How prepared are you for your 2026 dotBrand application this year?

1. Are you strategically ready?

This is often where organisations feel ready – and where a simple framework can really help.

Strategic readiness doesn’t mean you have to have all the answers, it means you’re able to articulate things like:

• why .yourBrand might matter to your organisation long-term
• how a private estate might support governance, security or simplification
• how it would sit alongside your existing public domains

Our checklist will help your internal teams verify their thinking against some clear milestones, rather than relying on instinct alone.

2. Are you aligned internally?

As mentioned, dotBrand decisions tend to work best when they’re treated as infrastructure, not a campaign.

Organisations ready to progress smoothly generally have:

• a clear executive sponsor
• early involvement from legal, IT, security, brand and marketing
• shared understanding of ownership and responsibility

Alignment doesn’t need to be perfect at this stage – but if you know who needs to be in the room in your company, it’s a strong signal of readiness.

It’s important to say again that you don’t need to be ready on day one of the window on 30 April.

Your application can be submitted at any point before 12 August 2026 – but it’s important to set realistic approval points internally to make sure you apply in good time before this final date.

3. Are you eligible from a brand and legal perspective?

This is one of the more practical questions, and one of the most important – because you can only apply for .yourBrand if you’re the corresponding registered trademark holder.

That means trademark ownership, scope and longevity need to be clear.

If you’re an organisation with multiple brands, planned changes or international portfolios, this step often helps clarify timing and priorities.

4. Have you considered the security dimension?

For many organisations, interest in .theirBrand begins with a broader conversation about digital risk.

Have your internal stakeholders discussed:

• how domains fit into your security perimeter
• how impersonation and lookalike risk is currently managed
• where a private namespace could add confidence?

For teams already thinking seriously about phishing, fraud or brand misuse, this often feels like a natural extension of existing work.

5. Are you thinking about governance early enough?

Owning a private estate means setting rules – and being comfortable enforcing them.

That doesn’t mean everything has to be defined upfront, it means having an emerging view on:

• how domains will be approved and issued
• how changes will be managed over time
• how consistency will be maintained.

This is an opportunity to simplify governance, rather than add complexity.

6. Do you know how operations would be supported?

Organisations already using .theirBrand rarely run a registry themselves.

Operational readiness here is about understanding:

• how a registry services provider (RSP) fits into your model
• how .yourBrand would integrate with existing DNS and security operations
• where responsibility will sit day-to-day.

Clarity, rather than capability, is the key milestone at this stage.

7. Are you comfortable with the investment profile?

Owning .yourBrand means investing in infrastructure rather than a single domain purchase.

It’s important to:

• take a multi-year view
• balance cost against risk reduction, trust and simplification
• understand ICANN fees and ongoing operational commitments.

This question is less about budget approval, and more about mindset.

8. Have you thought about timing and commitment?

The 2026 window is only 15 weeks long, but readiness here isn’t about urgency – it’s about realism:

• Do internal timelines allow space for preparation?
• Is there appetite to explore this properly before committing?
• Is your organisation comfortable with what waiting for a future round might mean?

Understanding these things early will lighten the load later.