Internatinal dmain registratin DEFINITIONS Generic Tp Level Dmains (gtlds nn-lcalised r glbal Tp Level Dmains) eg.cm,.net. There are currently abut 20 different generic dmain extensins. Cuntry Cde Tp Level Dmains (cctlds - lcalised Tp Level Dmains) eg.fr,.de,.c.uk, etc. There are arund 250 different cuntry cde dmain extensins. Fr a full list f tp level dmain extensins, see http://en.wikipedia.rg/wiki/list_f_internet_tp-level_dmains BUSINESS CASE FOR REGISTERING INTERNATIONAL DOMAINS Registering internatinal dmains» gives a glbal impressin f yur cmpany n the web;» imprves the chances f internatinal custmers finding yur website;» gives yu a lcal presence in verseas markets, allwing yu t target web visitrs frm certain gegraphic lcatins mre effectively;» allws fr Ggle getargeting, which can help imprve yur search engine ranking in verseas Ggle search engines e.g. www.ggle.fr;» prtects yur cmpany names, trademarks, brand names, prduct r service names frm cyber squatting. CONTENTS OF GUIDE» Selecting yur dmain name» Generic dmains» Hw t register yur generic dmain name» Cuntry cde dmains» Hw t register a cuntry cde dmain name» Internatinalised dmain names» Hw t register an internatinalised dmain name» Mving a website frm ne dmain t anther» Dmain name reslutin prcess 2011 Crwn cpyright - nly fr use by Exprt Cmmunicatins Cnsultants accredited t deliver Exprt Cmmunicatins Reviews n behalf f UK Trade & Investment Page 1
SELECTING YOUR DOMAIN NAME» Use yur full cmpany name. Register a dmain name with yur full cmpany name, rather than acrnyms r abbreviatins e.g. www.trainingcmpany.cm rather than www.trainc.cm r www.tc.cm.» Use keywrds in a dmain name. Register a dmain name cntaining ppular keywrds (if these are nt already taken) which can help yur ranking in internatinal search engines in English, e.g. www.training.cm r www.diy.cm. This might be apprpriate if yur cmpany dmain name is nt available.» Add internatinal t yur dmain name. Yu culd register a dmain cntaining the wrd internatinal if the dmain name fr yur cmpany name has been taken by anther cmpany e.g. www.traininginternatinal.cm.» Secure dmain names f yur key peple. Yu may als register a dmain with the name f ne f yur key experts and/r directrs that ptential custmers may search fr e.g. www.directrname.cm.» Park these dmains r set up dmain redirect. Yu can either park these additinal dmain names (dn t use them at all) r redirect these ther internatinal dmains t yur main website. It is imprtant that the redirect is a 301 redirect, meaning that a page has permanently mved t a new lcatin. Wrk with yur web develpers t ensure that dmain redirectin is set up crrectly. 2011 Crwn cpyright - nly fr use by Exprt Cmmunicatins Cnsultants accredited t deliver Exprt Cmmunicatins Reviews n behalf f UK Trade & Investment Page 2
GENERIC DOMAINS e.g..cm,.net,.biz» Secure the.cm dmain. If the.cm dmain name fr yur cmpany is still available, register it as sn as pssible. If yu already have yur.cm dmain name registered, make sure yu cntinue t renew yur registratin every year.» Secure ther generic dmains. It is gd practice t register ther generic dmain names fr yur cmpany names, brand names, prduct r service names including.net,.rg,.biz,.inf, t prtect frm cyber squatting. The extent t which yu register dmain names t prtect yur names is a balance between a number f elements including the imprtance f yur brand t yur business, yur budget and yur internatinal plans.» Getargeting yur dmain. Generic dmains can be getargeted using Ggle (see Guide t Getargeting yur dmain)» Further generic dmains. Sme reginal dmain extensins, which can be Ggle getargeted, are als classified as generic TLDs. These include.eu (Eurpean unin) and.asia. HOW TO REGISTER YOUR GENERIC DOMAIN NAME» Chse a dmain registratin cmpany. There are many dmain registratin cmpanies. It is best t try t register all internatinal dmains (bth generic and cuntry cde TLDs) with the same dmain registratin cmpany t help yu manage yur dmains in the future. D a Ggle search, r try: www.123-reg.c.uk www.gdaddy.cm www.eurperegistry.cm www.eurdns.cm / www.asiadns.cm www.netnames.c.uk www.101dmain.cm» Check availability f yur dmain names. www.dmaintls.cm is a useful site fr checking dmain name wnership/availability. If the dmain is taken, a whis lk up gives yu infrmatin abut wh may have registered that dmain name. 2011 Crwn cpyright - nly fr use by Exprt Cmmunicatins Cnsultants accredited t deliver Exprt Cmmunicatins Reviews n behalf f UK Trade & Investment Page 3
