Long reduced to a purely technical function, the domain name has gradually become a space for expression in its own right. With the emergence of colour-based extensions, it no longer merely identifies or locates. It suggests, positions, and shapes perception. Red, green, black, or yellow, colour operates as an immediate signal, sometimes even before the content is read. Still marginal in brand usage, these extensions nonetheless raise important questions about how companies build, protect, and govern their digital identity.

The recent launch of the cryptographic extension .YELLOW by Unstoppable Domains provides an opportunity to pause and examine a phenomenon that remains marginal, yet rich in lessons for brand owners: top-level domains based on colours.

Once confined to a strictly technical role, the domain name is increasingly becoming an integral element of brand language. Colour TLDs may represent one of the most explicit manifestations of this evolution. They describe neither an activity, nor a territory, nor a status. Instead, they suggest a perception, an atmosphere, sometimes even an intention.

1. When the address speaks before the content

Originally, the domain name was designed as a tool for localization and identification. Its purpose was primarily utilitarian: to find a website and associate content with a clearly identifiable actor.

The introduction of new gTLDs has progressively shifted this center of gravity. The domain

name is no longer merely a technical address. It can now contribute to brand discourse, much like a slogan, a visual identity, or a typographic choice.

This evocative dimension is not foreign to branding strategies. Many companies have incorporated a colour directly into their brand name, not as a simple ornament, but as a structuring element of identity. Colour thus becomes a cognitive shortcut, immediately recognizable, sometimes even more powerful than the name itself.

In all these examples, colour precedes rational analysis. It creates an expectation, establishes an atmosphere, and shapes perception even before any interaction with the content.

2. The colour palette of Internet naming

Since the 2012 round of new gTLDs, several colour-based extensions have been introduced into the DNS, including .RED, .BLUE, .GREEN, .BLACK, .WHITE, .ORANGE, .PINK, .PURPLE, and .BROWN. A new application round is scheduled between April 30 and August 12, 2026. It is therefore not excluded that additional colour TLDs may appear in the future, although their success will largely depend on their linguistic and strategic relevance.

These TLDs do not describe what you do. They suggest how you wish to be perceived. In this respect, they clearly differ from sector-based extensions (.ONLINE, .TECH, .LEGAL) or geographic ones (.FR, .PARIS, .TOKYO). In practice, this symbolic dimension remains largely underexploited. Colour is often relegated to the status of a marketing accessory, even though it can serve as a strong perceptual marker, immediately legible in certain domain names.

Sector-based extensions categorize. Geographic extensions locate. Colour extensions, by contrast, position.

When observing actual uses of colour TLDs, one conclusion emerges: they are rarely used as primary domain names. Their use is generally peripheral and contextual:

• campaign websites,
• event pages,
• product launches,
• limited editions,
• editorial or artistic projects.

Colour is therefore not mobilized to replace the core digital identity, but rather to temporarily extend its perceptual register.

In a saturated digital environment, the ability to be identified quickly becomes a strategic challenge. In this respect, colour can play a useful role by facilitating memorization. One can think of colour TLDs as atmospheric filters:

5. .YELLOW: Yellow as a signal flare

.YELLOW follows a different logic. It is not a DNS gTLD, but a blockchain-based extension.

In practice, a blockchain domain name such as brand.yellow does not currently function like a traditional DNS domain name. It does not, as of today, allow for universally accessible website hosting through all browsers, nor does it support standard email functionalities.

Its use is primarily tied to Web3 ecosystems: association with digital wallets, decentralized identities, redirections to specific content, or platforms compatible with certain browsers, extensions, or technical environments.

These limitations are not fixed. Gateway mechanisms, resolvers, and browser integrations already allow for partial accessibility from the “traditional” Web. In the medium to long term, increased interoperability with the DNS cannot be ruled out.

It is now established that .YELLOW will not be the subject of an ICANN application in the 2026 round. It should therefore not be viewed as an immediate precursor to a new DNS gTLD. At this stage, .YELLOW is best understood as a signal: Web3 is experimenting with more symbolic forms of digital identity, which may gradually influence certain practices of the traditional Web.

6. Language versus colour

If colour is worth its weight in gold in brand names, why is it so rarely exploited as an extension? Although colour TLDs exist, they are seldom used by major brands. This paradox is not purely strategic or legal. It is also linguistic.

In English, the colour almost always precedes the noun: Red Bull, Blue Note, Green Day. In this structure, bull.red or note.blue does not feel like a natural brand reflex. Such registrations may make sense defensively, but they are rarely a “natural” marketing choice.

In French, the logic is reversed. The colour follows the noun: Carte Bleue, Vin Jaune, Forêt Noire, Planète Bleue, Énergie Verte. In such cases, the structure noun + colour translates perfectly into brand.colour. Yet no .BLEU, .VERTE, .ROUGE, .NOIR, or .JAUNE exists in the DNS. The result is counterintuitive: colour TLDs exist, but they are linguistically misaligned with the languages in which they would be most intuitive for certain brands.

This mismatch is not unique to colours. Adjectives more generally occupy a marginal position among gTLDs, in favor of more stable categories such as sectors, statuses, or territories.

7. Protecting brand colours

Even when a brand has no intention of actively communicating through a trademark.colour, it may still have a strong interest in preventing third parties from doing so. When a colour is strongly associated with a brand universe, defensive control of the corresponding domain name is a basic naming governance reflex.

For example:

• Ferrari, inseparable from red, has a clear interest in controlling ferrari.red;
• Louboutin, whose red sole is a claimed distinctive feature, louboutin.red;
• Barbie, universally associated with pink, barbie.pink;
• Hermès, historically linked to orange, hermes.orange.

Colour TLDs do not merely create communication opportunities. They also open specific risk spaces. Because they activate perceptual codes already associated with a brand, a sector, or a promise, they can be used by third parties to produce credible narratives at low cost. Fraudulent CSR commitments, opportunistic campaigns, fake institutional websites, or hijacked community projects, the risk is less legal than reputational. In this context, not holding a relevant colour TLD is not merely a technical choice, but a naming governance decision to be assessed in light of brand identity, visibility, and exposure.

The objective is not necessarily active use. It is to prevent a third party from fabricating, at low cost, a credible narrative by leveraging chromatic codes already anchored in the public mind.

Conclusion

Colour extensions are not ill-suited to brands. They are, for now, linguistically misaligned. And as is often the case in domain name matters, it is precisely the gaps between technology, language, and perception that generate both risks and opportunities.

When colour becomes an asset to protect

Colour TLDs open up opportunities, but they also create blind spots.
IP Twins supports brand owners across three complementary dimensions:

• Monitoring and anticipation: identifying relevant colour TLDs, monitoring sensitive registrations, detecting opportunistic uses;
• Defensive strategy: portfolio recommendations, arbitration between registration, blocking, and monitoring, risk-based prioritization; and
• Tactical use: thoughtful selection of a colour TLD for a campaign, launch, or editorial project, without diluting the primary domain.