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DotCities open for reservation

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 01 Jul 2014

Trade mark holders can now apply to reserve their domain names with .joburg, .capetown and .durban extensions at the ZA Central Registry (ZACR)

The parallel Sunrise and Landrush period start today and are aimed at protecting the rights of intellectual property owners, who will receive priority when it comes to registering domain names within the .joburg .capetown) and .durban top-level domains. The parallel period will run for 90 days, after which genera l availability will open up, when any Internet user across the world can register one of these domains on a first-come, first-served basis.

"The imminent availability of dotJoburg, dotCapetown and dotDurban domain names is a golden opportunity for organisations and individuals with a particular affinity for South Africa's three best-known cities to claim a piece of their valuable brands," says Vika Mpisane, CEO of the ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA).

ZADNA is the government-appointed regulator of the greater .ZA namespace. Mpisane has said the project came after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers opened applications for new top-level domains toward the end of last year. SA decided to take part and pitch for three main cities as large capitals around the world, such as London, Paris and New York, were applying.

Having a city name as a top-level domain allows for destination marketing, because it creates awareness of cities through a Web site or e-mail address, notes Mpisane. He added SA did not want to be left behind in this move.

In total, 1 900 applications were submitted for 1 300 new top-level domains, says Mpisane. He explains the difference in applications and names was because some entities requested names that others had submitted.

The Landrush period is the first opportunity the general public will get to apply for an Internet domain name using the new .durban, .joburg or .capetown suffix. This period does not employ the first-come, first-served principle, but opens an application window for 120 days, running concurrently with the Sunrise period. During this phase, registration requests will be submitted for generic and premium domains, notes ZADNA.

Registration of names will follow the usual process where applicants register names through their chosen accredited registrars. "As is normal practice, different registrars will charge different prices due to bundled services they provide in addition to the basic domain name registration service," explained Mpisane.

ZAdotCities domains allow locally-based products and services to promote their products through a specific platform. It also offers an opportunity to boost tourism, says ZADNA. To assist with adjudicating competing disputes, the ZACR has developed a trade mark protection system called the Mark Validation System.

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