COUNTRY CODE DOMAINS e.g..c.uk,.in,.ru,.fr» Invest in cuntry cde dmains. If yu haven t already dne s, invest in cuntry cde dmain names (e.g. www.yurcmpany.de fr Germany r www.yurcmpany.c.uk fr the UK) fr all yur key markets/prducts/services/brands/trademark names t prtect yur dmains frm cyber squatting and t keep yur ptins pen fr yur future internatinal web strategy, even if yu dn t use them in the shrt t medium-term.» Set up dmain redirect. D nt run tw websites with the same cntent, as yu may be penalised by search engines fr having what is called duplicate cntent. Yu can redirect these cuntry cde dmains t yur main glbal website in the shrt-term, and decide whether t develp them int cuntry-specific websites in the future (see guide: Lcal websites and lcal hsting). Mst dmain registratin cmpanies will allw yu t redirect yur lcal dmain t yur main.cm site (r the lcal language part f yur main site). This will allw yu t qute yur lcal website n yur lcalised literature, business cards, etc., e.g. www.yurcmpany.fr. It is imprtant that the redirect is a 301 redirect, meaning that a page has permanently mved t a new lcatin. Wrk with yur web develpers t ensure that dmain redirectin is set up crrectly.» Set up email frwarding. Mst dmain registratin cmpanies will allw yu t set up lcal email addresses nce yu have registered a lcal dmain, s yu can qute lcal emails n yur lcalised literature, business cards, etc., e.g. bnjur@yurcmpany.fr» Use lcal language keywrds in lcal dmain names. Yu culd register dmain names cntaining ppular keywrds in the lcal language which can help yur ranking in lcal search engines, e.g. www.frmatin.fr (training in French).» Cuntry cde dmains cannt be Ggle getargeted. Cuntry cde dmains such as.c.uk are already lcal dmains and cannt be Ggle getargeted t any ther cuntry. This als applies t sme cuntry cde dmains such as.c (Clmbia),.me (Mntenegr) and.tv (Tuvalu) that are ften used as the main TLDs. 2011 Crwn cpyright - nly fr use by Exprt Cmmunicatins Cnsultants accredited t deliver Exprt Cmmunicatins Reviews n behalf f UK Trade & Investment Page 4
HOW TO REGISTER A COUNTRY CODE DOMAIN NAME e.g..jp,.cn,.fr» Cuntry cde dmain name restrictins. There are sme cmmn restrictins and requirements fr registering dmain names in ther cuntries. These include having a lcal cmpany presence (business address and phne number), lcal trademark, cmpany registratin r being a resident f a cuntry. Mst dmain registratin cmpanies list the requirements fr each cuntry s registratin. Sme allw registratin f cuntry cde dmains by internatinal cmpanies r individuals, such as in Hng Kng where there are n restrictins, but in ther cases there is smetimes a different dmain extensin r a different registratin prcess.» Third party dmain name registratin. Mre and mre internatinal dmain registratin cmpanies will act as yur lcal representative r trustee t assist in a cuntry cde dmain name registratin, where a lcal presence is required. Alternatively, yu can get a lcal ffice, business agent, distributr r partner t register the dmain fr yu. Ideally it shuld be registered in yur cmpany name. In this case the third party is ften the administrative cntact and will usually require yu t sign a legal cntract authrising this. This bviusly can lead t sme cludy lines with wnership f the dmain. In all cases, yu need t make sure that there is a valid legal dcument in