Dreyfus

The new gTLD program is now fairly advanced and the launches follow one another in rapid succession. So far, 250 Registry Agreements has been signed with the applicants, 106 new gTLDs passed the technical tests and were delegated and 69 have or had a defined Sunrise date.

The first Sunrise period (.SHABAKA) launched on October 31, 2013 was terminated on December 29. Seven Sunrise periods are to be finished on January 25 (bike, clothing, guru, holdings, plumbing, singles and ventures) and another 7 on February 1st.

Among the new gTLDs being launched, the .SEXY is a sensitive one by its meaning and by its registration rules that are totally opened. The cybersquatting in this TLD can be extremely harmful in terms of image and we therefore recommend preventive registrations by taking advantage of the priority Sunrise period that will end on February 9.

As a reminder, a registered trademark in the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) and corresponding SMD files are mandatory to participate to a Sunrise.

Donuts Sunrise

The Donuts program is about to finish its first Sunrise period. Find below all ongoing and forthcoming periods:

• Sunrise from 26 November 2013 to 25 January 2014 : the new gTLDs offered are .BIKE, .CLOTHING, .GURU, .HOLDINGS, .PLUMBING, .SINGLES and .VENTURES
• Sunrise from 3 December 2013 to 1st February 2014: the new gTLDs available are .CAMERA, .EQUIPMENT, .ESTATE, .GALLERY, .GRAPHICS, .LIGHTING and .PHOTOGRAPHY
• Sunrise from 10 December 2013 to 8 February 2014 : the new gTLDs are .CONTRACTORS, .CONSTRUCTION, .DIRECTORY, .KITCHEN, .LAND, .TODAY and .TECHNOLOGY
• Sunrise from 17 December 2013 to 15 February 2014 : the available new gTLDs are: .DIAMONDS, .ENTERPRISES, .TIPS, .VOYAGE
• Sunrise from 24 December 2013 to 22 February 2014 : .CAREERS, .PHOTOS, .RECIPES, .SHOES
• Sunrise from 31 December 2013 to 1 March 2014 : the new gTLDs are as follows : .LIMO, .DOMAINS, .CAB
• Sunrise from 31 December 2013 to 8 March 2014 : the offered new gTLD is .COMPANY
• Sunrise from 7 January to 8 March 2014 : the new gTLDs available are : .COMPUTER, .CENTER, .SYSTEMS, .ACADEMY, .MANAGEMENT
• Sunrise from 14 January au 15 March 2014 : the new gTLDs available are : .EMAIL, .SOLUTIONS, .SUPPORT, .BUILDERS, .TRAINING
• Sunrise from 21 January au 22 March 2014 : the new gTLDs are : .EDUCATION, .INSTITUTE, .REPAIR, .CAMP, .GLASS
• Sunrise from 28 January au 29 March 2014 : the new gTLDs offered are : .SOLAR, .COFFEE, .INTERNATIONAL, .HOUSE, .FLORIST

The first Early Access Program periods will start on January 29, 2014 for the .BIKE, .CLOTHING, .GURU, .HOLDINGS, .PLUMBING, .SINGLES and .VENTURES. The Early Access Program is a period that offers fixed price domain names each day on a “1st come-1st served” basis, the price varying on the first day from $ 10,500 to $ 125 on 5th, 6th and 7th days.

.MENU and .UNO Sunrises

.MENU and .UNO Sunrises are opened from 9 December 2013 and will end on 7 February 2014.

The targets of .MENU are restaurants, chefs and every person interested in cookery. As the term “menu” is used in 33 different languages, the gTLD .MENU will gather a large online community throughout the world.

Dot Latin LLC registry offers its .UNO to connect all Spanish and Latin communities and aims to provide instant recognition to sites by companies and consumers.

Sunrise for . みんな, the first and only Japanese IDN

Google launched its Sunrise for its first new gTLD, the Japanese IDN みんな(mee-nuh) which means “everybody”. The registration period will run until 14 February 2014.

Sunrises for geographical new gTLDs

• The regiodot registry offers the new gTLD .RUHR for the eponymous German region during the current Sunrise that will end on 20 February 2014. A local presence in Germany is mandatory to register a domain name. A “RUHR phase” will be reserved to inhabitants and companies of this region between the Sunrise and General Availability periods.
• The dotkiwi already launched its Sunrise for the .KIWI. This period will run until March 17. There is no geographical restriction to register domain names.
• The .BERLIN will be available from 14 February to 16 March 2014. It will be convenient that one of the contacts (owner, administrative or technical) has a postal address in Berlin.

Uniregistry Sunrise for .SEXY and .TATOO

The Sunrise for both .SEXY and .TATOO new gTLDs will be opened to trademark owners until 9 February 2014.

