FAQ Iceland

January 12, 2009

Can a foreigner register an .is domain?

Foreign registrants, who are not domiciled in Iceland, can register a .is domain on the basis of:

  • Owning a registered trade mark with the Icelandic Patent Office. Only one domain may be registered on the basis of each trade mark. The trade mark must consist of letters or numerals exclusively. The registrant must specify a Icelandic agent administrative contact for the domain.
  • Holding an international legal status or being internationally regarded as having such status. Examples are foreign embassies, organizations constituted under international law and international sports federations. The registrant must specify an Icelandic agent administrative contact for the domain.

In both cases the registrant should begin by contacting a agent which will in many cases administer the registration of a domain for foreign parties.

What does a “corresponding non IDN domain” mean to a IDN domain?

The corresponding non IDN domain is constructed from the IDN domain according to the following table:

  • þ > th      á > a     í > i
  • æ  > ae      é  > e     ó  > o
  • ö  > o       ý  > y
  • ð  > d       ú  > u

Syntax Rules for Domain Names Under .GR

January 12, 2009
  1. .gr Domain Names comprise either:
    • both in their Variable and Non variable Fields alphanumeric characters of the Latin alphabet (A Z, a z, 0 9) and the special characters [ ], [.]. The special character [.] is used only for the separation of levels. Each level of a .gr Domain Name cannot have the character [ ] as a starting or ending character neither can it include successive characters [ ];

      • or

    • in their Variable Field alphanumeric characters of the Greek alphabet (Α ?, α ω, 0 9) which are codified in PUNYCODE format, and in their Non variable Field alphanumeric characters of the Latin alphabet (A Z, a z, 0 9) and the special characters [ ], [.].The special character [.] is used only for the separation of levels. Each level of a ‘.gr‘ Domain Name cannot have the character [ ] as a starting or ending character neither can it include successive characters [ ].
  2. There is not any difference between the alphanumeric Greek characters [ς] and [σ]. Where the character [ς] appears, it is automatically replaced by the character [σ].
  3. Domain Names using both Latin and Greek alphanumeric characters on the same level shall not be supported.
  4. The Variable Field of a .gr Domain Name includes no less than three (3) characters and, in conjunction with its Non variable Field, it includes up to sixty (60) characters. The above counting does not include the .gr characters. In the case of domain names including Greek alphanumeric characters, the sixty character length pertains to the length of the PUNYCODE format of the Domain Name, which however, shall not be necessarily equal to the number of characters in the Greek version of the Domain Name.
  5. In Domain Names there is no difference between lower case and upper case Latin characters, in the lower case and upper case unpunctuated Greek characters, or in the lower case and upper case punctuated Greek characters.
  6. .gr Domain Names shall be assigned in the lower case form declared by the Registrant. Domain Names in which the Variable Field comprises Greek characters and the Non variable Field comprises Latin characters shall be assigned in the lower case declared in a user’s application (namely with the accents, dieresis, punctuation, etc.), as well as in the lower case unpunctuated form of the name. The two aforementioned forms shall be registered in the Registry in their corresponding PUNYCODE formats. In the Registry zone file, the lower case unpunctuated form shall be declared as the main form of the name, and the Registry audits based on this present Decision shall be performed in the lower case unpunctuated form.
  7. Other forms of the same Domain Name, namely Domain Names resulting from a combination of the lower case unpunctuated and punctuated forms at different points from the ones of the lower case form declared by the Registrant, shall be automatically reserved for the same person, but shall not be included in the individual administrative assignment act and shall be activated upon an application filed with the Registry. The above applications filed for the activation of reserved Domain Names shall be activated without any Registry Decision required.
  8. Any Domain Names that are Homographs of a Domain Name already assigned shall be automatically reserved for the Holder of the above Domain Name and shall be activated upon application filed by the said Holder with the Registry. The above applications for the activation of reserved Domain Names shall be activated without any Registry Decision required.
  9. The reserved forms of a Domain Name do not include those forms that could not be separately included in the scope of assignment.
  10. When a reserved form of a Domain Name is activated, it shall become an active Domain Name and all the provisions set forth in this present Regulation shall be applicable to it.
  11. The Registry shall be entitled to make a subsequent Decision in order to determine the use of alphanumeric characters of another form or alphabet.

