Issue 120 - 12th June

kids.us Sunrise Period Begins June 17

A new domain suffix, .kids.us, is being launched to provide a child-friendly Internet space for children under the age of 13.

The kids.us Sunrise period gives owners of existing or pending United States trademarks or service marks an exclusive opportunity - before open registration begins - to apply for kids.us domain names that exactly match their trademarks or service marks. The Sunrise period will take place June 17 - August 15, 2003.

For more information or to place an order, please visit www.gtld.com/dotkids.html

PIR Implements .org Domain Grace Period

The Public Interest Registry, operators of the .org Registry, has this week announced the successful implementation of a Redemption Grace Period (RGP) service. The RGP gives .org domain holders an additional 30 days to recover their domain name if it is deleted inadvertently.

Deletion of domain names can occur if they are not renewed by their due date. The RGP safeguard is designed to prevent .org name holders from accidentally losing their domain names in the event this occurs.

Even with the 30 Day RGP, companies are often not aware that the domain name has lapsed until it is too late and has been snapped up by another registrant. For companies with large portfolios of domain names, it can be quite easy for one to slip through. NetNames Platinum Service comes with automatic renewal, which guarantees against any inadvertent domain name lapses.

Announcement from LA Names Corporation

The LA Names Corporation announced this week that it has assumed responsibility as the operator of the .la domain name suffix.

The .la suffix is being promoted as the new web address for the city of Los Angeles.

NetNames warns readers that they need to be aware of what they are buying. In the case of .la, this is actually a country code suffix for Laos. Therefore it is subject to the rules and regulations of LANIC, the registry for the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic.

Geek.nz domain just one step away

The geek.nz second-level domain has moved one step closer to reality, following unanimous approval by the InternetNZ council last week.

The 14-0 vote is an interim decision. The council will take a final vote at its next meeting in July, when it will consider implementation details and any further submissions.

Proponents say the domain could be used to deploy experimental services, such as DNS Security (DNSSEC) and IPv6.

Reselling generic domain names - is there still a market?

There is no doubt that a generic domain name can be a valuable commodity. The most famous case of this was in the height of the .com boom, when a Houston based entrepreneur sold the domain name business.com for $7.5million. (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/547105.stm )

Although it would appear the days of million dollar domain names are behind us, this has not stopped one particular domain name owner from trying.

A visit to the website www.nanotechnology.com will reveal that the domain name is currently up for auction. The minimum bid price is listed as US $1million, which in the current climate could be considered very ambitious. But nanotechnology is a bit of a buzz word at the moment, and the auction reportedly has only 2 days to go, so time will tell just how ambitious this asking price is.