The new gTLD .CEO in a ‘Start-Date Sunrise’

The beginning of the Sunrise period for .CEO will be on 10 February and will last 30 days until March 12. In a ‘Start-Date Sunrise’, domain names will be registered on a ‘first come-first served basis’ unlike the auctions held during ‘End-Date Sunrises’.

The .ONL to be known ONLINE !

The .ONL Sunrise will be opened until 15 March 2014. To own a .ONL will grant to the Internet user a better access to websites in this new gTLD if they type the words ‘onl’ or ‘online’ in the search engine.

Sunrise for Chinese gTLDs .在线 and .中文网

The registry for .在线(online) and .中文网(website) announced that its Sunrise will run from 16 January to 17 March 2014.

The .BUZZ available from 15 January 2014

dotStrategy was awarded the .BUZZ by ICANN and the new gTLD will be introduced during the Sunrise from 15 January to 18 March 2014.

In the context of ICANN’s new Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), which took effect from 1st January 2014, domain name owners of gTLDs should expect to receive the following 3 emails:

• An e-mail requesting confirmation of the e-mail address of the rights’ holder
• An e-mail asking for the WHOIS information to be updated if necessary,
• An e-mail notifying the expiration of the domain name sent 15 days before the expiry date whether or not the domain name has been renewed.

The e-mail to confirm the e-mail address of the rights’ holder is a mandatory requirement that must be met within 15 days of receipt.

In the event of failure to provide confirmation, the domain name will be suspended but would however be reactivated once confirmation is received.

The open auction of previously reserved domain names has already generated over 50 million yuan, or more than 8 million dollars.

The auction of domain GAME.CN produced the highest offer of nearly 3 million yuan after 700 bids.

In second place was domain name GW.CN which is the Chinese abbreviation for “gou wu” or “guo wang“, meaning “shopping” or “national network”. Bids climbed to over 2 million yuan.

The domain LB.CN came next with over 1 million yuan. This can stand for “lao ban“, “libao” or “lian bang” which mean respectively “boss”, “gift” and “federal”.

The fourth best auction result was for the domain name CM.CN, much sought-after by investors and Chinese “domainers” and which brought in over 1 million yuan.

Thanks to these auctions the funds accumulated – after tax deductions – will be given to charity.

With effect from 8 January 2014, residents, companies and organizations based in Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway can register .eu domain names.

This decision by the European Commission is based on regulation EC 733/2002 of the European Parliament and Council which foresaw the extension of .eu to the whole of the EEA.

The registration policy and the Whois policy, as well as the Terms and Conditions with regards to privacy were also updated.

After leading a study concerning the likelihood and impact of collisions between applied-for new gTLD strings and non-delegated TLDs, ICANN suggests to the community mitigation measures in order to avoid collisions.

Those problems may occur when local top-level domains in private namespace reach the public DNS while they already exist or when certificate authorities issue X.509 certificates for domain names that are not resolvable in the public DNS.

The study emphasises three categories of strings by the potential risk of name space collision: low risk, uncalculated risk and high risk. For each one of them, the program offers a determined and made to measure management process.

In this way,

• for low risk gTLD strings, the study proposes proceeding with contracting and delegation of these strings but recommending additional mitigation measures without impacting their timeline for delegation,
• for uncalculated risk gTLD strings, the delivery date should be extended by 3 to 6 months, and
• for high risk strings which are .home and .corp, the process will be delayed until those strings goes to low risk category.

The new gTLD string delegation process is long and delicate. At this stage, all these steps are proposals only and opened to the Internet community’s comments.

Dreyfus has been nominated “Boutique IP Law Firm of the Year” (1) in “Acquisition International” magazine’s “Legal Awards 2013”.

Nathalie Dreyfus explains in an interview that the firm’s expertise in the protection and enforcement of trademarks on the internet has played a key role in this recognition.

Since 10 years, Dreyfus routinely handles litigations and has acquired the necessary experience to anticipate the outcomes of disputes.

Dreyfus also points out that there are some trends in the field of intellectual property. Examples would include not only the opportunity to file – and protect – an international trademark in many countries in one shot, but also “the interdependence between intellectual property and the digital economy” with the launch of new gTLDs which will accelerate the need “to adjust the legal strategies of companies relating to the presence of their trademarks on the internet.”

Dreyfus has also been described as “excellent” in the rankings of the best IP law firms of “Décideurs” magazine (2). We find out what serves to distinguish the firm from the rest: a stronger “relationship between the protection of intellectual property and new technologies, especially concerning domain names” and its active involvement “with arbitration centers and with ICANN in particular.”

                                                                    
(1)    http://acquisition-intl.com
(2)   Magazine « Décideurs – Marketing, Médias », 2013 Edition.