Issue 188 - 2nd June 2005

General domain name news

.es (Spain) extension of second-level availability

The Spanish registry has indicated that availability of .es second-level domains will gradually be extended to non-Spanish entities according to the following timetable and conditions:

7 June - 7 July 
Sunrise period for Spanish Government Organisations

5 September - 21 October 
Registration of names of companies and trademarks, for Spanish entities

21 October 
First-come first-served registrations - open to all

In order to register the administrative contact must reside in Spain, but NetNames may be able to provide this service for customers. Platinum Service customers interested in second-level .es should contact their account manager now; other customers should go to www.netnames.com.

.my (Malaysia) forthcoming second-level availability

The Malaysian registry has indicated its intention to open up the .my domain at the second level. A public comment period runs until 24th June. Comments can be emailed to 2LD-comments@mynic.net.my.

Australian geographical domains

The Australian Registry auDA has decided to make 25,000 'geographic' domain names available to Australian businesses from 1st June 2005. Applications will be taken for domains such as surrey-hills.com.au, northcote.net.au and perth.com.au until the end of July. Allocation will be decided by a ballot system.

It should be noted that, due to specific fees, these registrations will be significantly more expensive than non-geographic .au domains. Those interested in applying should contact their account manager or email sales@netnames.com.

Post-INTA update

Thanks to everyone who visited our stand at the International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting in San Diego. We hope everyone enjoyed the highly taxing mini-golf game we organised - we were very impressed with the general standard of putting.

There was a lot of interest in our NetNames Guide to Corporate Domain Name Management. This useful and instructive booklet can be yours for free - if you are interested please send your name, company name and address and phone number to info@netnames.com and use the phrase 'free domain name guide' in the subject line.