Colombia is yet another country to follow the fashion and to initiate a process of liberalization of its national extension: CO. This liberalization follows actually the reassignment for the extension of Colombia, which, from next February 07 will no longer be managed by the University of the Andes , but by an American start-up. The main advantage of this first level national extension, .CO, is obviously that “CO” is the broadly used diminutive for “Company”. Therefore it is very likely that many companies will want to buy a domain name containing their business name suffixed by. CO. In other words, .CO might become for companies what .ME is for individuals, namely a way to show to the world what they are. CO is however (dangerously) close to COM. That very proximity is also a source of danger to brand owners. Indeed, just look at what happened to Cameroonian .CM, which was liberalized last year: According to the Security Software editor McAfee, 80% of the domain names registered under .CM have been registered unlawfully. cybersquatters have based their strategy one a very common typo error: the omission of the “o” in “.COM” when the user writes a URL in his browser. And, alas, given the registration requirements announced by the new Registry, namely none, since .CO will be an extension without any restriction or required documents, we can bet that .CO will be a cybersquatters Eldorado. Nonetheless, the new .Co registry has decided to begin the liberalization with a Sunrise period, followed by a landrush in order to allow trademark owners to registrer their trademark under .CO before cybersquatters.

.CO Logo

The opening will be done in 4 steps before total opening:

• First, as from March 1st and throughout the month of March, the holder for a .COM.CO registered before the 30/07/2008 will be able to register the equivalent of their domain name under .CO.

• Then, from April 1 to 20, a second period begins, allowing holders of registered trademarks in Colombia before July 30, 2008 to register a domain name matching the mark. If a domain is desired by many trademark holders, it will be given to the highest bidder in an auction process.

• Next, from April 26 to June 10, holders of trademark registered anywhere (not necessarily designating Colombia) before July 30, 2008 can register a domain matching their trademark. Again, if several brand owners compete on  the same domain, it will be allocated  to the highest bidder in an auction process.

• After that, from June 21 to July 13, the so called landrush will begin: Everyone will be able to purchase a domain name. However, again, if several people wish to become the holder of the same domain, it returns to the highest bidder in an auction process.

• Finally, from July 20, 2010, anyone will be able to purchase a domain name on a first-come, first served basis.

We do not know yet the price that will be charged by the Registry of Colombia during the various waves of registration. We will keep you informed as soon as this information we will be notified by the registry.

Adrien Palumbo

http://is.gd/5RzgO

The RESTENA foundation, which manages the Luxembourg ccTLD (.LU) has announced several update of their policies. This decision could widely increase the number of .LU domains (there were 47,797 on December 31 2009).

First of all, from February 1st 2010, it will be possible to register .LU Internationalized Domain Names (IDN). It will be possible to registrer a domain name with the following characters:

ä - ö - ü - à - â - æ - ç - è - é - ê - ë - î - ï - ô - ù - û - œ

A two month sunrise period will occur in order to protect former .LU domain names holders against cybersquatting. Indeed, until april 1st 2010, only .LU domain names holder’s will be able to register the equivalent of their domain name in IDN. It is quite original that a sunrise period does not protect Trademark holders, but former domain name holders. With that kind of sunrise, a cybersquatter with the good ASCII domain name will have the priority on a Trade Mark owner… Anyway, after that sunrise period, registrations will be performed on the « first-come, first-served » basis.

In order to assure yourself a .LU IDN, you can already register the non-IDN equivalent of that domain name. It will allow you to be part of the sunrise period.

The following table shows the complete list of accepted equivalence during the sunrise period:

Another big change that will happen on February 1st 2010 is the end of the local administrative contact requirement. Nowadays, you need a local contact to register a .LU domain name. But from February 1st 2010, the .LU will be completely open. Anyone from any country will be able to register a .LU domain name without any requirement.

Of course, if you wish register a .LU domain name before the plausible opening rush, you can already do it by using IP Twins local administrative contact.

Adrien Palumbo

RIINA PÄRN, Estonian Patent Attorney at  INTELS (intels@intels.ee) has kindly provided us with the latest update on the forthcoming changes in .EE domain Registration

Reforms under ccTLD .EE (Estonia) are pending. The liberalization process is expected to start as from February 1, 2010

RIINA PÄRN, DR

The currently valid Official Regulations on Registration of Domain Names under .EE (Official Regulations) allow only one second level country-code top-level domain name per person, at which the eligibility requirement regarding the local presence requirement shall be met.

For reforming and liberalizing the currently valid system, the foundation Eesti Interneti SA has been established, which shall be responsible for the management and registration of the domain names under .EE in accordance with the new Domain Name Rules. The term as February 1, 2010 has been announced for the start of the new era under .EE, i.e. the date when the new Rules will be effected and the 6 months transition period starts. (update: the liberalization process is not going to start as from February 1, 2010. No new deadline is determined.)

The draft of the new Rules is published on the website of Eesti Interneti SA (not translated in English yet). The major changes concern no number limits to the domain names per person. Foreign persons may acquire domain name registrations in presence of Estonian administrative contact, the registration and annual fees for the domain name registrations will be implemented, the applications for the domain name registrations shall be filed through Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

During the 6 months transition period the registration of domain names according to the valid Official Regulations will be terminated, the registration of domain names under new Rules will be initiated and the prior registered domain names shall be re-registered with the ISPs. During the transition period, only owners of domain names registred before the start of the new era under .EE will be able to register them. After the transition period, if those names have not been registered, they would be registered by anyone.

The new Rules do not contain any references to the Sunrise period or other preventive measures for the owners of earlier rights. However, the head of Eesti Interneti SA has expressed his concern that the separate rules for the trademark owners during the transition period will be provided. Also the voluntary Alternative Dispute Resolution procedure will be introduced.

In order to be able to obtain the domain name registrations under .EE before the start of the liberalization process and to minimize the risks, it is possible currently to file the exceptional domain name applications with the Registry on basis of, for instance, existing Community Trademark rights. The local presence requirement shall be still met, however, the local proxy services may be used. For the clients owing the registered Community Trademarks and being interested in the domain name extensions with .EE, we would recommend applying the exceptional domain name applications before the start of liberalization.

Riina Pärn

.DO becomes unrestricted, and IP Twins offer you to register domains names under this first level extension.

© J. Howard Miller

Today, Thursday, December 10, in addition to .eu IDNs registration opening, a new ccTLD will join the long list of unregulated local extensions.
Indeed, the Dominican Republic has decided to open wide the doors to the registration of domain names under the national extension: the .DO; whereas previously, it was impossible to register a domain name directly under this extension. Foreign companies could only register 3rd level .com.do domains and were moreover limited to the registration of a domain name matching their corporate name.
The rules, therefore, change completely and now, everybody can register a .do domain name. This change has been done whitout any “sunrise period”, which is kind of dangerous for Trademark owners, since any third party will be able to register their trademark as domain name. The only credit given to the rightful owners of domain names is to enable them to file in priority a .do domain name corresponding to the .com.do they registered before October 30.

Registration is based on the “first come, first served” principle. However usual limitations apply: The size of the domain name must be between 2 and 63 characters, it should not be one of the terms usually reserved, such as city names, technical terms or other generic extensions.
To summarize, it is now as easy to register a .do as it is to register a .com, with the same risk of cybersquatting for trademark holders. The only differences are a requirement to an initial registration of two years and registration fees slightly higher.
This extension is very interesting for companies wishing to develop their activities in the Caribbean. It may also be helpful to reserve a domain name under this extension in order to prevent a cybersquatter from doing it before you.

Adrien Palumbo