put a list of the ones this past month. To give you an idea of what kinds of companies are interested in these, we’ve broken them down by category:

Sports and Entertainment:

• .comcast
• .xfinity
• .abc
• .nba
• .blockbuster
• .showtime
• .cbs

Retail and Apparel:

• .loft
• .gap
• .oldnavy
• .bananarepublic
• .calvinklein
• .target
• .staples
• .marshalls
• .lancome
• .tjmaxx
• .nike
• .macys
• .athleta
• .bestbuy

Insurance:

• .allstate
• .goodhands
• .nationwide
• .onyourside
• .esurance
• .americanfamily
• .prudential

Pharmaceuticals:

• .off
• .duck
• .scjohnson
• .pfizer
• .afamilycompany

Hospitality:

• .booking
• .hyatt

Automotive, Electronics, Manufacturing:

• .dodge
• .maserati
• .ferrari
• .fiat
• .intel
• .jeep
• .honeywell
• .chrysler
• .zippo

Finance and Commerce:

• .visa
• .citi
• .duns
• .fidelity
• .ladbrokers
• .lplfinancial

As more of these Brand TLDs are delegated, expect to see more companies using these proprietary namespaces in the wild.

And remember: these are new TLDs on the cutting edge of having been added by ICANN. As such, any discussion of one of these TLDs should not be interpreted as meaning any of these extensions will be imminently available on Gandi (though we, of course, try to offer all the extensions we possibly can). That especially applies to Brand TLDs.

Gandi is happy to introduce .商标 (.xn--czr694b in punycode), which is now available at Gandi for US$249.49 per year at A rates*.

Even though .商标 (which is Chinese for “trademark”) entered the GoLive phase in January 2015, in a way, it’s a TLD that’s forever in Sunrise.

Despite being open to the public independent of Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), .商标 is only available to individuals, companies or organizations with valid trademark registrations. In order to register a .商标 domain, you must be able to prove your registration of the trademark with a recognized intellectual property organization.

It’s like printing a little ™ so if you want to register a .商标 domain name you have to be able to prove you’re entitled to it.

For the full details, see the .商标 rules page.

Register a .商标 domain?

* For local prices, see the .商标 price page

Introooduced a couple of years agooo at this point, .ooo (pronounced “dot-triple-‘O’”) is nooow available at Gandi.

Domains in the .ooo TLD are ooopen to everyooone for up to ten years for $38.33 per year at A rates*.

What's yooour .ooo domain?

* Price in USD. For local rates, please see the .ooo pricing page.

Need a place to keep some things online for awhile? Well we have got the perfect (name)space for you. Today, July 5, 2016, .storage is entering the Sunrise phase, meaning that if you have some stuff you want stored on the Internet for awhile and have a TMCH claim, you can register your .storage domain for $200.60* per year.

Of course, you can always pre-register a spot in one of the next two phases, even while the Sunrise phase is still going on.

The Landrush phase for .storage starts September 6, 2016 at 9:00 AM PDT and ends January 3, 2017 at 8:00 AM PST. Registering in this phase gives you an exclusive shot at getting a possibly higher-demand .storage spot for $150.60*.

Then, on January 3, 2017 at 8:00 AM PST, .storage is open to everyone in the GoLive phase. Register (or pre-register) your .storage in this phase for $95.36* per year at A rates.

Register a .storage?

* Prices in USD. See the .storage price page for local prices.

Grab your bag and get your wallet, it’s time to do some .shopping. Especially if you have a TMCH claim because the latest e-commerce oriented TLD, .shopping, is in the Sunrise phase from July 19 through September 17, 2016. Domains bought in the Sunrise phase are now available for $150.60 per year.

But smart shoppers know that for hot-ticket items, it pays to show up early. Well, even though .shopping doesn’t enter the GoLive phase until September 28, 2016, when .shopping domains will be available for $38.35 per year at A rates, there’s still a way of lining up outside the door: pre-register your domain in the GoLive phase (and you don’t even have to pitch a tent). When the GoLive phase begins, we will submit your registration automatically.

Or if you’re worried the .shopping domain you want might fly off the shelf and are willing to pay a higher price to get just the right one, consider pre-registering now (or registering later) in the Landrush phase. This phase only lasts between September 25, 2016 and September 28, 2016 and registrations will go for $170.60 per year at A rates on a first-come, first-served basis.

Let's do some .shopping

This month, the new generic TLDs delegated to the root zone seemed to have been TLDs that weathered a bit more contention than in a typical month. Objections were filed for applications for TLDs delegated in June for string confusion, when a TLD is supposedly so close to another that the two could be easily confused, and for legal rights. One applicant for .art even attempted to game the system to favor their application.

.now, .deal, .save — June 7

July 12 was Amazon Prime Day and only just on June 7, .prime was delegated by ICANN as a Brand TLD but on the same day, Amazon also had some success with generic TLDs with .now, .deal and .save all being delegated on that day.

These were not all totally without controversy, however.

