.ASIA

.ASIA a new top level domain name to launch in 2007

On 18 October 2006, the Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the eventual launch of .ASIA, a new sponsored top level domain (sTLD). The sponsoring organisation and eventual registry operator, DotAsia Organisation Limited ("DotAsia"), expects the new domain to be launched in six to nine months. ICANN's approval follows the recent launch of various other sTLDs such as .JOBS, .TRAVEL, .CAT and .MOBI.

.ASIA will be aimed at individuals or organisations based in Asia, rather like .EU is intended for those with a presence within the European Union. According to recent estimates, over 60% of the world's population resides in Asia (over 4 billion people), and over 90 languages are spoken. Over four times as many people will thus be eligible to register .ASIA domain names as opposed to .EU domain names. Asia is currently experiencing tremendous cultural, technical and economic growth, as illustrated by the soaring expansion of the Chinese economy, which is expected to climb from the sixth largest in the world to the second largest by 2030. The internet is crucial to this growth, and DotAsia therefore hopes that .ASIA will satisfy demand for a coherent regional identity, integrate the Asian community and give Asians a powerful alternative to .COM.

As there is no effective equivalent to the European Union in Asia, it is expected that registrants of .ASIA domain names will need to have a presence in one of the 73 countries defined by ICANN as being in the Asia/Australia/Pacific region. This region currently encompasses a large geographical area from Turkey through the Middle East and India (taking in certain ex Eastern Bloc countries such as Tajikistan) to China, Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia. Broadly speaking it appears therefore that a presence anywhere other than Europe, North and South America, Africa and Russia will be sufficient to register a .ASIA domain name.

DotAsia is a not for profit organisation incorporated in Hong Kong. It was created in March 2004 for the purpose of submitting a proposal for .ASIA in response to ICANN's Request for Proposals. DotAsia's stated mission is to:

• sponsor, establish and operate a regional internet namespace with global recognition and regional significance, dedicated to the needs of the Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific internet community; • reinvest surpluses in socio-technological advancement initiatives relevant to the Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific Internet community; and • operate a viable not-for-profit initiative that is a technically advanced, world-class TLD registry for the Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific community.

DotAsia is sponsored by the following country code top level domain (ccTLD) registries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Macau, Mongolia, New Zealand, Niue, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. It is also co-sponsored by various regional based internet, information technology and telecom groups.

It is envisaged that the launch of .ASIA will be preceded by a Sunrise Period allowing the holders of intellectual property rights to register in priority, as is usually the case when a new TLD is launched. The details have yet to be finalised, but it is expected that the Sunrise Period will last for a period of 60 days, during which time only individuals or organisations with verifiable trade marks or service marks may apply for matching .ASIA domain names. Trade marks used to register .EU domain names had to have effect in one or more countries of the European Union, and it is yet to be seen whether trade marks allowing registration of .ASIA domain names will have to be effective in one or more Asian nations (according to the ICANN classification referred to above).

In any event it is likely that a cut off date will apply, so that only trade marks applied for prior to 16 March 2004 will be accepted, which is intended to avoid applicants specifically registering trade marks in order to apply for a .ASIA domain name. Hopefully this will ensure that only applicants with genuine trade marks are eligible to apply, and avoid much of the controversy that surrounded the opening of .EU, when there was no cut off date for trade marks. In the case of multiple applications for the same domain name during the Sunrise Period, names will be awarded on a first come first served basis, subject to validation. Validation is expected to be comprehensively performed by a third party, although the nature of this has yet to be confirmed. All Sunrise registrations are expected to have an initial term of two years.

DotAsia plans to maintain a list of reserved names that may not be registered, which was also the case for .EU. This list will consist of, for example, country names and country codes, and all participating ccTLDs will be invited to submit additions to the list of names to be reserved. According to DotAsia, these supplemental names will serve to provide extra protection to preserve names of value within the Asian community that may be particularly at risk of abusive registration, for example geographically or politically sensitive names.

The Charter Eligibility Dispute Resolution Policy (CEDRP) will apply in the event that there is a dispute concerning a domain name holder's right to register a .ASIA domain name, whether during the Sunrise Period or afterwards. However DotAsia has indicted that it does not propose to validate the registrant's proof of presence during the Sunrise Period, unlike the registrant's trade mark rights. Disputes not relating to eligibility will be governed by the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which also applies to many generic top level domains (gTLDs) and has also been adopted by numerous ccTLDs. DotAsia has also stated that it will explore the possibility of applying local dispute resolution policies developed by sponsoring ccTLD registries when appropriate, for example if both parties are resident in a specific country.

At first DotAsia only plans to make .ASIA domain names available in traditional Roman characters, ie those typically used in the English language. Internationalised domain names (commonly referred to as IDNs), using characters found in Asian languages, will then be gradually introduced, language by language. Over two million .EU domain names have been registered since the launch of .EU in December 2005, making it the seventh largest TLD after .COM, .DE, .NET, .UK, .ORG and .INFO. It is expected that the demand for .ASIA domain names will be equally as high, if not in excess of the demand for .EU domain names.

More information about .ASIA is available on the website of DotAsia, which may be found at the following link: http://www.dotasia.org/about/intro.html.

See also http://www.icannwiki.org/ICANN_Gives_It%E2%80%99s_Blessing_For_.Asia_To_Move_Ahead

Item contributed by David Taylor