FAQ

.CO Internet S.A.S. is a new company formed by Arcelandia S.A., a wholly-owned Colombian company, and the U.S. company Neustar, Inc. for the purpose of developing and operating the .CO Internet registry. This new partnership will be responsible for the promotion, administration and technical operation of the .CO TLD.

A five-phase launch plan has been drawn up to guarantee the stable and proper allocation of domains. This plan includes Third-Level Transition (already started February 7, 2010), Grandfathering (March 1 - 31, 2010), the comprehensive Sunrise Period for trademark holders (April 1 - June 10, 2010*), a Landrush Period (June 21 - July 13, 2010*) for domains with high commercial value, and General Availability (July 20, 2010*), in which domain registration is open to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis.

* Dates may be subject to change.

The registration policies for .CO are very liberal and follow international best practices.

• Anyone in the world can register .CO domains.
• No proof of residence or other cumbersome documentation is required.
• Registrations are valid for a minimum of one year and a maximum of five years.
• Registrants can transfer domains easily.

The .CO domain will be marketed as a premium TLD and will therefore initially only be available through ten selected registrars worldwide. These accredited registrars have been selected according to stringent criteria and are committed to marketing .CO appropriately.

InterNetX is amongst the ten registrars who can offer .CO domains.

The price is set by the respective registrars. In this regard, .CO is considered to be a closely contested TLD with enormous market potential.

You can find out more about prices and the registration guidelines from our expert team at InterNetX.

The Colombian government, in consultation with the local Internet community, has made .CO domains available globally in a responsible and secure manner.

.CO will never cease to be Colombia’s ccTLD, but it will be marketed to a global user base. .CO is a relevant, credible, and global domain name extension.

Priority will only be given to domain owners of third-level domains registered before July 30, 2008.

In order to make sure that the launch process runs smoothly and fairly, .CO will be working in close cooperation with established and experienced partners Neustar and Deloitte. Neustar is the technology partner and Deloitte will be the validation partner in the Sunrise Period.

The Sunrise phase is divided into Local Sunrise A and Global Sunrise B.

•   Only holders of Colombian trademarks may apply in the A phase (April 1 - 20, 2010)

•   Any trademark holder may apply during Sunrise B (April 26 - June 10, 2010).
    Colombian trademark holders can apply as well, but no preference will be given to Colombian trademark
    holders during the B phase.

There will be a short quiet period between the two phases at the end of the phase and prior to Landrush to allow the validating agent (Deloitte) to finish validating any remaining applications and for the .CO registry to complete any necessary administrative and clean-up activities.

The sunrise process involves up to five stages:

•    Pre-Validation (optional)
     Applicants or their agents have the possibility to interact directly with the
     validation provider (Deloitte) to validate and ensure applications are accurate
     and complete prior to submitting them to the .CO registry.
•    Submission (through InterNetX and its resellers)
•    Validation
•    Auction
•    Award / Injection

Both ASCII domains and Spanish language IDNs may be applied for during sunrise.

Applications will not be granted on a first-come first-served basis, but rather will be collected through to the final date of Global Sunrise. In the event that more than one entity with corresponding trademarks apply for the same domain name, the name will go to auction.

Holders of trademarks will be eligible to participate in the Global Sunrise if they meet the following requirements:

•    The trademarks were registered and were in full force and effect on or before July 30, 2008
•    They are registered in a trademark office or registry that corresponds to a state or entity described
      in the WIPO Standard ST.3 code
•    They fully comply with any and all other specified terms and conditions in the .CO Sunrise Policy

Sunrise applicants must submit certain data to demonstrate their qualification in relation to the right(s) for the domain name applied for. The following data is required:

    •    Registered mark: Exact word or phrase described by the registered mark
    •    Registration number: Registration or serial number of the registered mark’s current registration
    •    Registration country: Location (country / region) where the right is established
         (using the corresponding WIPO Standard ST.3 code)
    •    Applicant Capacity: The applicant holds the trademark as the original "owner", "licensee" or
         as an "assignee"

Deloitte, as the independent validation / verification agent, will verify every application. This important additional step in the assignment procedure ensures that only rightful owners receive a .CO domain.

The validation agent might request further documentation to substantiate the trademark claim made in the application. In this case the validation agent will send an email to the AdminC with details of the request. Such requested evidence could be:

   •    Proof (electronic copy) that the trademark obtained registered status before June 30, 2008

   •    Declaration of the applicant capacity

   •    An original or certified copy of any document the validation agent deems relevant

   •    A certified translation of non-English documents

   •    Proof of current and significant use of the trademark in the country in which the trademark registration
        was obtained (even if the trademark laws in such countries do not require the trademark owner to
        actually use the trademark within a specific timeframe)

Any request for documentary evidence must be responded to within the time period specified by the validation agent. Documentary evidence should primarily be submitted in electronic format, meeting the following technical requirements:

   •   PDF-files (maximum size of 1 MB)
   •   Content must be legible and humanly readable
   •   DIN A4 or standard letter layout

Other formats, such as an original copy or a certified copy of an original may be requested as the validation agent deems necessary.

Please note that if an applicant fails to submit the documents within the time period stipulated in the request the application will lapse.

Pre-validation gives applicants the opportunity to send their trademark data directly to the validation agents via the IP Clearinghouse in order to get an up-front binding assessment of their trademark data.