Register Requirements and Criteria Greece

January 11, 2009

All applicants requesting a .gr domain name state that they are knowingly not infringing any third party rights by requesting the domain name. This statement does not protect your rights but could lead to the cancellation of the domain name by the N.T.P.C, the Greek court system or an arbitration system, if the applicant does not have rights towards the domain they requested. Domain names are granted on a First Come First Serve basis.

Each ‘.gr‘ Domain Name shall be assigned in the form submitted, as well as in its lower case unpunctuated form when it comes to Domain Names in which the Variable Field comprises alphanumeric characters of the Greek alphabet, and shall be protected in the form submitted, as well as in its reserved forms.

  • The Assignment of ‘.gr‘ Domain Names is governed by the principle of time priority. The right to a ‘.gr‘ Domain Name shall be acquired by Assignment thereof pursuant to this present Decision, but shall date back to the time when the Assignment Application was filed with the Registry.
  • ‘.gr‘ Domain Names are assigned to domestic or foreign natural and legal persons irrespective of their establishment in Greece or elsewhere.
  • The number of ‘.gr‘ Domain Names that can be assigned to one single person is unlimited.
  • The Holder of a right to a ‘.gr‘ Domain Name shall not acquire, as a result of the Assignment of the said ‘.gr‘ Domain Name, pursuant to this present Decision, also a trademark right to an undertaking, to products or services offered by the Holder, which rights shall be acquired exclusively pursuant to applicable provisions governing acquisition thereof.
  • Any rights to the trademarks of undertakings (of natural or legal persons), products or services or any copyrights shall by no means be restricted by the provisions set forth in this present Regulation.

Invalid Applications

In the following limited cases, an Application shall be considered invalid and shall produce no legal result whatsoever:

  • In the case where an application is not completely filled out.
  • In the case where at the time when an Application is filed, a ‘.gr‘ Domain Name identical with the one requested in the Application has already been assigned to another person.
  • In the case where at the time when an Application is filed, a ‘.gr‘ Domain Name identical with the one requested in the Application has already been reserved for another person pursuant to the meaning given in this present Regulation.
  • In the case where the Variable Field of the 2nd level Domain Name requested in the assignment application is a Common Use Domain Name.
  • In the case where the Variable Field of the specific ‘.gr‘ Domain Name in question is identical with the Variable Field of an already assigned ‘.gr‘ Domain Name in which the second level is made up of the “gov” alphanumeric characters.

Registration Process Domain Names Greece

January 11, 2009

For the better organization of the [.gr] domain name space, the following sub domains have been created:

  • [.com.gr] Commercial entities
  • [.edu.gr]  Educational istitutes
  • [.net.gr]  Network providers
  • [.org.gr]  Organizations at large
  • [.gov.gr]  Goverment agencies & organizations

Registering under a sub domain is not mandatory, but is recommended for organizational reasons.

The procedure to register a domain name is as follows:

  • The Applicant must submit an application for the desired domain name with a Registrar.
  • Along with the domain name application, the registration fee set out by the Registrar must be paid.
  • The application is submmited electronically by the Registrar to the Registry within one working day, who in turn confirms the submission but returning the applications unique ID which includes the exact submission date and exact time.
  • The registrar provides the Applicant with a confirmation of that application with the above information within one working day’s time after the registration application.
  • The domain name is automatically checked by the Registry and if it is not a restricted domain, it becomes active within a maximum timeframe of 3 hours. The temporary activation of the domain name does not grant the domain name applicant any rights over the domain name.
  • The Registry examines the application within a period of twenty (20) days from its submission by the registrar to the Registry and proceeds to either accept or reject it.

Syntax Rules for Domain Names Under .DE

January 11, 2009
  1. A valid domain must be comprised solely of the digits 0 9, the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, the hyphens and the other letters listed in the Annex of the The Registry Domain Guidelines.
  2. The domain must contain at least one letter of the alphabet (otherwise there would be a risk of confusion with the purely numerical IP address). Hyphens are not permitted in first or last place, nor is it possible for both the third and fourth places to be hyphens at the same time (such as xn .de).
  3. No distinction is made between capital and small letters (upper and lower case).
  4. The minimum length of a .de domain is three characters and the maximum length is 63 characters.
  5. The endings of existing Top Level Domains (such as .com, .net or .org) cannot be registered nor can the abbreviated geographical designations used for road vehicle number plates in Germany.

Register Requirements and Criteria Germany

January 10, 2009

When you register a .de domain you conclude a contract, so you must satisfy all the conditions that apply to the conclusion of any sort of legally binding contract. First of all, that means that you be capable of entering into legally binding rights and duties, which any natural individual or legal entity is certainly capable of doing. Secondly you must be capable of conducting business or you must be effectively represented.

