.cu

.cu is the ccTLD for Cuba. It is managed by CENIAInternet, Industria y San Jose, Capitolio Nacional.^[1]

Rules and Restrictions[edit | edit source]

Cuban and foreign legal entities, as well as natural persons residing in the country, may apply for the granting of a domain name.

Cuban legal entities may apply for domain names under .cu or the second-level generic domains edu, gob, org, inf, net, com.
Foreign legal entities may apply for domain names under .cu or the second-level generic domain com.
Natural persons residing in Cuba may apply for domain names under the second-level generic domain nat.^[2]

A legal entity may apply for the granting of a domain name in the following cases:

it constitutes a trademark granted to the applicant by the Oficina Cubana de la Propiedad Industrial (OCPI) (English: Cuban Office of Industrial Property);
it fully matches the name of the applicant, its acronym, abbreviation, or legally recognized alias;
any other name that is not included in the aforementioned cases and does not fall under any of the exceptions provided.

An individual may apply for the granting of a domain name in the following cases:

A domain name will not be granted in the following cases:

it consists of generic, common, or usual terms;
it consists of geographic terms or demonyms;
it includes, is identical to, or deceptively similar to the name of the country in Spanish;
it matches top-level domain names, second-level generic domain names, protocols, applications, and Internet terminology;
it consists of personal names, surnames, or appellations of a natural person, unless it constitutes a trademark granted to the applicant by the OCPI or is a personality recognized for their activities;
it includes terms or expressions that are harmful or detrimental to public security, integrity, ethics, morals, public decency, the economy, independence, and national sovereignty.^[3]

The second-level generic domains under .cu and managed by CUBANIC are the following:

.edu.cu: for defining institutions within the Education system;
.com.cu: for legal entities involved in commercial activities of goods and services for profit;
.net.cu: for Public Telecommunications Providers;
.org.cu: for Non-Governmental Organizations and non-profit entities;
.gob.cu: for bodies and agencies of the Central State Administration and other Government structures;
.inf.cu: for entities related to scientific information activities and information or content providers;
.nat.cu: for natural persons residing in the country.^[3]

The valid characters for a domain name are the letters of the Spanish alphabet (a to z), Arabic digits (0 to 9), the hyphen "-", and the characters á, é, í, ó, ú, ü, and ñ. Domain names do not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters.
Domain names must not begin or end with a hyphen “-” nor contain two consecutive hyphens “--” in their structure.
The minimum length for a second-level domain name under .cu, or a third-level domain under generic subdomains of .cu, is 3 characters, although a minimum of 5 characters is recommended.
The maximum length allowed for a second-level domain name under .cu, or a third-level domain under generic subdomains of .cu, is 63 characters.^[3]