Businesses with a presence in Asia which wish to protect trademarks have been advised that they should consider registering for .asia domain names.
The .asia top-level domain becomes available on Tuesday for companies with trademarks and a local presence in the continent.
"Businesses in Asia or who do business with Asian companies may consider registration," said Lesley Cowley, chief executive officer of Nominet, the .uk registry. "Businesses which feel strongly about trademarks either register in each suffix [top-level domain], or decide they're not going to play that game, and protect their brands through marketing and using legal systems to redress cybersquatting."
However, cybersquatting, or buying up domain names for later resale to companies, should not pose many problems for businesses, said Cowley. "If companies are concerned, they will register in the sunrise period. For companies concerned with protecting their brand, the .asia dispute process will be the same as .com," she said.
Internet registrar Hostway, which will sell .asia domains, argued that businesses should register during the sunrise period if they have trademark concerns.
"To prove you have a trademark through the courts takes more money, time and effort after the fact," said Nick Field, a product manager at Hostway. "If a company is serious about their brand, they should take measures to protect it, and, if they get registered, there won't be any cybersquatting issues."
Singapore-based registrar IP Mirror argues that cybersquatting is increasing in Asia, largely because of the availability of inexpensive domain names.
The sunrise period for registration by trademark holders will last until 15 January, 2008, after which duplicated domain names will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
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From 15 November, 2007, companies in the Asia region which do not own trademarks, but which were incorporated on or before 6 December, 2006, can join the application process.
From February 2008 the so-called "landrush" phase begins, during which the general public can apply for .asia domain names. Again, duplicate domains will be auctioned to the highest bidder.
From March 2008 .asia domain names will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
Talkback
I wonder, who needs .asia domain? I cannot imagine, what would be useful for Microsoft.asia? Toyota.asia? Then let's register .europe (if .eu is too short). Or perhaps Microsoft.southamerica, Dell.australiaandnewzealand, Coca-Cola.africa... Sound funny? Then why not just use the global and country domains? Or perhaps it is time to drop the domains at all?
Deadline for Sunrise 2b / 2c and Sunrise 3 registrations have been extended from Jan 15 to Jan 31, 2008.
The registry has agreed to extend Sunrise by about two weeks, to the end of Jan 2008, based on the number of requests received and the result of the recent online poll taken during the Dec 6 / 7 webcasts. Out of the 70 plus participants, around 60% of have respondents picked "yes" to the question "Would you prefer .Asia to extend Sunrise 2b, 2c and 3 to close on January 31, 2008?"
Sunrise Period 2b,2c and 3 of asia-domains
has started at November 13th.
SR2b: General Marks Sunrise for newer trademarks (applied for before
December 6, 2006) or marks that have not yet been actively used
SR2c: Extended Protection for trademark owners to protect their brands
beyond the term itself but also domain names that are relevant to their
lines of businesses: e.g. XYZ.Asia and XYZcomputers.Asia.
These possibilities shall be extended:
- Consideration for Registered Marks without Nice Classification
- Combination of 2 or more Registered Marks as an Acceptable Extension
Acceptable Extensions have been broadened to include words and phrases
used in the described goods and services for a Registered Mark,
especially where a mark is registered with a trademark office that does
not implement the Nice Classification system. Acceptable Extensions will
also include combination of two (2) or more Registered Marks in their
entirety (Exact Match and Acceptable Match).
SR3: Sunrise 3 (SR3) of asia-domains allows companies in the region to
protect and use their name with the asia-domain.
The following addendum was introduced to Sunrise 3 (SR3):
- Considerations for commonly used short forms and omission of locality
indications
- Acceptance of standard Romanization and Transliterations for Company Names
- Acceptance of standard Romanization and Transliterations for Trademarks
- Registered Marks Containing an Existing TLD as a Suffix
- Domain names that were subject of proceedings under the UDRP
The Acceptable Match considerations are enhanced to allow for initials
and short forms of an Entity Name, as well as the omission of locality
indications (e.g. the city, prefecture, province or country identifiers
included in an Registered Entity Name). SR3 is also expanded for
standard Romanized form of Entity Names and Registered Marks.
Finally, SR3 will also accept Domain Names Applied For based on an exact
match to a domain name that was subject of a UDRP proceeding decision.
You can also register an asia-domain, if your trade mark has a suffix of
a top level domain. Roger.asia can be registered, if your trade mark
protects roger.com.
Readers can explore more details at
http://www.registry.asia/draft/DotAsia-Sunrise-Addendum--FINALDRAFT-2007-10-12.pdf
Registered Name Holders of certain ccTLD extensions in Asia may apply
for the same asia-domain during SR3. No further documentary evidence
needs to be submitted unless requested by the .ASIA Registry.
- The Applicant must declare the particular ccTLD extension the SR3
application is based on.
- The WHOIS information obtained at the ccTLD registry should correspond
with the Registrant Contact information submitted.
- The Domain Name Applied for must correspond to the Entity Name.
Applicable ccTLDs include .com.au, .co.jp, .co.kr, .com.hk, .com.my and
others. A list of the applicable ccTLD extensions is included in
Appendix A of the Special Advisory.
Interested readers can see more details there:
http://www.registry.asia/draft/DotAsia-SR3-Advisory--2007-11-09.pdf
Hans-Peter Oswald
https://www.domainregistry.de/asia.html
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