Sun, Oct. 18, 2009

Courts Trigger Domain Name Liberation

CK - Washington.   German domain name law experiences a spectacular change. That is the uniform assessment of domain name practitioners in Germany of a new Denic eG policy, effective October 23, 2009.

As the registry for the German .de country level domain, Denic had long refused to register one and two character domain names. It had interpreted its statutory authority to support the refusal. A Frankfurt court ruled against Denic, however, and ordered it to register vw.de. Now that the German supreme court in Karlsruhe rejected Denic's petition for review, the registry changed its rules.

Beginning October 23, 2009, the German domain registry will register within the .de ccTLD, on a first come, first served basis, one and two letter domain names and one and two digit domain names. There will be no sunrise period.

In addition, Denic lifted its policies against the registration of domain names that mirror (a) the German county-based tag system for the registration of motor vehicles, and (b) top level domains.


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