.bm

Status:	Active
country:	Bermuda
Manager:	Registry General Department, Ministry of Home Affairs
Registry Provider:	Bermuda Network Information Centre
Date Implemented:	1993
Type:	ccTLD
More information:

.bm is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Bermuda, a British overseas territory. It is managed by the Registry General Department, Ministry of Home Affairs. It is one of the first ccTLDs to be used on the Internet's Domain Name System.

Delegation History

The earliest assigned administrative and technical contact was Tom Coehlho, the Director of Computer Services at the Bermuda College. The currently listed Sponsoring Organization for the domain is Bermuda College. The contact persons have subsequently been updated to reflect staffing changes at the college.

In August 2003, IANA received a request to redelegate the .bm top-level domain to the Ministry of Tourism, Telecommunications and E-Commerce. In support of the request, IANA received a letter the Ministry explaining that the current sponsoring organization had advised the Government that it wished to relinquish their responsibility for management the .BM domain. The letter also expressed the Government’s full support of the redelegation. The request was administratively closed by IANA in March 2005 due to the lack of supplemental documentation.

On 26 April 2007, IANA received a letter from the sponsoring organization, Bermuda College, explaining that it had transferred responsibility for administration for the .BM domain to the Registrar General of Bermuda. The letter requested IANA update its records to reflect the changes in administrative and technical contacts. In responsible to the letter, IANA replied with an explanation of the redelegation process, and requested the additional information required to proceed.

On 8 May 2007, a new redelegation request was lodged with IANA. The requests seeks delegation of .bm to the Registry General of the Bermudan Ministry of Labour and Immigration.

On 16 October 2007, the Board of ICANN approved the redelegation of the .bm domain to the Registrar General of Bermuda.

Rules

To register a .bm domain name, the Registrant shall be required to provide the information requested during the application process, which includes:

• name of the individual person, business, company or organization (aliases are not allowed);
• registered office and principal place of business (or address of the Registrant if the Registrant is a natural person as oppose to a company);
• contact details of the Registrant including e-mail address and telephone number;
• name and contact details of the Domain Name Registered Agent;
• name and contact details of the Technical Contact.

The Registrant represents and warrants that the registration and use of the Domain Name is made for a lawful purpose and is not in bad faith. The following circumstances, in particular, but without limitation, are deemed to be evidence of bad faith whether by registration or use of a Domain Name:

• where a domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark, or another domain name (whether through a deliberate misspelling of a domain name or otherwise);
• where a Registrant has intentionally attempted to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to his website or other online location, by creating a likelihood of confusion with an existing Intellectual Property and/or company, individual, or domain name as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of his website or location or of a product or service on his website or location;
• where the Registrant has registered the domain name primarily for the purpose of disrupting the business of a competitor;
• where a Registrant has registered the domain name in order to prevent the owner of an IP or company from reflecting the name in a corresponding domain name;
• where the Registrant has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and/or
• where the Registrant has registered or have acquired the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to a Third Party who is the owner of the IP or company or to a competitor of that Third Party, for valuable consideration in excess of your documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name.

The BermudaNIC Registry also reserves the right to cancel, suspend, transfer or otherwise make changes to the Domain Name registration:

• where, but not limited to, the following prohibited activities are found or discovered:
  • spamming;
  • intellectual property and privacy violations;
  • obscene speech or materials;
  • defamatory or abusive language;
  • forging headers, return addresses and internet protocol addresses;
  • illegal or unauthorized access to other computers or networks;
  • distribution of internet viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other destructive activities; and,
  • any other illegal or prohibited activities as determined by the Registry.
• in order to protect the integrity and stability of the BermudaNIC Registry and the Government of Bermuda;
• where such Domain Name is placed under reserved names list at any time as required by ICANN Consensus Policy;
• if it is in the best interest of the BermudaNIC Registry and / or the Government of Bermuda, in Registry’s sole discretion; and / or,
• where a Registrant fails to make payment to the BermudaNIC Registry for registration, renewal or any other relevant services.

The Domain Name must not be defamatory, libelous, slanderous, obscene, abusive, offensive, threatening and/or immoral. Whether the Domain Name meets this standard shall be in the sole discretion of the BermudaNIC Registry.

