| gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | | .merck | Merck KGaA | bettinger.de | View |
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.
| gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | | .emerck | Merck KGaA | bettinger.de | View |
Merck KGaA is a global pharmaceutical, chemical and life science company with approximately 40,000 employees in 70 countries. In 2010 Merck realized total revenues of EUR 9.3 Billion. 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.
Merck Millipore 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, with roughly 40,000 employees located in 70 countries, which work together to bring innovative healthcare, life science and high-tech chemical solutions to the world at large.
A. The E. Merck Tradition
The Merck company has its roots in the Engel Pharmacy, which was located in Darmstadt, Germany. Accordingly, the earliest “trademark” used to identify the Merck brand was a small picture of an angel. A successful pharmacist and industrialist, Heinrich Emanuel Merck undertook the mass production of alkaloid compounds in 1827, and in 1850 formed the “E. Merck” partnership together with his sons. From these early beginnings, the multi-national corporation continues to draw its inspiration, reminding the company of its commitment to quality and tradition.
Today, the significance of the E. Merck name is even greater, as online communications have become an increasingly more important aspect of Merck’s business. Therefore, Merck KGaA has decided to register the “.EMERCK” TLD, which represents not only the company’s longstanding history and tradition but also the company’s electronic online business activities. The “E” of “.EMERCK” thus functions as a synonym for Merck KGaA’s e-business and e-commerce activities. With the introduction of the “.EMERCK” TLD, Merck KGaA is building a bridge from its unique tradition as the oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company in the world to the new opportunities presented by the digital age.
B. The Merck Name
During the 1930s, the company began using a shortened version of its well-known E. Merck trademark, referring to itself as “Merck”. 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.
C. The Merck Community
Merck KGaA provides a vast array of innovative healthcare, life science and high-tech chemical solutions to consumers, researchers and health concerns across the globe, and it does so through a vast network of subsidiaries, affiliates, and business associates. The nexus of these Merck Group members, who all use the Merck name in the operation of their businesses and as their “umbrella” brand, comprises the Merck Community. The “.EMERCK” space will provide the parent company of this group, Merck KGaA, with a corporate-controlled, well organized online space in which to present information relevant to the company’s activities. Pages within the “.EMERCK” space may also provide appropriate links to the pages of Community members, in order to provide visitors to the space with easy access to the resources they seek.
C.1 Mission and Purpose of the “.EMERCK” TLD
Besides the tradition of E. Merck, “.EMERCK” stands for “electronic Merck”. The “.EMERCK” TLD will combine all applications of information and communication technologies in support of Merck’s online business activities. The “.EMERCK” space will, accordingly, provide information to Merck KGaA’s online visitors from across the globe, and the space will offer users an interconnected, well-organized network of information about Merck’s activities.
The “.EMERCK” TLD is intended to serve as a dedicated space for the sole use of Merck KGaA for its online activities. Merck KGaA will use this new TLD to provide information about its unique activities and its colorful, extensive corporate history, as well as to communicate with its internal divisions, external business partners, shareholders, customers and all further stakeholders.
The “.EMERCK” top-level domain will enable Merck KGaA to present its full range of online activities, and to identify itself online as “electronic Merck”. The “.EMERCK” space will provide a means for Merck KGaA to maintain secure email addresses, a company intra-web, and to manage internal and external communications between its business affiliates, shareholders, customers and all further stakeholders.
The “.EMERCK” Registry Service Provider will manage the Internet space under the direct control of Merck KGaA. This will allow the distribution and exchange of information between Merck KGaA and its relevant stakeholders by means of, but not limited to, websites, social networks, email and other technologies that will reside within the “.EMERCK” domain name space.
Merck KGaA will limit registration of the “.EMERCK” space to a single-registrant model, meaning that Merck KGaA will be the sole registrant of all domain names in the space. Merck KGaA may, in its sole discretion, elect from time to time to license the use of certain domain names within the TLD to appropriate divisions or business affiliates, but at all times Merck KGaA shall remain the registrant of record for all domain names in “.EMERCK.” Accordingly, Merck KGaA will have control over the content and use of all “.EMERCK” domain names, and will be in a unique position to ensure that the space is utilized in a safe, appropriate manner.