London – December 18, 2025 – Com Laude, the world’s most successful domain name advisor to brands and enterprise businesses, reported that the application window for new Top-Level Domain names (“TLDs”) will be opened from April 30 to August 12, 2026, by the industry oversight body, ICANN. This announcement ends years of uncertainty, confirming that companies worldwide need to focus in Quarter 1 of 2026 on this momentous next step in the evolution of the Internet.
Top-Level Domain names are the suffixes at the end of Internet addresses, such as .com, .org, and country codes like .co.uk for the UK and .de for Germany. The new application window allows companies to obtain their own TLDs, including dotBrands that enshrine their trademarked names at the summit of the Internet. By obtaining their own dotBrand TLDs, companies are able to create branded web addresses such as https://cloud.microsoft/, https://go.zara/, https://home.barclays/, https://passwords.google/, and https://image.canon/.
The 2026 application window is expected to be the only opportunity this decade for companies to obtain these uniquely valuable internet assets. The last application window was in 2012, when Com Laude and its sister company FairWinds supported over 250 TLD applications on behalf of clients, all of which were approved by ICANN.
Com Laude CEO Benjamin Crawford commented: “Top-Level Domains are a unique type of Intellectual Property. Companies often share the same trademarked names with hundreds of other companies in other countries and categories, and the same domain names exist with hundreds of different endings – often requiring brands to register large portfolios of domains all over the world. In contrast, each Top-Level Domain name is completely unique and belongs to a single company, forever.”
Marketeers also enjoy unprecedented freedom and savings by using a dotBrand TLD. They can choose any word, including dictionary terms, to instantly create the most intuitive web addresses possible – at very virtually no cost. By contrast, obtaining the same names with a .com ending would cost thousands or even millions of dollars.
Online Brand Protection professionals typically support dotBrand domains as a powerful weapon in their ongoing war against cybersquatters, impersonators, phishers, counterfeiters, and other online scammers. A dotBrand TLD means a domain name can be trusted by customers: If the company name is to the right of the dot, you can be certain it’s an authentic website.
Cybersecurity teams also prefer the end-to-end control that comes with having dotBrand TLDs. For critical internet-enabled functions, dotBrand TLDs help ensure the security and stability of mission-critical applications, free from dependencies on third-party domain registries.
Com Laude’s lead consultant on new TLDs, Stuart Fuller, commented: “Up to six months of preparatory work is required to obtain a new TLD, so time is of the essence. Many companies missed the 2012 window, so we have assembled a dedicated team to ensure that doesn’t happen again in 2026. This is a strategic moment for companies to future-proof their digital identity, and we’re committed to guiding them through every stage.”
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