Monthly Archive for October, 2009

.TEL Domain Registry Announces Backup and Restore for .tel Domains

October 30, 2009

.TEL Domain Registry Operator for the communications focused .tel top level domain (TLD), announced owners that they can now to backup and restore their .tel domains using new functionality built in to the web control panel.

This additional functionality is in direct response to feedback from the .tel community. A backup copy of one or all .tel domains owned by a business or individual can now be saved as an XML file. The backup includes a copy of all the data, including contact information, profiles, groups and ‘friends’ of the .tel domain that have access to private information. This file can then be used at any time to restore the domain data. This process can be performed for individual .tel’s or for all .tel domains at once when managed under one single .tel account.

“This functionality is especially useful when migrating domains from one registrar or .tel service provider to another, but it is also a useful safeguard for those .tel owners running large scale directories under their own domains,” explained Henri Asseily, CTO and Chief Strategist at .TEL Domain Registry. “Bulk management of .tel domains right through to the ability to mirror your IVR solution in your .tel domain using existing XML files can all be achieved through the web based control panel.”

United Arab Emirates Domain Authority is Encouraging the Use .AE Extensions

October 19, 2009

The Telecommunication Regulation Authority of United Arab Emirates has begun a campaign to increase the regsitration of the corresponding ccTLD for that country: “.AE”.

TRA recognized great potential in .AE domains after a 30 percent increase in new domain registrations. TRA General Director, H.E. Mohamed Naser Al Ghanim ,said : “We encourage all companies and entities in UAE to move to .AE as it truly represents their UAE identity on the Internet”

.IE Domain Registrations Grow Strongly

October 13, 2009

Registrations if .IE domain names are growing strongly, with a growth of 15% (9,398 registrations) in the last quarter to 131,862 registered domain names. However the growth is in an economic climate in Ireland that is not conducive to business growth.

“It is encouraging to see continued growth in .ie domain names, demonstrating that Irish businesses are seeing growth opportunities online despite the more challenging economic environment they face,” said .IE Authoritys chief executive David Curtin.

New registrations increased by 7% to 28,522 for the first nine months of the year with the majority of the growth in registrations coming from sole traders or limited companies (83%). The rest were registered by clubs, societies and charities.

.IE domain name registrations have continued to grow for the last six years, partly due to ongoing reductions in the cost of registration. Since 2003 the cost of registering a .IE domain name has decreased by around 64%. However the rules for registering .IE domain names are quite restrictive to most other ccTLDs in western countries.

Latin American Domain Registrations Continue to Grow

October 13, 2009

There are now more than 4.86 million domain names registered in the Latin American region, an increase of 1.86% since August and a 17.4% increase year on year.

The largest growth in registrations in September was in the country code Top Level Domain for Brazil (.BR) with total registrations growing by 39,496. This was followed by Argentina (.AR 31,872), Mexico (.MX 9,806) and Chile (.CL 3,923).

However on a percentage basis, the ccTLD that showed the greatest growth was Anguilla (.AI) where there was an astonishing increasing in registrations of 1,348%, although this was too the very modest total of 391 registrations. This is reflected by a change in a change in the ccTLDs terms and conditions with registration of .AI domain names now open to all and not just residents of Anguilla as before.

Following was Guadeloupe (.GD 4.53%), Mexico (2.79%) and then Guatemala (.GT) and Uruguay (.UG), both with a monthly increase of 2.68%.

Overall, the top five ccTLDs in total registrations remained the same as before. These were .AR with 2,001,844 registrations, .BR (1,848,161), .MX (361,597), .CL (259,914) and .VE (152,799). These were the only five ccTLDs with registrations above 100,000 in Latin America.

Already 600,000 .CZ Domains

October 10, 2009

The .CZ Registry registered domain number 600,000 on Wednesday September 30 at 22:47. Since registration of the first half million domains, less than 10 months have passed.

Domains have started to accrue at this rate since the introduction of the new system for domain management, FRED, in October 2007, which has speeded up and simplified the registration process significantly and allowed .CZ domains to become cheaper.

The .CZ domain has held the position of most requested domain for a long time with Czech registrars, which essentially confirms the global trend for the preference of national domains. On average, this year we have recorded around 10,000 new .CZ names every month, said Ond Filip, Executive Director of the .CZ Registry.

New York Plan to Seek .NYC Web Address

October 7, 2009

New York City has become the first American city to openly state it will seek a generic Top Level Domain. The City of New York will seek the .NYC gTLD working with dotNYC LLC, a private company that for the last year has been meeting with city officials about the plan for the .NYC web address.

ICANN, which has just released Version Three of its New gTLD Applicant Guidebook, is likely to call for applications for new gTLDs in 2010. While early 2010 was the date being aimed for by ICANN it is likely the date when applications will be called for will be pushed back to later in the year. There are still a number of contentious issues including security and protection for trademark holders that are to be finalized.

The Guidebook has been changed significantly and the changes will be discussed at the ICANN meeting in Seoul in late October. As indicated by ICANN Chief Operating Officer, Doug Brent, “this third version of draft guidebook represents months of outstanding effort by many in the ICANN community working to resolve the few, challenging remaining issues. This version is being released with materials that describe how public comment has influenced the changes presented in it.”

The .NYC proposal has gained the support of several prominent New York identities including former Mayor Ed Koch, who supports the dotNYC effort to operate .NYC on the city’s behalf: “.NYC is the best real estate deal since the Dutch bought Manhattan,” Koch said.

ICANN gTLD Program Adopts Key Trademark Protection Measures

October 7, 2009

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has tentatively adopted measures proposed by a team of trademark experts to protect trademark rights as the body begins accepting applications for unlimited generic top level domains (gTLDs).

The ICANN board has accepted two key recommendations made by the Implementation Recommendation Team (IRT), a panel made up of senior in house trademark counsel, private practitioners, domain experts and academics. However, the full implementation of the measures is still questionable, as ICANN’s board has requested that the Generic Names Supporting Organization decide whether the rights protection mechanisms “are consistent with the GNSO’s proposed policy on the introduction of new gTLDs, and are an appropriate and effective option for achieving the GNSO’s stated principles and objectives”.

The measures, open for comment until November 22 2009, are:

  • the creation of an IP Clearinghouse, which is a database of validated trademarks to be utilized by new gTLD registry operators in implementing either an IP claims service or sunrise process during TLD launch; and
  • the creation of a Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) process for use in clear cut, blatant cases of  trademark infringement.