Verisign has recently updated and extended its Sunrise period for the Japanese language equivalent of .com – .ã³ã , and subsequently extended all other registration periods, which has also been approved by ICANN.
The new periods are as follows:
- Sunrise Period: Dec. 9, 2015 â March 14, 2016
- Priority Access Program Period: March 15 â May 15, 2016
- Landrush Program Period: May 16 â June 12, 2016
- General Registration Period: Start Date June 13, 2016
- Trademark Claims Period: June 13 â Sept. 11, 2016
In a post on the Verisign blog announcing the changes, the company also explained what their Priority Access Program:
The Priority Access Program will last for about 60 days and will be an exclusive registration period for existing registrants of .com domain names as follows:
Registrants of a second-level domain name (in ASCII or IDN script) in the .com top-level domain that registered their domain name prior to the start date of the Priority Access Program Period for .ã³ã on March 15, 2016 at 12:00 a.m. UTC (theâExisting .com Second Level Domain Nameâ) and that have held the registration of the Existing .com Second Level Domain Name for longer than the Add Grace Period (i.e. the Add Grace Period for .com registry is five calendar days), shall have the exclusive right during the .ã³ã Priority Access Program Period to register the exact match of the Existing .com Second Level Domain Name (theâMatching Second Level Domain Nameâ) in .ã³ã provided: (i) such Matching Second Level Domain Name is available for registration in .ã³ã during the .ã³ã Priority Access Program Period; and (ii) such Matching Second Level Domain Name is registered through a registrar that is the same registrar-of-record for the Existing .com Second Level Domain Name.
For example, Bob had registered the domain name bobsdomainname.com on Oct. 26, 2015. During the .ã³ã Priority Access Program Period, from March 15 through May 15, 2016, Bob has the exclusive right to register bobsdomainname.ã³ã , assuming bobsdomainname.ã³ã is available for registration during the .ã³ã Priority Access Program Period, as he registered bobsdomainname.com prior to the start date of the .ã³ã Priority Access Program Period and had held the bobsdomainname.com registration longer than the Add Grace Period. He must register bobsdomainname.ã³ã with the registrar that is the same registrar-of-record for bobsdomainname.com.
For more information about .ã³ã , click here.