String Reveal Day: Why It Matters to Every Brand Holder — and How to Prepare

Oct 6

7 min read

String Reveal Day is the moment ICANN publishes every application in its 2026 New gTLD round — all applicants, all applied-for strings, and the initial contention sets. It happens at 18:00 UTC on 7 October 2026 (11:30 pm IST). For brand holders, it is the first time you can see whether someone has applied for a top-level domain matching your brand.

For most of the last decade, the internet's top-level namespace has been effectively frozen. That ends this week. 1,616 applications are proceeding in this round, per ICANN's confirmation — from 1,663 submitted before the window closed on 12 August 2026.

Until Reveal Day, those applications are confidential. After it, the clock starts on deadlines you cannot extend.

When Is String Reveal Day in Your Time Zone?

Location	Local time
UTC	18:00, Tue 7 Oct
London (BST)	19:00, Tue 7 Oct
Dubai (GST)	22:00, Tue 7 Oct
India (IST)	23:30, Tue 7 Oct
Vietnam (ICT)	01:00, Wed 8 Oct
Singapore / Malaysia / Philippines	02:00, Wed 8 Oct
New York (EDT)	14:00, Tue 7 Oct

What Gets Published — and Why It Matters

ICANN discloses everything at once: applicant identities, all primary strings, variant and replacement strings, public portions of each application, and initial contention sets where two or more applicants want the same string.

That matters because a top-level domain is permanent infrastructure, and this is the only moment you can see what was applied for while objection remains open. Three risks surface:

1. Someone applied for your brand as a TLD. Not yourbrand.com — .yourbrand. If a third party has applied for a string matching or confusingly similar to your mark, this is when you find out.

2. Someone applied for a string that threatens your category. A competitor or speculator securing .insurance, .clinic or your sector's generic term changes how customers find your industry for decades.

3. Your defensive planning just became concrete. Every string that proceeds eventually launches with a Sunrise period — each one a registration decision and a squatting exposure.

You cannot act on what you have not read. Brands that treat Reveal Day as news rather than a review deadline routinely find conflicts after the cheapest remedies have closed.

The Deadlines That Start After the Reveal

This is where Reveal Day turns from information into obligation. Several windows open in sequence, and they are short.

Window	Duration	Who it affects
String replacement	14 days from Reveal Day	Applicants in contention may switch to an alternative string
String Confirmation Day	Roughly 2–3 weeks after the replacement period ends	Confirms which strings actually proceed
Prioritisation draw	No later than 30 days after String Confirmation Day	Determines review order
Objection filing period	104 days following String Confirmation Day	Any party objecting on the four grounds
Second string-confusion window	30 days after String Evaluation results published	String confusion objections only

A nuance that trips people up: replacement strings are published alongside the primary applications on Reveal Day, but which replacement an applicant actually elects is not known until String Confirmation Day — currently expected around late November or early December. So the list you screen tomorrow is not necessarily the final list. Screen it, then re-screen after confirmation.

There are four grounds of objection: string confusion, legal rights, limited public interest, and community.

For brand holders, the one that matters most is the Legal Rights Objection — the mechanism for arguing that an applied-for string infringes your trademark rights. WIPO has been appointed the sole provider for Legal Rights Objections and String Confusion Objections in this round, per WIPO's announcement. Full procedural detail sits in ICANN's 2026 Round Applicant Guidebook.

A caution worth noting: the objection clock runs from String Confirmation Day, not Reveal Day. Confirm the operative date for your case rather than counting from the reveal.

If You Applied: The Communication Ban That Starts Tomorrow

If your organisation filed an application and lands in a contention set, a silence obligation begins the moment the strings go public — and breaching it can cost you the application.

This is the single biggest procedural change from the 2012 round, and it catches people out because it reverses what the industry learned last time.

Under ICANN's 2026 contention rules, set out in the Applicant Guidebook,

applicants, their agents and affiliates in the same contention set are prohibited from communicating — directly or indirectly — about the contending applications, strategies relating to the contested strings, or approaches to resolving contention privately.

The restriction runs from Reveal Day until contention is resolved, either by withdrawal or by the prevailing applicant executing a Registry Agreement.

In 2012, the opposite was true. Competing applicants routinely negotiated settlements, withdrawals, joint ventures and private auctions. That informal route is now closed, and the potential sanction for getting it wrong is termination of the application.

In practice: brief every internal team today — legal, commercial, marketing, corporate development, and anyone attending industry events. The ban covers indirect contact, so a well-meant conversation through a mutual contact or adviser is still a problem. Route anything ambiguous through counsel before responding, including unsolicited inbound approaches, and document both the approach and your non-response.