place, clearly assigning wnership f the dmain t yu. It is crucial that yu take independent legal advice fr any such agreement either with a lcal partner r with a dmain registratin cmpany.» Example lcal dmain name requirements. Sme key dmain name registratin requirements fr ppular cuntries are listed belw (these are illustrative as requirements change regularly): Japan: internatinal cmpanies can register.jp if they have an address and phne number in Japan, and can register.c.jp if registered as Gaikku Kaishu n the fficial registry f Japanese cmpanies. China: internatinal cmpanies need t have a lcal presence and submit a frmal paper applicatin including Chinese branch business seal, cmpany business licence and registrant ID. India: there are n restrictins fr India at the time f printing this guide fr.in r.c.in. United Arab Emirates (UAE): there is a separate paper-based applicatins prcess fr internatinal cmpanies and applicatins generally need t be backed by trademarks. Russia: internatinal cmpanies can register.ru.cm withut restrictin, but wuld need t prvide business incrpratin dcuments t register the.ru. France: internatinal cmpanies can register if they have an EU trademark and a lcal administrative cntact r if they have a registered French cmpany and SIREN/SIRET number and lcal cntact details. Germany: internatinal cmpanies need a valid street address and telephne number in Germany.» Mre infrmatin n the restrictins and requirements fr registering cuntry cde dmains can be fund at www.101dmain.cm/rules.htm 2011 Crwn cpyright - nly fr use by Exprt Cmmunicatins Cnsultants accredited t deliver Exprt Cmmunicatins Reviews n behalf f UK Trade & Investment Page 5
INTER- NATIONALISED DOMAIN NAMES» Since Nvember 2009, internatinal characters have been allwed in dmain names. These are called Internatinalised Dmain Names (IDNs) and can cntain lcal language characters r letters frm nn-ascii scripts (e.g. Arabic r Chinese). ASCII characters include the letters a-z, the digits 0-9 and the hyphen -.» This is being intrduced t cater fr internet users arund the wrld wh d nt use keybards using Latin languages (ASCII characters), but wh use scripts instead. This will make it easier fr them t input websites int an internet brwser in their lcal language n their regular keybards. It is nw thught that mre than half f all internet users use nn-latin languages.» This is relevant t yu if yu are planning t sell yur prducts r services in any nn-english speaking market (nt just thse cuntries whse main languages are script based). It is expected that ver the next few years, an Internatinalised Dmain Name will be critical fr successful marketing thrugh the web in many markets arund the wrld.» Yu can currently register dmains including nn-latin characters in ver ten scripts including: - Simplified Chinese characters (e.g. China, Taiwan) - Traditinal Chinese characters (e.g. China, Singapre, Taiwan) - Arabic (e.g. Egypt, Qatar, UAE) - Cyrillic (e.g. Russia) - Hangul (Suth Krea) - Persian (Iran) - Sinhala (Sri Lanka) - Thai (Thailand) - Tamil (e.g. India, Singapre, Sri Lanka)» Yu can als nw register dmain names using Latin characters with diacritics (é, ç, etc.).» At the mment there are tw types f IDN dmains: partial (IDN.xx) r full (IDN.IDN). A partial IDN has the extensin (.xx) still in Latin-based characters, while full IDNs are cmpletely represented in that language s native character set (see http://www.101dmain.cm/idn-internatinalized-dmains.htm and http://www.101dmain.cm/internatinalized-dmain-names.htm fr mre infrmatin).» S fr sme cuntries and scripts, it is bth the dmain name and dmain extensin that will be available in ther languages e.g..cn fr China in Latin script, but in Simplified Chinese it wuld be..» Develpment wrk is ging n t bring dmain names in mre language scripts int peratin (e.g. Bengali, Hebrew, Gergian) r extending existing scripts t new cuntries (e.g. Arabic t Oman, Cyrillic t Bulgaria). 2011 Crwn cpyright - nly fr use by Exprt Cmmunicatins Cnsultants accredited t deliver Exprt Cmmunicatins Reviews n behalf f UK Trade & Investment Page 6
