Nic News ..

Luxembourg TLD now restricted (Low-Risk)

A recent policy change within the Luxembourg domain name registry has resulted in a stricter registration policy. While many other registries have been relaxing their conditions recently, the Luxembourg registry is now making it more difficult for interested parties to register a .lu domain name. All future registrants will require a local contact within Luxembourg, who will also be required to sign a Power of Attorney document.

New Japanese Top-Level Domain available soon

From February 22, 2001, the Japanese registry will open its doors to applications for .jp domain names. Applicants will be able to register multiple domain names and the TLD will be available to individuals as well as companies, unlike the existing Japanese suffixes. However a local contact within Japan will still be required. More information to follow!

Industry Update ..

Australian watchdog alerts domain name holders

An Australian consumer watchdog is warning Internet domain name owners to be aware of misleading offers, following a flood of domain name service offers.

Unscrupulous companies have been contacting domain holders and warning them of imminent expiry and an urgent need to renew the domain name - with their company, naturally. The watchdog is reminding holders that they have a choice of supplier when renewing domain names and not to assume that any renewal notice is from the original supplier.

Multilingual domain names undergo further testing

After three months of initial testing for Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters, it was announced this week that the process has moved to the second phase with so called 'resolution testing', where actual IP addresses will be assigned to more than 800,000 multilingual domain names registered so far. Eventually this will allow Internet users to start accessing web sites that use multilingual URLs.

NetNames news

UK companies lacking in responsibility over Internet identity

~ NetNames' research reveals less than 1% of companies have someone dedicated to managing domain names ~

London - January 31, 2001 - UK companies are failing to grasp the importance of protecting their brand on the Internet and making online brand management the responsibility of an individual within their organisation.

NetNames, the UK's leading domain name registrar, spoke to 400 of the UK's top 1000 companies. The results revealed that less than 1% of companies have anybody within their company whose remit was ensuring that the company's domain names had been registered, protected and were being managed properly.

The current situation means that registered domain names often go un-renewed and not all generic top-level domains, or country-code domains in regions where the firm operates, are registered. Many frequent 'typos' or hyphenated versions of company and brand names also go un-registered, leaving companies and their brands vulnerable to cybersquatters and typosquatters.

"These results are astounding," said Jonathan Robinson, CEO of NetBenefit, parent company of NetNames. "It may have been understandable two or three years ago, when people were still unsure as to whether domain names fell under the remit of the IT or marketing departments. Today, however, the online strategy is a vital part of every large corporation. It's a damning indictment on our attitude towards the e-economy that less than one percent of companies have someone in place to take responsibility for their digital identity."

"Not having anyone responsible within a company for domain names leaves a company extremely vulnerable. Not only is business potentially diverted away from the company, but the strength of the brand is compromised if web sites containing a company's trade names are held by competitors or cybersquatters. Every single company should have someone within their marketing department whose role is to ensure this doesn't happen."

Fact of the Week..

Did you know that there are now 35,244,448 domain names in existence? For more information on the number of .coms, .nets and different country-code TLDs, go to www.domainstats.com.

Tip of the Week ..

If your company is thinking of trading abroad, plan ahead and register the relevant domain names in those countries now. To check the necessary requirements for registering country-code domains, visit the NetNames web site at www.netnames.co.uk and click on 'register'.

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