It is possible for individuals or institutions (that have legal capacity) not located in Germany to register .de domains. There is, however, a condition, namely that they must appoint an administrative contact who is resident in Germany and who has a postal address at which it is possible to serve documents (i.e. not a mere P.O. box). The administrative contact is then also the person formally authorized by the domain holder to receive service of official or court documents (Zustellungsbevollmächtigter) within the meaning of the German Code of Civil Procedure (Zivilprozessordnung) and the German Code of Criminal Procedure (Strafprozessordnung). The reason for this measure is to ensure that if any party has a legal claim to pursue, it is not made more difficult for them by having to serve official or court documents in another country, which is often a long, drawn out process.

The domains are always registered on a “first come, first served” basis.

It is possible for a domain to be held jointly by more than one holder. If the Domain Holder or one of the joint holders is not a natural person, the full name of the legal person (organization) must be given (including the indication of its legal form). In addition, the full postal address of the Domain Holder or, in the event of joint holders, the full postal address of at least one of the joint holders must be communicated; a post office box number does not constitute a full postal address.

The Registry shall have the right to terminate the contract or to refuse its renewal, when it has substantial grounds for so doing. These grounds shall include, in particular, any case in which:

  • the Domain holder is not the Assignee of the corresponding telephone number; or
  • the Domain Holder has persistently breached substantial contract duties or has remained in breach thereof despite receiving a formal warning accompanied by a deadline for compliance; or
  • the data communicated by the Domain Holder to the Registry is incorrect; or
  • it is impossible to establish the identity of the Domain Holder from the particulars communicated; or
  • the Domain Holder not being domiciled in Germany, the formal service of a document on the Administrative Contact instigated by a third party fails at two consecutive attempts, or if such service is deliberately thwarted twice by changing the Administrative Contact; or
  • the Domain Holder, having abandoned their domicile in Germany and having received a formal warning accompanied by a deadline for compliance, fails to appoint an Administrative Contract domiciled in Germany.

FAQ Germany

January 10, 2009

What is a domain?

Domains are an addressing technique for identifying and localizing computers (or “hosts”) in the Internet. Computers recognize one another solely by means of their IP addresses, which are purely numerical. The IPv4 standard, which is still the dominant one, requires them to be in the form xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, where each xxx stands for a number between 0 and 255. A typical IP address might, for instance, be 10.136.66.12. When one computer wants to communicate with another one via the Internet, it sends it “Internet packets” which are addressed to the recipient’s IP address.

It is human nature that we usually find it a lot easier to memorize terms and descriptions than rows of figures. That was the reason the Domain Name System (DNS) was developed and it makes it possible to use words, names and terms instead of digits more or less at will (although a few rules have to be complied with). That now makes it possible for Internet users to access hosts either through their IP address or by entering the domain. The DNS can also be used for calling other services and information.

When a domain is called in the Internet, special computers, known as name servers, assume the task of translating it into the corresponding IP address. Because each domain and each IP address is unique, they can both only be registered once in the world.

The DNS itself has a hierarchical structure. A number of Top Level Domains (TLDs), such as .de or .com, are defined as its topmost layer. Under these TLDs, it is possible to register second level domains, which are nearly always referred to simply as “domains”.

Is it possible for individuals or institutions not located in Germany to register a .de domain?

Yes. It is possible for individuals or institutions (that have legal capacity) not located in Germany to register .de domains. There is, however, a condition, namely that they must appoint an administrative contact who is resident in Germany and who has a postal address at which it is possible to serve documents (i.e. not a mere P.O. box). The administrative contact is then also the person formally authorized by the domain holder to receive service of official or court documents (Zustellungsbevollmächtigter) within the meaning of the German Code of Civil Procedure (Zivilprozessordnung) and the German Code of Criminal Procedure (Strafprozessordnung). The reason for this measure is to ensure that if any party has a legal claim to pursue, it is not made more difficult for them by having to serve official or court documents in another country, which is often a long, drawn out process.

How does the name of a .de domain have to built up? Are there any character strings that can’t be registered?