Validation Process

As part of the BermudaNIC Registration process, each domain name application is verified and reviewed which includes:

• a request from The BermudaNIC Registry for the intended use and the nature of business of the Domain Name
• an Internet search of the Domain Name against Third Party Intellectual Property Rights, companies, businesses, or individual persons’ names;
• verification of the Registrants / Domain Account Information including:
  • clear and full details of whether the domain name is either a made-up word, or the name of or acronym for an Individual, Company, Business, or Organization;
  • clear and full details of the business and / or activity associated with the use of the domain name.
  • where a Registrant is an entity, be it a regular Company, Charity, or Organization, documentary evidence must be provided to demonstrate its legal registration.
  • completion of the General Authorization of Agent Form where a “Third Party” person or organization is authorized to manage the Domain Name Account on behalf of the Registrant (including conducting the Domain Name registration or renewal).
  • where a Registrant is an individual, proof of Bermudian Residency and photo ID must be provided.

Reserved Names

The following is a non-exhaustive list of domain names, words, or phrases which shall not be registered (“reserved names”) unless the BermudaNIC Registry agrees otherwise, in its sole and absolute discretion:

• Domain Names which contain a combination of the words “Bermuda”, “Bermudian”, “Government”, “Authority” and / or Official and variations thereof or any other words or numerical characters that might suggest a link to the Government, Governing Body or Local Authority;
• names, words and / or phrases (be they common, generic or otherwise) that are considered to be of national importance or significance to the Government and People of Bermuda (whether historical, geographical or otherwise);
• names which contain words or reference to the British Monarch, the British Crown, or the British Commonwealth and variations thereof, or any other words or non-Latin characters (or a combination of such non-Latin characters) that might suggest a link to the Monarch;
• names which are geographical names or regions, or names of countries (e.g. Caribbean, Africa, France, Malaysia, Japan, etc.) in any language;
• names, words, and / or phrases which, when used individually or collectively as a part of a Domain Name, may convey or is likely to convey, official or exclusive license as a distributor, provider, dealer or owner of a particular good, service, and / or information on the Internet without authorization to do so;
• names, words, phrases, or acronyms which, may risk or is likely to risk, an infringement of a trade mark or trade name, or where the name, word, phrase, or acronym may otherwise cause confusion taking into consideration the name of a well-known individual, business, trade name, or registered IP (be it, a good, service, or information on the Internet);
• names, words, phrases, acronyms and /or inferences which are or may be obscene, scandalous, indecent or contrary to law or morality in any language;
• names, words, phrases, and / or acronyms which are similar or identical to domain names registered under other domain name spaces and which BermudaNIC deems undesirable; or
• names which in BermudaNIC’s sole and absolute opinion, are undesirable or unsuitable for registration; and,
• names, words, phrases, and / or acronyms that may conflict with ICANN's specifications contained in the Registry Agreement, guidelines or recommendations.

Misspelling

The deliberate misspelling of a Domain Name is prohibited whereby an entity deliberately registers a misspelling of a popular Domain Name in order to divert trade or traffic. The BermudaNIC Registry recognizes that a Domain Name that appears to be a prohibited misspelling may not in fact be a prohibited misspelling given the particular circumstances of the case (e.g. where two registrants have very similar company or brand names, or where registrants hold bona fide trade mark, trade name or other rights in such names). The BermudaNIC Registry shall give the Registrant an opportunity to respond to the refusal of the BermudaNIC Registry and provide reasons why the Domain Name is not a prohibited misspelling. The BermudaNIC Registry will consider each case on its own merits without prejudice to any determinations that may be made under the Dispute Policy in relation to the names that have been admitted. A Domain Name may be considered a misspelling if it falls into one or more of the following categories:

• the singular version of a plural name or word;
• the plural version of a singular name or word;
• a name or word with missing letters;
• a name or word with additional letters;
• a name or word with transposed letters;
• a name or word with letters replaced by numbers, or numbers replaced by letters;
• a hyphenated version of a name or word;
• a name or word prefixed by "www";
• any other name or word that the BermudaNIC Registry determines is a deliberate misspelling, having regard to all relevant information.

Second-level Domain

Once a Registrant has identified the purpose of or the activity that would associated with the use of the registered domain name, they can be limited to the following designations:

• .bm: personal / business use;
• .net.bm: small businesses / professional;
• .com.bm: companies / commercial;
• .org.bm / .net.bm / .edu.bm: organizations / professional bodies / education bodies (the Domain Name ".edu.bm" is reserved for valid local Educational Institutions).

The Domain Name ".gov.bm" is reserved for the Government of Bermuda.

Characters

No characters other than a combination of the following characters may be included in a Domain Name Registration:

• letters a through z (no accents of any kind will be accepted). Note that Domain Names are not case sensitive. This means there will be no distinction made between upper case letters and lower case letters;
• the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and/or 9; and,
• the hyphen character (although it cannot be used to start or end a Domain Name);
• Domain Names must be not less than three (3) and not greater than sixty-three (63) characters long.

Country code top-level domain