NEWS UPDATE |
December 28, 2004 |
New Domain Name Registration Policy in India
The Indian Domain Name Policy is undergoing
a change from January 1, 2005. Earlier, only extensions like co.in, gen.in,
firm.in, etc were available. Now, apart from these extensions, the top level
domain name extension for India – “.IN” will be available
to everyone and registration would be open to companies/individuals inside and
outside India without any restrictions.
In order to protect the rights of legitimate owners, the Domain Name Registry
has designated a 21 day “Sunrise Period” from January 1, 2005 to
January 21, 2005 during which owners of registered trademarks will be given
the opportunity to apply for .IN domain names before it is opened to the general
public.
To be considered valid, a “Sunrise Application”
must meet the following criteria :-
| 1. |
A valid trademark registration issued before December 31, 2004 by the Trade Marks Registry, India. |
| 2. | The domain name applied for must be identical to the textual or word elements of the trademark that is registered. |
| 3. | Proof of trademark registration must be shown in the form of a photocopy of the trademark registration certificate attested by a notary, magistrate or oath commissioner. Original registration certificates are not required to be submitted. |
| 4. | A notarised affidavit has to be submitted
as per the prescribed form confirming, inter alia, that the applicant
is the lawful owner of the intended domain and is not registering the same
for an unlawful purpose. Documents mentioned in 3 & 4 above need to be submitted on or before February 4, 2005. |
If the application meets the sunrise criteria, the domain will be awarded to
the applicant for an initial term of five years.
Kindly note that during the “Sunrise Period”,
applications will also be taken for domains in the following zones: - co.in,
net.in, org.in, gen.in, firm.in, ind.in. A trademark holder is allowed to
apply for domain names in more than one eligible zone based on the same mark.
However, applicants must submit separate applications for each unique domain
name they are interested in.
| © Remfry & Sagar December 2004 |
