Holders of registered trademarks have been warned to secure .africa domain names before a “sunrise” phase ends in early June, or risk high legal costs later.
“There are innumerable complexities involved in trying to wrest intellectual property away from those who would have snapped up domain names after the sunrise phase,” the ZA Central Registry, which has responsibility for the .africa generic top-level domain, warned on Tuesday.
The .africa domain will be opened up to everyone from 4 July, meaning those that haven’t moved to protect their trademarks could risk losing their domains and facing the prospect of legal action to secure them.
“During the general availability phase, domain names will be registered on a first-come, first-served basis. Therefore, trademark owners who do not secure their .africa domain names during the current 60-day sunrise phase may not be able to guarantee the availability of their .africa domain names from general availability onwards,” ZACR said in a statement.
“The very real possibility of opportunists registering one’s trademarks exists and it is best prevented by the simple act of applying now for .africa domain names that match registered or validated intellectual property,” said ZACR CEO Lucky Masilela in the statement.
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Source - TechCentral.co.za