18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

Prototypical answer:

Merck KGaA is a global pharmaceutical, chemical and life science company with approximately 40,000 employees in over 70 countries. In 2010 Merck realized total revenues of EUR 9.3 Billion.


A. MERCK Businesses

The pharmaceutical, chemical and life science businesses of Merck are organized into four divisions.

Merck Serono specializes in innovative pharmaceuticals and focuses on indications mainly treated by specialists, as well as on diseases with high unmet medical needs.

Merck Consumer Healthcare offers high-quality over-the-counter products to enhance the quality of life of consumers all over the world. Its brands are available in many countries throughout Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.

The Merck Millipore division offers solutions that enable scientists to conduct life science research easily, efficiently and economically. With a range of more than 40,000 products, Merck Millipore is one of the top three suppliers of tools to the life science industry. This division comprises three business units: Bioscience, Lab Solutions and Process Solutions.

Merck’s Performance Materials division offers highly innovative materials, advanced technologies, and high-tech chemicals to clients in the consumer electronics, lighting, printing, plastics, and cosmetics industries. Merck’s market leading products include liquid crystals for LCD displays, new lighting technologies, and functional and effect pigments.

Merck KGaA operates its worldwide business through over 250 companies which (1) are fully owned subsidiaries of Merck KGaA, (2) use Merck as the sole element or as a component of their company name, and (3) use the German figurative trademark No. 30130670, “MERCK”, as their umbrella brand. The nexus of these companies, together with the parent company Merck KGaA, constitutes the “Merck Community”.

Today there are over 250 companies in the Merck Group, with roughly 40,000 employees located in over 70 countries worldwide, which represent the Merck Community, working together to bring innovative healthcare, life science and high-tech chemical solutions to the world at large.

Only members of the Merck Community, as defined above and further discussed below under Question 20, shall be eligible to register domain names within the “.MERCK” TLD. Merck KGaA, or its express assignee, shall periodically monitor the registration status of all domain names in the “.MERCK” space to ensure ongoing compliance with this eligibility requirement. As the Registry Operator, Merck KGaA shall maintain the space for the benefit of the Merck Community at large.


B. The name and brand MERCK

Since Friedrich Jacob Merck laid the foundation stone in 1668, the name Merck has stood for medicines and chemical products that have proved invaluable to people and have created inestimable value for the company.

Today Merck KGaA holds rights in the name and the trademark “Merck” in more than 180 countries worldwide. The trademark “Merck” is considered to be well known pursuant to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in various countries including, for example, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and through the Madrid System of WIPO. Merck is further regularly listed among the global Top 500 companies as published through the famous Forbes magazine.

The Merck Group has established detailed branding guidelines to ensure a globally visible corporate identity for the Merck Community. Such guidelines define the use of the umbrella logo MERCK and other design elements. They provide detailed instructions for the branding of, for example, letterheads, business cards, signage, marketing materials, brochures, products, working clothes, car fleets and trade fairs. Further, Internet and social media guidelines have been developed to ensure a harmonised appearance of the Merck group in online media. These combined efforts result in an easy recognition of the Community members as part of the Merck family.

The “.MERCK” top-level domain will enable the Merck Community to communicate with all stakeholders as one group, and to communicate information about the Merck brand in a unified and global manner. The “.MERCK” space will further help Merck unite all members of the Merck Community under one single name online, and provide the Merck Community with a universal, comprehensive forum through which to present its information to the public.

The TLD “.MERCK” is intended to benefit Internet users by enabling the Merck Community to communicate under the unique branded TLD which corresponds to Merck KGaA’s globally famous trademark. The “.MERCK” TLD will allow the Merck Community to more easily and effectively interact with all Internet users, and particularly with the Merck Group’s many customers, employees and affiliates.

The “.MERCK” TLD will be operated for the benefit of the entire Merck Community. This will allow the distribution and exchange of information between Merck KGaA, the companies of the Merck Group, and their relevant stakeholders by means of, but not limited to, websites, social networks, email and other technologies that will reside within the “.MERCK” domain name space.

Merck KGaA intends to limit eligibility for registration to itself and companies which are members of the Merck Community, and to primarily use all such domain names for promotional and navigational purposes relating to Merck’s, and the companies of the Merck Group’s, online presences and⁄or the provision of Merck’s goods and services.

The “.MERCK” domain space will further be used to communicate the global initiatives of the Merck Community, which are focused on innovation. Targeted expansion of its extensive product range is crucial for the Merck Community. Merck employees’ work and creativity provide Merck with the keys to new products for the most important markets, and Merck strives to ensure that its employees are provided with the best prerequisites and state-of-the-art resources to enable such activities. Merck continuously expands its research capabilities through acquisitions, partnerships and strategic alliances across the borders of industries and countries, thereby stretching the boundaries to make new solutions possible.

State of the art technologies combined with a modern, safe and trustworthy Internet presence within the “.MERCK” space underline Merck’s mission to deliver first class products, treatments and solutions in the business areas of chemical, pharmaceutical and life science.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)