If priority is given to first registration, many .me.uk registrants will be big winners.
Registrants paid big bucks for one and two character .co.uk and .org.uk domain names when .uk registry Nominet auctioned them off a couple years ago. Bidders paid £3m in total.
Under the proposed plan for allocating second level .uk domain names, they could get screwed.
Nominet’s latest plan to release domains such as example.co.uk instead of example.uk would give a first right of refusal to owners of the matching third level string.
While this is better for existing registrants than the old plan that gave no rights to existing third level owners, what happens if more than one of the same string are registered, e.g. example.co.uk and example.org.uk?
Nominet’s proposal is to give priority to the first-registered of the domains.
So if example.org.uk was registered before example.co.uk, then the registrant of example.org.uk would have first rights to example.uk.
Nominet auctioned off one and two letter domains under its various second levels at about the same time. But the registration dates differ. And .me.uk domains are often times the first registered.
Here’s an analysis showing which of the single letters was registered first for each letter:
a.co.uk
b.co.uk
c.co.uk and c.org.uk tied
d.me.uk
e.org.uk
f.me.uk
g.me.uk
h.me.uk
i.co.uk and i.org.uk tied
j.co.uk and j.org.uk tied
k.co.uk and k.org.uk tied
l.me.uk
m.co.uk
n.me.uk
o.me.uk
pmme.uk
q.co.uk
r.me.uk
s.co.uk and s.org.uk tied
t.me.uk
u.net.uk
v.co.uk and v.org.uk tied
w.me.uk
x.me.uk
y.co.uk
z.co.uk
Nominet’s proposal is open for comment. I suspect single letter registrants will be vocal.
The only letters in co.uk that have been registered before the auctions are the ones that had a trademark and have been granted to the trademark holder.
All others, that have been auctioned of would be lost to the me.uk or org.uk owners because the auctions of .me and .org have been before the .co auction.
The same would be the case for all 2 letters, all these names would be lost, I assume this will hot happen, it would be plain stupid and nominet will be sued over by the co.uk owners.
According to nominet pr the .org. auction was at the same time.
Otherwise, the good old method of auctioning off the new .uk domains could be taken into consideration. Of course, only the owners of the exact-match .xx.uk domains could participate.
This is the original information from nominet about the auctions:
FPAS Ltd has partnered with Nominet to run the online auctions for contested short domain names from the landrush phase. Nominet has confirmed to us that you are entitled to participate in the auctions.
We are pleased to announce that the auctions will be starting on the following dates at 10am (UK time):
1 20-Jul all .me.uk domains
2 27-Jul .org.uk domains A through to I
3 03-Aug .org.uk domains J through to R
4 10-Aug .org.uk domains S through to Z and .org.uk numbers
5 01-Sep .co.uk domains A through to I
6 07-Sep .co.uk domains J through to R
7 14-Sep .co.uk domains S through to Z and .co.uk numbers
Thanks Michael.
I think Plan B for the second level roll-out is a good one; elegant in its simplicity, and as equitable as it can be (does the least damage to existing rights).
The single letter auction names could be teated separately, and arguably should be, given the investment by auction winners.
We’ll know the Plan B proposal detail soon enough.
Plan B means auctioning them? Can you imagine if you paid through the nose a couple years ago and then have to pay again for the second level?