If they haven't delegated it yet then it's by definition not yet taken as far as they're concerned, and they're the ones that make these decisions. Let me put

If they haven't delegated it yet then it's by definition not yet taken as far as they're concerned, and they're the ones that make these decisions. Let me put it in different terms: ICANN currently has a monopoly on the issuance of new TLDs that has so far banked hundreds of millions of dollars for them. There's no way in hell they're going to voluntarily give up this monopoly and just let any random people start a new TLD without going through them.