Terminated: Vistaprint tells ICANN it no longer wishes to operate .vista gtld
Promotional and custom products maker Vistaprint has informed ICANN (pdf) that it no longer wishes to operate the .vista top level domain name. The domain name was delegated to Vistaprint in June 2015 but the company hasn’t done anything with it.
Last year, McDonalds dumped its .brand top level domain names .McDonalds and .MCD, HTC the phone company joined a growing list of new gTLD applicants who have opted to terminate registry agreements. HTC was 27th .brand owner to kill its gtld.
A report from the International Trademark Association (INTA) that found that new gTLD registrations during the first application round in 2012 and 2013 were being made overwhelmingly for defensive purposes, costing brands more and creating no direct value.
INTA surveyed 33 brand owners on the impact that new gTLDs have had on enforcement costs for trademark owners. The results from the survey titled: INTA new gtld cost impact survey [PDF] gives some quite shocking revelations on the new domains.
Termination Process
Under the New gTLD Registry Agreement, either party may terminate pursuant to certain requirements in the Registry Agreement, including but not limited to the following:
- Section 4.3 and its subsections – Termination by ICANN
- Section 4.4 and its subsections – Termination by Registry Operator
Pursuant to the above sections, in the event of termination by either party and after consultation with Registry Operator, ICANN shall determine (“Preliminary Determination”) whether or not to transition operation of the Registry to a successor registry operator in its sole discretion and in conformance with the Registry Transition Process.
