Nominet commenced a Sunrise period for short .UK domain names at midday (GMT) on 1 December with a Registered Rights Sunrise phase for trade mark holders.
The Sunrise phase consists of a two-stage application process where:
- stage one: allows for trademark rights holders to apply for a domain that matches their trade mark via a Nominet registrar before midday on 17 January 2011
- stage two: applicants will then need to have their IP rights checked by CMS Cameron McKenna, the validation agent Nominet will be using for this process. Applicants will need evidence of using the trade mark in the UK prior to 1 January 2008. The deadline for applying to CMS Cameron McKenna to have IP rights validated is midday (GMT) on 31 January 2011.
Where there are two or more applications for the same domain, an open auction process will be used with any profits going to the Nominet Trust.
To check the status of any application under this process, there is a Sunrise WHOIS tool.
Once the Registered Rights Sunrise phase is complete Nominet will begin an Unregistered Rights Sunrise phase. Any potential applicants not eligible for any of the above phases can apply during the final Landrush phase. No dates have been given for either of these phases and they will be announced when each of these phases open and Nominet will publish information on how to apply in 2011.
For more information visit www.nominet.org.uk/go/shortdomains.
To register your short .UK domain name, or any other .UK domain name, check out Europe Registry here.