.mail, keeps .gmx (for now) — 1&1 ditches

One of seven applicants for .mail top level domain withdraws its application.

1&1 Mail & Media GmbH has withdrawn its application for the top level domain .mail in the wake of receiving two formal objections against its application.

It’s not clear if the objections were part of the firm’s rationale for dropping its application. There seven applicants for .mail, counting heavyweight Google.

Both the United States Postal Service and Universal Postal Union objected to the applications. The USPS filed a bizarre objection based on legal rights while the Universal Postal Union objected on community grounds.

Given that 1&1 owns Mail.com, I don’t understand how these objectors find .mail to be that much more of a threat. 1&1 stands to gain if someone else successfully launches .mail is it will deliver a lot of error traffic to Mail.com.

1&1 is part of United Internet, the same family of firms that owns Sedo.

The firm has not yet withdrawn its application for .gmx, which is basically a .brand application. It has plenty of time to decide whether or not to withdraw the .gmx application since it pulled prioritization number 1,452 for it.