I don't understand this. Eg in the Sony case, why wouldn't they just hold on to it? They did the hard work, they paid up, keeping it on is not a bigger burden than keeping a registered trademark globally, I'd assume? Does anybody understand?
Saving money maybe? I believe it is 185.000 per year.
google search, since it was integrated to the address bar its super easy to find the right site and you longer have to remember or guess the address , hence the name has become pointless.