Thursday, 17 February 2011

MW (Malawi) Domains

Malawi is a small landlocked African country nestled between Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique.

.MW is the ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain) assigned to Malawi. The following Second Level Domains can also be registered:

AC.MW, BIZ.MW CO.MW, COM.MW, COOP.MW, EDU.MW, GOV.MW, INT.MW, NET.MW, ORG.MW

The most popular extensions are .MW, CO.MW and COM.MW. There are no restrictions to register domain names within these extensions.

Register your MW domain names at Lexsynergy.com.

.KE (Kenya) Growing

It appears that the number of registered Kenyan domain names is on the increase. KENIC (Kenya Network Information Center) currently adminsters over 15 000 KE domain names.

Updated statistics can be viewed at https://registry.kenic.or.ke/statistics.jsp (note: the security certificate has not been renewed on the page).

Although the numbers are relatively low compared to more popular ccTLDs such as .de (Germany) and co.uk (United Kingdom) they are positive and moving in the right direction.

To register your Kenyan domain name visit www.Lexsynergy.co.ke.

.NG Registrations - BI.NG

Trade mark owners that have substantial amounts of cash can now splash out on some .NG domain names.

Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) is allowing limited registrations of Second Level Domains (SLD). This promotion allows potential buyers to bypass the auction process and pay a pre-determined value for a .NG SLD.

The cost is N7,500,000 (approximately £30 000 or $46 0000). If the domain name is identical to the buyers corporate name or trade mark the cost will be reduced to N3,000,000 (approximately £12 000 $19 000).

This is not cheap but you could own domain names such as:

buyi.ng
accounti.ng
amazi.ng

biki.ng
banki.ng

Some domain names already registered include:

gmail.ng
googli.ng
youtube.ng
3m.ng
google.ng
bi.ng

The auction phase is divided into three parts:

Platinum Domain Auction
Gold Domain Auction
Diamond Domain Auction

The Auction Policy document provided by NIRA is confusing so it is suggested that each applicant read it carefully. The Auction Policy document can be read here.

Lexsynergy can process your .ng application.

Unregistered Rights Sunrise phase started on 14 February 2011

Close of Registered Rights Sunrise phase

Following the closure of the IP rights validation period of the Registered Rights Sunrise phase for the release of short .uk domains on 31 January, 99 uncontested domains were registered.

Unregistered Rights Sunrise phase starts on 14 February

The Unregistered Rights Sunrise phase starts at midday (12.00 GMT) on 14 February 2011. The first step of this two-stage process is for applicants to submit an application for the domain name they would like to register to Nominet via a registrar. This application stage closes at midday (12.00 GMT) on 16 March 2011.

The second stage is for applicants to use the application reference number they receive from Nominet to submit the evidence of their unregistered rights to the IP rights validation agency, CMS Cameron McKenna. This validation stage closes at midday (12.00 BST) on 31 March 2011.

Email domains@lexsynergy.com for more information on how to apply for a short .uk domain name during the Unregistered Rights Sunrise phase.