About the .CANON new gTLD

Canon Inc. has announced that it will begin the acquisition process for the top-level domain name ".canon," based on the new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) registration system.

Along with its expanding global business activities, Canon will continue to provide online information and services to its users, consumers, and other stakeholders, across the world's countries and regions. With the adoption of the new generic TLD (gTLD) system, which enables the direct utilization of the Canon brand, Canon hopes to globally integrate open communication policies that are intuitive and easier to remember compared with existing domain names such as "canon.com." Canon has made the official decision to begin necessary procedures to acquire ".canon" upon the introduction of the new system. Following approval for the new gTLD system, which is expected to take place after the latter half of 2011, Canon will make full use of the new domain name to increase the convenience and effectiveness of its online communications.

Canon appears to be one of the first and largest companies to publicly state their intent on securing their own top-level domain. Whereas other candidates for names are striving to create more generic names related to geographic regions such as .berlin or environmental concepts like .eco, Canon's TLD will be reserved for company use. Other companies considering campaigns to introduce their company names as potential top-level domain names will likely look to Canon as a model for how a campaign should be conducted. While company name top-level domain names will not be open to the general public, it will allow businesses to further incorporate their name into marketing campaigns. It is foreseeable that Canon would eventually create sites such as cameras.canon or photography.canon to tie the company's business operations to its web presence.