A valid domain must be comprised solely of the digits 0 9, the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet and the hyphen. The domain must contain at least one letter of the alphabet (otherwise there would be a risk of confusion with the purely numerical IP address). Hyphens are not permitted in first or last place, nor is it possible for both the third and fourth places to be hyphens at the same time (such as xn .de). No distinction is made between capital and small letters (upper and lower case). The minimum length of a .de domain is three characters and the maximum length is 63 characters. If the domain includes letters from the Annex, the maximum length is determined by its ACE version.

The endings of existing Top Level Domains (such as .com, .net or .org) cannot be registered nor can the abbreviated geographical designations used for road vehicle number plates in Germany.

Why are domains not registered if they have a hyphen in both the third and fourth positions?

Under .de it is not possible to register any domains that contain a sequence of characters that are used to identify an Internationalized Domain Name IDN. This affects all domains that have a hyphen in both their third and fourth position, such as xn beispiel.de. Domains that have already been registered with hyphens in third and fourth position can continue to exist and their holders can continue to use them as they have done up until now.

Why are domains not permitted if they are only made up of digits?

Domains must contain at least one letter. The reason for this lies in the very nature of domains. The computers in the Internet do not recognize one another through domains but through so called IP addresses, i.e. pure numbers. When you enter a domain in your browser, this is translated into the corresponding IP address by a so called name server. There is, however, a risk that a domain made up only of digits might be confused with an IP number, which would cause technical difficulties. This might not be restricted to endangering the connectivity of your own website but could also impair other Internet users.

Why is it not possible to register domains that are shorter than three characters?

If domains with only two characters were registered, there would be a serious risk of confusion with the endings of the country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs), which are also comprised of two letters (such as .uk for the United Kingdom or .fr for France). Domains with the pattern TLD.TLD (such as uk.de) would also cause technical problems on account of a programming bug in a version of DNS Resolver software that is in widespread use. The errors that occur cause difficulties not only for the domain that triggers them but for other sites as well.

It is not enough simply to exclude existing ccTLDs from registration, because their number and composition are not entirely constant over time. Examples of changes are the ccTLD .dd, which was once earmarked for the former German Democratic Republic (which no longer exists), and the ccTLD .ps, which wasn’t used in the past, but has now been introduced for Palestine. That explains why there is an absolute rule that no two character domains may be registered under .de.

Why is it not possible to register the geographic abbreviations used on German road vehicle number plates as domains?

Given the large number of .de domains that have been registered to date, the Registry wants to keep the option open of expanding its name space through the use of regional subdivisions. The geographic abbreviations used on road vehicle number plates in Germany could well be suitable for use as Second Level Domains for this purpose. For example, anyone living in the district called Main Taunus Kreis would be able to register a domain under .mtk.de. To keep this option open, the Registry must make sure that all these domains (such as mtk.de) are kept free. At present, no decision has been taken as to whether such regionalized Second Level Domains will be introduced and, if so, when.

It is possible for further sub domains to be set up under my domain?

Yes. It is possible to divide a domain up into sub domains (a sub domain of bigcity university.de would be, for instance, info.bigcity university.de). However, such sub domains are not registered by Germany Registry, but have to be set up by you or your provider. If you want to use the web address http://www.subdomain.de beispieldomain.de, then Germany Registry will register the domain de beispieldomain.de for you. To get the sub domain subdomain.de beispieldomain.de set up you should then contact your provider.

Who makes sure that the domain I request does not collide with the rights of third parties?

That is something that you must do yourself. Through the act of ordering the domain, you give an assurance that the registration of the requested domain in your name and your use of it does not infringe anybody else’s rights. At the same time, you accept liability for the correctness of this assurance. That means that if there ever is an infringement of anyone else’s rights, you will be the one held legally liable. Assigning the liability risk in this way reflects the fact that you are free to select your domain yourself and you are also going to benefit from using it.

What consequences will it have for me if I supply inaccurate data when ordering a domain?

When you order a domain, you are required to ensure that the correct and complete data is given for the domain holder and any other named contacts. If you fail to do that, such as by indicating an irrelevant address or a false name, you run the risk of losing the domain later on. Wrong data gives the Registry the right to terminate the Domain Contract without giving you any notice beforehand.

What can I do if the domain I would like to have has already been registered for someone else?

.DE domains are always registerd on a “first come, first served” basis. If someone else registered before you, there are only two things you can do. Firstly, you could settle for a different name for your domain. Secondly, you could try contacting the domain holder and ask them if they would be willing to transfer the domain to you and, if so, what their conditions would be. The only exception to this might be if you can show that you have a greater right to the domain than its current holder.