If the trademark data is incomplete or incorrect, the validation agent will modify it in consultation with the applicant.

Please note that pre-validation does not guarantee that an application will be accepted.

No - all Sunrise applications must be identical to all text or word elements contained in the eligible trademark.

Punctuations and special characters in a registered trademark may be omitted or replaced by hyphens. These characters include but are not limited to the following: ~ @ # !, §, % ^ © or &

   •   In the case of a sequence of punctuation or special characters they may be eliminated
       or replaced by one or more hyphens.

   •   Special characters can be transcribed (e. g. & to and, + to plus, = to -), replaced with
       a hyphen (-) or eliminated.

   •   If a hyphen is part of the trademark name, it has to be included in the domain name.

   •   Spanish IDNs are permitted (included characters: á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ, ü).

   •   Blanks can be ignored or replaced by a hyphen (e. g. A B C D to ABCD.co or A-B-C-D.co)

Yes, figurative signs will be accepted AS LONG as

   •   the sign exclusively contains a name

   •   OR the word element is predominant, and can be clearly separated or distinguished
       from the device element

   •   AND provided that all alphanumeric characters (including hyphens, if any) included in the mark are
        contained in the domain name applied for, in the same order as that in which they appear

   •   AND the general impression of the word is apparent, without any reasonable possibility of misreading the
       characters of which the sign consists or the order in which those characters appear.

The WIPO Standard ST.3 code must be used to specify the corresponding "trademark country" in which the trademark was registered and NOT the ISO-3166 list.

If an applicant is applying on the basis of a Community Trademark (CTM), "EM" (and NOT "EP", "QZ" or any country code of a member state of the European Union) must be selected or specified.

Furthermore, in cases where the domain name applicant relies on a trademark that is registered in the BENELUX, "BX" must be selected or specified.

Applicants (corresponding to the registrant contact) have to state, whether they hold the trademark as an original "owner", a "licensee" or an "assignee".

   •   Owner
       The domain name applicant is identical to the name of the trademark holder.
       No further documentation is required.

   •   Licensee
       In case the applicant is the licensee of the registered trademark a duly completed and executed license
       declaration must be submitted as documentary evidence: License Single TM, License Multiple TM

   •   Assignee
       If the applicant is the co-owner of the registered trademark additional documentary evidence will be
       required consisting of this duly completed and executed form: Transfer Multiple TM

If the official name of the trademark owner has been changed and this has not been recorded with the relevant trademark office, the applicant must submit a duly completed declaration for the change of name executed by the domain name applicant as documentary evidence: Transfer Single TM

Please note that no other documents will be allowed.

The applicant may request reconsideration within ten days if the registry has rejected the application in question. The request for reconsideration must be made through the .CO accredited registrar (like InterNetX). 

Accordingly, any applicant who does not agree with the validation agent's assessment may start a Sunrise reconsideration process within ten days.

Please note that an additional fee will apply.

The .CO auction process will only apply during Local Sunrise A, Global Sunrise B and Landrush phases of the .CO launch plan.

Auctions take place if there is more than one eligible applicant with a correctly validated application for the same domain name.

.CO auctions will be held according to the "English-style" via Internet. Each bid has to be one increment higher than the previous bid.

The eligible bidder for a domain during Local Sunrise A and Global Sunrise B must have submitted a domain name application (or request for reconsideration), documentary evidence, and all payable fees on time. Additionally, the trademark verification / validation process must have been passed successfully.

Please note, that the .CO registry and / or the validation agent only verifies an applicant’s eligibility according to the rules, regulations and protocols set out in .CO launch and registration rules.

All applicants whose domain applications for the same .CO domain are successfully verified will be invited to an auction. Only successfully verified applicants can participate in the bidding.

Once the verification process is completed, all eligible applicants will be notified of the intended auction start. Such notification will include login credentials (if not previously sent) to access the auction site. This notice will be sent ahead of time, giving applicants a reasonable period to prepare for the auction.

Before the auction starts, each qualified bidder will be provided with the registration information of the other qualified bidders. This allows participants to assess the identification of other bidders, as well as to consider whether or not to participate in the auction.

The auction provider (pool.com) will send the first auction notification email message to the auction participant (identical with the OwnerC) with a copy to the registrar 5 to 10 days prior to auction start. This email will contain the domain auction details, an account activation link, and login credentials.

Auction start dates will be on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and will generally be scheduled to finish in seven days.

Eligible bidders will bid against other eligible bidders. Each bid must be at least one increment higher than the prevailing auction price. The auction ends when no participant has submitted a higher bid within a reasonable period of time, as determined by the registry or its auction agent. The highest bidder wins the auction.

After the domain has been allocated a whois entry will follow within 24 hours.

Yes, an eligible bidder can withdraw from an auction if he notifies the registry in good time before the auction starts. If an auction participant fails to place any bids during the auction, this is also considered a withdrawal.

If this results in only one remaining bidder, the auction will be canceled and the domain will be allocated to the remaining bidder.

In this case the eligible bidders for the domain will be considered to have lost their interest in the domain. The domain name may be re-auctioned or released and become available for registration in following .CO launch phases.

The registrant must make the payment directly to the auction provider within seven days after the auction has ended.

Used currency:
Sunrise A: Colombian Pesos
Sunrise B / Landrush: US Dollars