The .merck saga has come to an end with a registry agreement

The long-standing duel for the .merck top-level domain has also come to a technical end. The Internet registry ICANN signed the registry contract with Merck Registry Holdings Inc. on September 10, 2024. .merck has not yet been delegated, i.e. registered in the root zone. However, there will be no general registration anyway, as .merck is operated as a trademark extension. In 2012, a conflict arose (again) after both Merck KGaA and Merck Registry Holdings Inc. belonging to Merck & Co Inc. applied to ICANN for the extension. When an “auction of last resort” was then threatened, both parties engaged in intensive talks to reach an amicable agreement, which was ultimately successful. Merck Registry Holdings Inc. submitted an amended application to ICANN on March 21, 2021. It states that it intends to transfer the rights from the registry contract to MM Domain Holdco Ltd. in the event of a successful bid. This London-based company was founded in November 2020. British David Johnathan Peacock, German-British Antje Ehrlich and US-American Jennifer Lynn Zachary were appointed as directors on November 25, 2020. Ehrlich was (or is) senior trade mark counsel for Merck KGaA, while Zachary works as a lawyer for Merck & Co Inc. This means that both companies will be able to manage the .merck domain extension on an equal footing in future.

Source: https://www.icann.org/