HOW TO REGISTER AN INTER- NATIONALISED DOMAIN NAME» Decide n yur dmain name. When chsing yur dmain name in anther language, it is imprtant that yu give cnsideratin t the meaning and interpretatin f yur cmpany/brand/ trademark/prduct/service name in bth English and the lcal language. It is advisable t get help frm an internatinal branding and naming agency r alternatively cnsult lcal experts wh will be able t let yu knw if yur new cmpany name is apprpriate e.g. lcal British Cmmercial Cnsulate, lcal agents r distributrs, lcal ffices r partners.» Check the ppularity f yur dmain name. In additin, it is a gd idea t check n the ppularity f yur dmain name as a keywrd in a particular cuntry (see guide t Internatinal search engine ptimisatin) t help bst lcal search engine rankings.» Registratin f internatinalised dmain names. The fllwing sites allw registratin f nn-latin dmain names: www.eurperegistry.cm www.101dmain.cm Bth sites ffer the facility t use machine translatin t find yur dmain name we d nt recmmend yu d this (see abve abut the imprtance f representing yur brand internatinally).» Fr mre infrmatin abut registratin f internatinalised dmain names, see the ICANN website: http://www.icann.rg/en/tpics/idn/. (ICANN is the Internet Crpratin fr Assigned Names and Numbers.) 2011 Crwn cpyright - nly fr use by Exprt Cmmunicatins Cnsultants accredited t deliver Exprt Cmmunicatins Reviews n behalf f UK Trade & Investment Page 7
MOVING A WEBSITE FROM ONE DOMAIN TO ANOTHER» If yu have been running yur website n a.c.uk dmain name fr a number f years and yur website is wrking effectively, generating leads r sales fr yu, and yu nw wish t mve t a.cm dmain name t allw fr the develpment f a mre sphisticated internatinal internet presence, yu will need t wrk clsely with yur web develper t plan this mve. There is a risk f a temprary drp f natural search engine ranking as yu mve frm ne dmain t anther. If yu are changing nly the dmain name the search engines will begin indexing n the changed dmain d nt allw the riginal dmain t lapse fr 3-6 mnths, maintain it and ensure a 301 redirect is put in place t redirect all traffic crrectly. If yu are changing the website structure cmpletely then seek specialist advice as this can have a majr impact n any search psitin particularly in the shrt-term.» Mre infrmatin abut the mvement f a website frm ne dmain name t anther can be fund at: http://www.ggle.cm/supprt/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=83105 DOMAIN NAME RESOLUTION PROCESS» If yu d nt wn the.cm r anther extensin variatin f yur website, but have a claim n it, yu may be able t g thrugh the internatinal dmain name dispute reslutin prcess. It is quite cmplicated and time cnsuming and with few test cases glbally. Despite this, it may be imprtant t secure yur nline brand integrity internatinally.» Dcuments need t be submitted accurately and yu will mst likely need the help f a lawyer. Submissin f dcuments currently csts arund 1,200 and lawyers csts are estimated t be ver 1,000. In summary yu will need t prve: the dmain name is identical r cnfusingly similar t yur trade mark r service mark (registered r nn-registered) the wner has n rights r legitimate interests in respect f the dmain name the malicius intent n behalf f the cyber squatter.» In practice, there may be alternatives: write t r email the wner f the dmain and negtiate a price fr transfer f the dmain name bid t buy the dmain thrugh a dmain registratin cmpany use a brkerage service.» Here is the ICANN web page that explains hw, why and when yu can enter the dmain reslutin prcess: http://www.icann.rg/en/dndr/udrp/plicy.htm. Octber 2011 2011 Crwn cpyright - nly fr use by Exprt Cmmunicatins Cnsultants accredited t deliver Exprt Cmmunicatins Reviews n behalf f UK Trade & Investment Page 8