The Trademark Sunrise phase (Phase one of four) for .JP.NET (Japan’s New Domain) will open January 16, 2012. This new domain is a marriage of two highly recognized domain extensions, .JP and .NET. It will enable your corporation, e-commerce platform, blog, brand, etc. to simultaneously network with Japanese and global communities. It will also make available thousands of keywords, place names, one and two-character domains and domains with Japanese characters.

Sunrise Registration Details:

Beginning January 16, 2012 (through February 17, 2012), Sunrise will open exclusively to trademark owners globally. Applicants must demonstrate ownership of a trademark that was registered prior to July 30, 2011 and is identical to the desired domain name.

There are three subsequent registration phases scheduled for non-trademark holders:

• Phase 2: Landrush (February 20, 2012 – March 16, 2012). Keywords, city names, even one and two character domains are all available. Companies without trademarks can get a .JP.NET domain name.  Applicant can be based anywhere and there are no restrictions.
• Phase 3: .JP & .NET Owner Promotion (March 19, 2012 – April 20, 2012). A special invitation for .JP and .NET registrants to obtain their matching .JP.NET domains (including official Organizational/Geographic Type .JP domains), where that Domain Name was not previously registered or applied for during Sunrise or Landrush, and/or excluded by the Registry.
• Phase 4: General Availability (April 24, 2012). No requirements. Domains are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you have any questions about the .JP.NET Sunrisephase or would like to check the availability of a .JP.NET domain name, please contact your Safenames account manager. You may also contact the Safenames UK office at +44 1908 200022 and emeasales@safenames.net, or the Safenames US office at +1.703.574.5313 and nasales@safenames.net.

General Availability opens tomorrow for .XXX domains. If you did not get the .XXX domains you wanted during the Sunrise or Landrush period(s), now is the time to register them.

What you need to know.

• General Availability is open to all businesses and individuals on a first come, first served basis.
• Any member of the adult Sponsored Community can apply without pre-existing rights or qualifications unlike in the previous launch periods.
• Members of the adult Sponsored Community—verification is done at the ICM Registry before sites will resolve.
• Non-members of the adult Sponsored Community—there is no verification and/or requirements, but these .XXX domain names will not resolve.

If you would like to register a .XXX domain(s) log in to the Safenames IDP today. If you have any questions about .XXX, please contact Safenames customer support at +44-1-908-200022 or +1-703-574-5313.

AFNIC (the French Network Information Centre, a non-profit association that manages the .fr and .re registries) is changing the registration rules for AFNIC operated extensions as of tomorrow (Dec 6, 2011). This is good news because the local contact requirements for some AFNIC operated extensions (listed below) will be less restrictive and thus, will simplify the registration process. The extensions are:

• .fr (France)
• .wf (Wallis and Futuna)
• .tf (French Southern and Antarctic territories)
• .re(Réunion)
• .pm (St. Pierre and Miquelon)
• .yt (Mayotte)

What does this mean? AFNIC will now allow domains to be registered to registrants who are individuals or entities in any European Union countries, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. If you are unable to meet the local contact requirements, Safenames Local Contact Service enables you to register domains in these (and many other) extensions.

Additionally, the following sub-extensions will no longer be open for new registrations after December 6, 2011. But all currently registered domains in the sub-extensions listed below under the previous AFNIC registration policy will be grandfathered and will continue to be maintained in the .fr zone file:

• com.fr
• .tm.fr
• .asso.fr

Finally, AFNIC has also changed the registration rules on .fr domains names for companies and individual owners of a registered trademarks that are valid in France, but whose country of residence/incorporation is not within one of the regions listed above. These specific entities will no longer be eligible to register new domains, but will be able to keep their domain names.

If you have any questions about these changes or would like to register domains with these extensions, please contact Safenames Customer Support at +44.1908.200.022 or +1.703.574.5313.

The Landrush registration period for .XXX domains opened today (November 8, 2011). If you did not get the .XXX domains you wanted during Sunrise A because you did not have a registered trademark or qualify as a grandfathered site, now is the time to order the .XXX names you want.

The Details:

• The Landrush Period is open only to members of the sponsored community or companies that are conducting business within the sponsored community
• Landrush is not first come, first served.  At the end of the eighteen day Landrush period, any .XXX domain names with a single applicant will be automatically registered to the requestor.  Any .XXX domain names with more than one applicant will be placed into a closed auction between the parties who submitted a Landrush order 
• You can register domains as keywords related to your business—and many great .XXX domains are still available
• Landrush ends on November 25, 2011

To submit your .XXX order request log in to the Safenames IDP today. If you have any questions about .XXX, contact your Safenames account manager or call Safenames customer service at +44-1-908-200022 or +1-703-574-5313.

