Issue 165 - 24th September 2004

General domain name news

Over 1,000 companies apply for .sg second-level domains on first day

The sunrise period for second-level .sg domains commenced 15 September. Over a thousand companies in Singapore registered on the first day of application. A local news agency reported that registrars had been kept busy with queries through the day. Interested parties ranged from government agencies and private organisations to individuals. The sunrise period is open to trademark holders and will close on November 1st. Platinum clients who qualify for the sunrise period can submit an application via their Account Manager. The registry will open to the public on a first-come first-served basis from January 05.

Battle for southafrica.com continues

The South African government is fighting an expensive legal battle for ownership of the southafrica.com domain name. The domain is owned by US company Virtual Countries, who have reportedly demanded $10 million for transfer of ownership. So far, the only success for the South African government has been that Virtual Countries are blocked from transferring the domain to anybody else.

Nominet win case against domain name scammers

Nominet have won a landmark case in Australia, against the perpetrators of a domain name scam. Chesley Rafferty, Bradley Norrish and three of their companies captured the details of many .uk domain name holders and sent 50,000 misleading notices regarding their domain name registrations, posing under the name "UK Internet Registry".

For the full story, go to http://www.nominet.org.uk/News/PressReleases/2004PressReleases/NominetVictoriousInCopyrightCourtBattle.html.

Florida conference for domain name owners

The first of its kind, the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. 2004 conference will take place 20-23 October at the Delray Beach Marriott Resort, Florida. The aim is to discuss strategies for capitalising on Internet traffic generated by valuable domain names. Attendees will comprise owners of valuable domain names, search engine companies, domain registrars, successful online businesses and experts in the field.

It is thought that a valuable domain such as 'loans.com', owned by the Bank of America, attracts something like 10,000 browser type-ins per day. For further details of the conference, go to http://www.targetedtraffic.com.

ICANN developments

ICANN are implementing tighter rules for registrars relating to the deletion of expired domains. All ICANN-accredited registrars will be required to delete domain names no later than 45 days after expiry, with an additional 30-day redemption period in place to cover accidental deletions. The move is intended to prevent registrars from holding onto expired domains, instead of releasing them for public sale.

ICANN are also refining procedures for domain transfers between registrars. To read the update on the 'Implementation of New Consensus Policies Applicable to gTLD Registrars', go to http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-21sep04-2.htm.