If you hold trademarks but filed no application, this does not restrict you — but it explains why applicants may suddenly go quiet, and why the usual commercial conversation about a conflicting string may be unavailable until contention resolves.

How to Prepare: A Four-Stage Checklist

Before the reveal (today)

Assemble a prioritised watch list. Corporate name, house marks, product brands, abbreviations, and your sector's generic terms. Rank them — marks tied to payments, account access, healthcare, regulated services, high-value goods and customer support sit at the top, as do any brands with a history of being impersonated.
Confirm your trademark position. Registration numbers and jurisdictions. A Legal Rights Objection needs demonstrable rights, and assembling them later burns days you will not have.
Name an owner. One person accountable for reviewing the list within 48 hours, with legal, security and marketing on call.

On the day (7–8 October)

Download the full list rather than searching ad hoc. You are looking for matches you did not anticipate.
Screen for more than exact matches. Include singular and plural forms, translations and transliterations, abbreviations and phonetic equivalents, strings with close visual, aural or conceptual similarity — and any term that could become a trusted-looking destination for phishing, fraud or customer diversion in your sector.
Assess the applicant, not just the string. Reveal Day publishes applicant identity, corporate structure, stated mission and purpose, application type, proposed registration policies and restrictions, and target community or market. The same string carries very different risk depending on who holds it: a reputable operator with an unrelated purpose may warrant monitoring only, while a direct competitor — or an applicant proposing an open registry under a brand-sensitive term — needs immediate attention.
Log every hit with the applicant name and string, and flag anything sitting in a contention set.

First 14 days

Assess whether any flagged string warrants objection, and brief counsel early. Applicants in contention may switch strings during this window, which can change your analysis entirely.
Build the evidence record now, not later. A Legal Rights Objection turns on a developed factual case: trademark registrations, evidence of reputation and geographic reach, sales and advertising figures, public recognition, and documented history of confusion, phishing, counterfeiting or prior enforcement involving your mark. Gather it while the 104-day clock has not started.
Take early advice on standing, cost, remedies and prospects. These are specialised proceedings, not routine enforcement — knowing early that a case is weak is as valuable as knowing it is strong.

Through the objection period

Decide and file within the window. Once it closes, your options narrow to post-launch enforcement.
Record your marks in the Trademark Clearinghouse. TMCH recordal gives Sunrise priority and Claims notifications as these TLDs launch — the practical defence across the hundreds of strings you will never object to.
Plan defensive registration and blocking so Sunrise periods do not arrive unprepared.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is String Reveal Day?

It is the day ICANN publishes all applications in its 2026 New gTLD round — applicant identities, applied-for strings, variant and replacement strings, public portions of applications, and initial contention sets. It occurs at 18:00 UTC on 7 October 2026.

How many applications will be revealed?

1,616 applications are proceeding, from 1,663 submitted. The application window ran from 30 April to 12 August 2026.

What should a brand holder do first?

Download the full list and screen it against your trademarks within 48 hours — exact matches, confusingly similar strings, and sector-relevant generics. Early detection preserves every remedy; late detection removes the cheapest ones.

Can I object if someone applied for my brand?

Yes. Four objection grounds exist: string confusion, legal rights, limited public interest and community. Trademark owners use the Legal Rights Objection, administered by WIPO as sole provider, filed within the 104-day window following String Confirmation Day.

Can applicants in the same contention set talk to each other?

No. Under ICANN's 2026 contention rules, applicants, agents and affiliates in the same contention set are prohibited from communicating directly or indirectly about the contending applications or private resolution, from Reveal Day until contention is resolved. This reverses the 2012 position, where private settlements and auctions were common. The potential sanction is termination of the application.

What if I do not want to object but still need protection?

Record your marks in the Trademark Clearinghouse. TMCH recordal provides Sunrise priority registration and Claims notifications when new TLDs launch — the scalable defence across hundreds of strings.

What happens if I miss the objection window?

You are left with post-launch enforcement — UDRP, URS and takedowns against individual abusive registrations — rather than challenging the TLD itself. Slower, costlier, and narrower in effect.

The Bottom Line

String Reveal Day is a 48-hour review obligation disguised as an announcement. On 7 October at 18:00 UTC, 1,616 applications become public, and from that moment a sequence of short, non-extendable windows begins — alongside, for applicants, a communication ban that starts the same instant.

Visibility is not protection. The list tells you what exists; it does nothing on its own. The brands that come through this round well will not be the ones that read about it. They will be the ones who had a prioritised watch list ready, screened the full list within two days, assessed the applicants behind the strings, and knew which conflicts justified objection before the window closed.

Need help screening the reveal against your portfolio? LdotR supports brand holders through trademark protection in the domain space, including TMCH recordal and objection strategy, alongside corporate domain management and dotBrand advisory. Talk to our specialists.