The Russian registry has decided to begin accepting new registration requests for COM.RU domains after suspending operations for COM.RU over the past several years. The re-launch of COM.RU will begin on October 25, 2011 with an Open Registration Period and any business or individual may place a registration request at that time. If you were unable to get your brand in .RU before, or if you have a new request, don’t miss this opportunity to get the COM.RU that you want.

Safenames is currently accepting pre-orders for this country code domain extension (ccTLD) and will submit the orders on October 25th, 2011. Here is what you need to know:

• There are no local presence or trademark requirements and there are no restrictions on COM.RU domains
• Open registration orders will be fulfilled by the registry on a first-come, first-serve basis
• If there is more than one application for the same domain, the name will go to auction and you will be notified about the auction process
• The registration fees are non-refundable during the pre-order registration phase

If you have any questions about COM.RU, contact your Safenames account manager or call Safenames customer service at +44-1-908-200022 or +1-703-574-5313. Existing customers can order within their Safenames account.

The practice of cyber squatting has been an issue for brands since the early days of domain registration when the “Internic” provisioned domains.  For the first seven or eight years during the web and domain registration boom, names were “held” (a.k.a., squatted) by infringers who were just waiting for an offer from the trademark holder to buy the domain name.  Today, the methods used to monetize trademarked domains are very sophisticated and continually refined to enable domain name pirates and their supporting “ecosystem” to generate the maximum revenue on misdirected web traffic. 

In the early 2000’s, displaying pay-per-click advertising (PPC) sites, also known as traffic monetization sites, was one of the first alternatives to “squatting” on a name.  Pay-per-click ad sites offered cybersquatters and typosquatters an easy and immediate way to offset domain registration costs.  Then, when the money started rolling in, the cyber criminals realized they could amass significant wealth with little or no effort.  And, there was really no risk to deter them from registering trademarked domains. There are now hundreds of traffic monetization companies that domain pirates can use and the sites that display on their syndicated ad networks have become very robust. These cyber pirates, and the complex systems they’ve built, do not appear to be going away anytime soon, as the demand to find better and smarter forms of turning views on the web into dollars is increasing year-over-year. 

While a web visitor may know that that they did not arrive on the intended web site of a particular brand, do they really re-type the domain name into the browser or do they just click on a link that looks like it will get them where they want to go?  The ads pages are often very enticing and most users will try the one-click route to get to their desired destination, which means they’re not re-typing the domain into the browser and  you’re potentially either losing a customer or paying more for one than you are aware.  If you’re the person searching and you see a 50% discount on the product or service that you want, but it’s from a different brand, do you at least take a look at the ‘alternate’ offer? Research suggests that most people do.  The sites deliver ads that can be very brand specific (ads of the brand holder, competitors and related industries) and they can serve geo targeted ads based on the visitor’s IP address to make the ad content extremely relevant and enticing.  One of the newer forms of web site monetization is to build “developed sites” in a variety of vertical markets that appear to be authentic sites and include relevant content that is surrounded or imbedded with ads.  The infringing domains are carefully pointed to the site of your vertical market with your SEM ads and the ads of your competitors. 

So how is this practice of domain name piracy harmful to your brand?  Let’s look at the DirectTV example. The domain name dirrectv.com, which is a pretty good typo of the real site www.directtv.com, currently resolves to a pay per click ad page. You have to wonder how much web traffic DirecTV is losing each time a user mistypes their domain after watching a DirecTV™ commercial?  In the best case scenario, DirecTV is paying $0.50, $1.00 or even more for a customer who already wanted to visit their site at no cost. In the worst case scenario, the consumer intending to go to the site ends up on the parked page, clicks the ad for Dish Network™ and orders a subscription there instead. An immediate lost sale, but what is the lifetime value of each lost opportunity? 

Ironically, the companies footing the bill to make these domain name pirates wealthy are the very companies that are being hurt by this practice—it may be happening to you.  Protecting your brands IS the same thing as protecting your revenue. 

To learn more about how your company can develop an online brand enforcement strategy and stop the loss of revenue at the hands of domain name pirates, you can contact us at Safenames US, +1.703.574.5313 and nasales@safenames.net, or the Safenames UK at +44 1908 200022 and emeasales@safenames.net.