Local Presence for TZ (Tanzania) Domains

Lexsynergy has an official presence in Tanzania. We are proud to announce the establishment of Lexsynergy Reg TZ Limited, which will enable our clients to register co.tz domain name in accordance with the local presence requirements.

Promotion of .GM (Gambia) domain names

Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa located in the western region of the continent. The Top Level Domain (TLD) assigned to Gambia is .GM.

As part of our commitment to promote African TLDs we are encouraging our clients, who actively seek to protect their marks around the world, to extend their scope of protection and register a .GM domain name. There are no restrictions and a registration costs £35 per year.

A .GM is also used as a domain name for general managers.

.SO another ccTLD Launch (Somalia)

Launch of .SO (Somalia) domain name

.SO is the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) assigned to The Republic of Somalia, which will be re-launched as an unrestricted ccTLD.

According to the current draft policies the following extensions will be available for registration:

.so – general purposes
com.so – commercial entities
net.so – network use
org.so – not for profit organisations

Proposed Launch Schedule

Sunrise (November 1st - November 30th, 2010)

Holders (owners, licensees or assignees) of Eligible Trademarks will have the opportunity to submit a corresponding application for the registration of a domain name in the .SO TLD. If more than one Applicant has submitted an Application during this phase for an identical domain name, it will be registered following the outcome of an auction process.

An Eligible Trademark is a registered trade mark that:

• has been issued by any competent public authority and has national effect; and
• was registered on or before 1 January 2010; and
• is in full force and effect when the application is validated by the clearinghouse appointed by the .SO registry.

An applicant cannot rely on a trade mark application, common law trade mark or US state trade mark.

Sunrise Auction (December 1st - December 15th, 2010)

Auction for domain names with more than one credible application.

Landrush (December 16th - February 9th, 2011)

Domain names not previously registered or applied for during the Sunrise Process may be registered by any interested party. If more than two Applicants have submitted an Application during this phase for an identical domain name, it will be placed into an auction.

Landrush Auction (February 10th - February 28th, 2011)

Auction for domain names with more than one credible application.

General Availability (March 1st, 2011)

Domain names will be registered on a “first come, first served” basis.

Email domains@lexsynergy.com for the draft .so domain name registration policies.
The domain name prices will be made available during October 2010.

Release of UK reserved short domains

Nominet, the UK domain name registry, has announced it intends to release short domain names (two and three character domains) before the end of 2010. They will publish full details of the final release process on 1 November 2010.

What will not be permitted?

Characters corresponding to an existing SLD (Second Level Domain) in .uk shall not be permitted as a Third Level Domain within co.uk, me.uk, org.uk and net.uk. At present it includes: ac, co, gov, ltd, me, mil, mod, net, nhs, nic, org, plc, police, com, uk and sch.

Proposed release process

There will be a two-stage sunrise and a landrush release process.

1. First sunrise

Reserved for the holders of registered trade marks enforceable in the UK exactly corresponding to the third level combination being made available and in force as of 1 January 2008 AND who can provide evidence of bona fide use in the UK on or before 1 January 2008, to the satisfaction of an independent assessor.

2. Second sunrise

Reserved for:
(i) any person who would have qualified for the first sunrise but missed the application deadline; and
(ii) holders of unregistered rights enforceable in the UK exactly corresponding to the third level combination being made available and in force as of 1 January 2008 AND who can provide evidence of bona fide use in the UK on or before 1 January 2008, to the satisfaction of an independent assessor.

Landrush

Following the two sunrises, there will be a period of open application.

Auction phase

At each stage, where there are two or more qualifying applicants for a domain name, an open auction process will be used to decide the successful applicant, with any profits going to the Nominet Trust. Once the auction has been completed the successful applicant will be entitled to register the domain name.

As an accredited Nominet registrar Lexsynergy will be able to assist with short domain name applications. Email domains@lexsynergy.com for a copy of the list of domain names to be released.

What are co.za domains worth?

It has been reported that property.co.za was sold for $56000, life.co.za for $14536 and autoinsurance.co.za for $36500.

Unlike trade marks the more descriptive the domain name, the more valuable it is. Instead of discarding generic domain names, it may be worth selling them to recoup costs and more.

If you need assistance recovering, acquiring or selling a domain name contact our specialist RegainYourDomain.com team at recovery@regainyourdomain.com.

CO - Squatting minefield

.CO is the county code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) assigned to Colombia. Besides serving the function of a ccTLD. It is also a popular branding tool since the two letters CO are the recognizable abbreviations for Company, Commerce and Communications and of course a misspelling of COM.

Due to its popularity (over 500 000 registered domains) CO is becoming a target for squatting activities and we therefore recommend that trade mark owners, as a defensive measure, register CO domain names that match their COM domain names.

Contact domains@lexsynergy.com or go to www.lexsynergy.tel for more contact information.