ICANN, the organization that decides which domain extensions exist, is running its first round of new extensions since 2012. On October 7, 2026 it published 1,615 applications from companies, brands, cities and communities that want to run an extension of their own.
None of them can be registered yet. ICANN has not published a date for when any of them will.
What has happened so far
- April 30 to August 12, 2026. Applications were accepted.
- October 7, 2026. ICANN published the applied-for extensions, who applied for each, and which ones more than one applicant wants. You can search the list on ICANN’s application site.
- October 8 to 21, 2026. Applicants could switch to a second-choice string they had named in advance.
What happens next
- November 17, 2026. ICANN publishes the final list of applied-for extensions, after the replacements above.
- November 17, 2026 to March 16, 2027. The public, governments and rights holders can comment on and object to applications.
- About 180 days. ICANN expects evaluation of the strings themselves to take this long.
- First half of 2027. A draw sets the order in which applications are processed. ICANN has not set the date.
After that come the evaluation of each applicant, the resolution of extensions several applicants want, contracts with ICANN, and technical testing. ICANN has given no dates for any of it. An extension reaches the public only after all of these, and then usually opens in stages: trademark holders first, then everyone else.
What this means for you
There is nothing to buy now. A domain in an extension that does not yet exist cannot be registered by anyone. Some services take pre-orders for extensions still in application. A pre-order is a place in a queue, not a domain: the extension may never launch, and if it does, trademark holders are entitled to register first.
Your existing domain is unaffected. New extensions do not change how .com or any other current extension works, and nothing you own needs renewing, moving or protecting because of this round.
If you are not a trademark holder, check back in a year. By then there will be a processing order and some idea of which extensions are close to launch.
If you hold a trademark
The Trademark Clearinghouse is a central record of trademarks that every new extension is required to check. It is the one thing worth doing early, because it applies to every extension from this round as each one launches.
- Priority registration. A recorded mark is eligible to register its matching name during each new extension’s sunrise period, before the public can.
- Claims notices. For 90 days after sunrise, anyone registering a name that matches your mark is shown a notice and has to acknowledge it. If they go ahead, you are told.
- What it does not do. Recording does not stop anyone from registering a matching name after sunrise. It tells you when it happens.
If an applied-for extension is itself your trademark, or confusingly close to it, that is a matter for an objection rather than the Clearinghouse. Objections are open from November 17, 2026 to March 16, 2027, and a trademark objection is filed through the World Intellectual Property Organization. That is a legal proceeding with filing fees, and a trademark attorney is the right person to advise on it.
If you are not sure whether any of this applies to your business, ask us.