The ccTLD for Columbia, .CO, is going to be made available for registration on a global basis at second level (e.g., YOURCOMPANY.CO), rather than under previously restrictive terms that limited registrations to third level beneath various second-level domains such as .COM.CO. The Global Sunrise period for trademark holders with exact-match domain names registered prior to July 30, 2008 will run from April 26 to June 10, 2010. There will be subsequent Landrush and General Availability registration periods. In addition to general registrations, the .CO has also created a "Founders Program" for those individuals or companies that meet certain requirements, and pledge to be early adopters and to proactively develop and maintain domains with the .CO extension prior to the public launch in July. There is also a Grandfather Process, available through March 31, 2010, for applicants whose existing third-level domains in the .CO namespace were registered and active on or before July 30, 2008.
The .CO registry was previously run by the University of The Andes in Bogotá, Columbia, with registration mostly limited to Columbian companies who could register their trade name or company as an exact match at the third level. As a result, there were only about 28,000 .CO domains registered. The registry will now be run by a new partnership formed by a Colombian company, and Neustar, Inc., which has been involved in providing expertise for .BIZ, .US, .TRAVEL and .TEL. In addition to continuing to be a country-code TLD for Colombia, the .CO domains are being promoted for use as a mainstream extension to represent a number of CO-formatives, including "COmpany," "COrporation," "COmmerce," "COntent," "COmmunity," "COnsumer," and "COllaborate."
Of potential concern for trademark holders is the use and registration of these domain names as a typo for .COM domain names. An IP Clearinghouse and Trademark Validation process for registered trademarks are being established to assist brand owners in securing their brands in .CO during the Sunrise period. There will also be post-registration procedures available to trademark holders against abusive registrations, including a Rapid Takedown Policy and the UDRP.
Vol. 53, June 2010