[news release] Almost one year ago, the Sunrise period for CO.NO domain name reserved to IP rights holders opened. Three months later, January 31st 2011, this opening phase was successfully completed and every approved application was activated. However, contrary to the announced schedule, the Go Live period for .CO.NO registration had to be postponed.

As mentioned in a previous press release, the .CO.NO Operator took this difficult decision to ensure that everything was clarified with the .NO Registry and to offer its customers and registrars partners the best and most stable service.

“Because we strongly believe that our customers and partners deserve nothing less than total transparency, we have decided to disclose the reasons behind this delay” said Sander Scholten, the CO.NO Operator’s Manager.

As unambiguously mentioned on the .CO.NO Operator website (domain.co.no/gb/about.html), .CO.NO is a common initiative between Elineweb AS the registrant of the domain name and CoDNS BV, the technical backend provider. To maximize the chance of success of this initiative, Elineweb elected to benefit from CoDNS good reputation in the domain name industry and decided to promote this initiative under the business name .CO.NO Operator.

“We never tried to hide the fact that Elineweb is the registrant of the domain name, which is, besides a public information displayed in NORID whois database” commented Scholten.

Although NORID was informed of the intended use of the .CO.NO domain name, NORID elected to send a list of inquiries to the .CO.NO Operator several months after the beginning of the Sunrise period and just a few days before the opening of .CO.NO to the general public.

With a view to seek a sound understanding with NORID, the .CO.NO Operator decided to postpone the general opening of .CO.NO registrations.

Howbeit, It regrettably appeared that despite the thorough replies provided by the .CO.NO Operator, NORID sent a new series of inquiries, including amongst others, the disclosure of confidential information such as the .CO.NO initiative business plan.

It would later be very clear that NORID was trying to establish that the .CO.NO domain name had been somehow transferred from Elineweb to another entity, which would have given NORID grounds to invoke a breach of its own Domain name policy.

Nonetheless, resolved to find an amicable agreement with NORID, the .CO.NO Operator did everything they could to content NORID representatives by diligently replying to all of their questions, attending to phone conference and even meeting with NORID’s representatives in Oslo.

“We regret having to bring this matter to Court and would really have preferred that our efforts led to an amicable understanding, but NORID left us no other choice.” Scholten went on.

On the 26th of September 2011, Elineweb legal counsel Ræder DA started an action against NORID to seek a ruling from the Norwegian Court that will confirm their position and ensure the durability of the .CO.NO initiative.

“In the meanwhile we remain committed to offer a better choice to our Norwegian and International customers and the anticipation so far clearly shows we are on the right track. We would like to see NORID as a partner but we will not allow the public freedom of choice to be confiscated.”

For more information on CO.NO, visit the official website: www.domain.co.no.