The application for .now was objected to by Starbucks (HK) Limited. This isn’t the coffee company, but the owners of now TV, a pay TV service launched in Hong Kong in 2003. The objection was filed as a Legal Rights Objection. Starbucks claimed that their ownership of the “now” trademark meant that other applicants would be infringing. The same company succeeded in its application for .nowtv, which they have yet to assign a regsitry to, so it seems that they are very concerned about protecting their brand. Perhaps this was an earnest case of trademark protection or perhaps it was an attempt to use the objection process to favor their own bid.

.cam — June 16

Verisign filed separate String Confusion objections for each of the three .cam applications submitted, claiming that its proximity to .com would cause confusion. Oddly, the objection to Demand Media’s application prevailed even though the objections to AC Webconnecting Holding B.V.’s application and to Famous Four Media’s application were dismissed.

After appealing the decision, though, Demand Media was able to win against the objection and AC Webconnecting Holding B.V. won .cam in an auction.

.shopping — June 21

Last month, .shop was delegated to GMO, who wanted it so much they applied for it twice. GMO ultimately prevailed, but another applicant for the .shop TLD, Commercial Connect, tried to protect their application by filing an objection to Donut’s .shopping application.

Interestingly, no objection was filed to Uniregistry’s application and as the only remaining applicant, Uniregistry’s application won.

.art — June 23

The .art TLD was one of the most applied-for new gTLDs in the entire program, with ten initial applications, including two community applications. One of those was from dadotart inc., a subsidiary of DeviantArt evidently created to serve as the registry of .art domains.

DeviantArt’s counsel commented on another application from an applicant who took an unorthodox approach. Aremi Group registered trademarks for .art and dotart in the EU, a way in which certain players have tried to game the TLD release process.

Neither Aremi Group’s or DeviantArt’s application for .art prevailed, though, and after half the registrants withdrew their applications, including Aremi Group, UK Creative Ideas Limited won .art in a private auction.

.politie — June 23

Similar to a Brand TLD, the Dutch national police had their applied-for TLD, .politie, added to the root zone this month as well. The word “politie” is Dutch for “police,” and the Dutch police intend to use it to fight phishing attempts using the name of the Dutch police. Citizens can know, instead, that any communications or information coming from a .politie domain is actually from the police and not someone else. It’s certainly interesting to see a public institution tech-savvy enough to take advantage of the new gTLD program to improve their services to the public they serve.

As always: these are new TLDs on the cutting edge of having been added by ICANN. As such, any discussion of one of these TLDs should not be interpreted as meaning any of these extensions will be imminently available on Gandi (though we, of course, try to offer all the extensions we possibly can).

Devoted followers of the Gandi news feed may recall a couple of months back that the .game TLD has already entered the GoLive phase (after a somewhat tumultuous start). So what are we playing at, then? It's no .game, it's .games.

Just like .auto and .autos, .car and .cars, the plural form of .game—.games—is a totally separate TLD. And as of July 12 at 10:00 AM PDT, it’s entering the Sunrise phase, which will last until September 10, 2016. During the Sunrise phase, owners of a TMCH registration will be able to purchase their trademark domain name for $300.62 per year.

Then, from September 18 through 22, .games will be in the Landrush phase. During this phase, domains will be available for $162.60 per year.

Finally, on September 21, 2016 at 10:00 AM PDT, .games will enter the GoLive phase at a price of $23.15 per year at A rates.

Remember: if you want to register in the Landrush or GoLive phases, you can pre-register now and we’ll send your order to the registry as soon as .games enters the corresponding phase.

So quit playing around.

Register your .games:

Funny how all these old-fashioned words find new life online. Who, for example, still has a real, physical inbox on a real physical desk top? When was the last time you used controls located on a real panel? Or looked someone up in a face book?

How about watched a video on a screen that still used a vacuum tube to project an image? Even though this technology is going the way of the dinosaur, the internet has proliferated with tubes of all kinds.

And we can expect even more to come as .tube enters the GoLive phase July 7, 2016 at 7:00 AM PDT you can buy a .tube domain for your own online video (or blog about riding the London subway system) and in the process help revive this old-fashioned word even more for just $38.35 per year at A rates.

Buy a .tube?

The gTLDs .com and .net, short for “company” and “network”, respectively, are internationally recognized as perhaps the most iconic gTLDs and form the core of the “classic” gTLD set.

While  .公司 (.xn--55qx5d, Chinese for “company”) and .网络 (.xn--io0a7i, Chinese for “network”) officially opened a couple of years ago, we were not able to offer them immediately upon their release.

However, that’s now changed and we are happy to announce that these two TLDs are now available to purchase at Gandi.

Now you can buy a .公司 for $50.74 USD per year at A rates or a .网络 for $50.74 USD per year at A rates, or 1585 TWD （w/t tax) for either, whether it’s just to get in on the burgeoning Chinese-language internet or to translate, so to speak, your .com and .net into Chinese.

These extensions come with a few conditions, though. Notably, if you are registering a domain for your company (which would make sense for a .公司), you must send a copy of your organization’s registration certificate. If you’re registering as an individual, you need to send a legal photo ID. In both cases, the documents you provide have to match the information you put on your Gandi handle exactly. So be precise.

For full details on these rules and how to send these documents to us, please see the following pages:

•  .公司 rules
  
• .网络 rules
  

Register a domain under one of these TLDs?: