.ME Domain Registration

Because .ME is about YOU! .ME has incredible potential for Internet users world-wide. Think about it, with a .ME domain, the Internet will, quite simply, be all about YOU. For the first time in Internet history, domain names are essentially personal.

About .ME

.Me is expected to be utilized as both a personalized Web address and as a catchy business marketing tool around the world, initially in English followed by localized and standards compliant International Domain Names in, for example, Spanish, Italian, and Montenegrin.

Reliable

Technically, in the daily operations of the domain, there is no distinction between .Me and generic TLDs such as .com, .org and country specific TLDs. .Me.s registry services provided by Afilias who operate world-class technology supporting some of the largest generic TLDs in the world such as .info and .org

Unique

.Me is unique in that unlike other public domains. .Me can, and does, define it own policies designed to safeguard the integrity of the domain. 

Exclusive

One such policy is the eligibility check of registrants. In most other public Internet domains, names are registered on a first come first served basis, with no requirements that registrants meet any registration criteria.By contrast in .Me as part of the registration process you must obtain a .Me ID. This unique validity process screens potential domain registrants ensuring that they are valid members of the community. Thus maintaining the the integrity and exclusivity of the .Me domain, whilst removing the potential of "cyber squatters" and domain name speculators.

.ME Domain Registrar

Names Beyond is among the internet.s leading ICANN accredited registrars and has been authorized to register .Me domain names exclusively to individuals and companies that work within the fields of Mespace and avionics. Many of the world.s leading aviation brand owners come to Names Beyond to manage their brand online.

.ME FAQ

1. What is the rollout schedule?
2. What domain names are not available in the rollout?
3. Who is eligible to apply for a domain during the Montenegrin Sunrise?
4. Who is eligible to apply for a domain during the General Sunrise period?
5. What are the Sunrise requirements and restrictions?
6. What is the process of applying for a domain during Sunrise?
7. How will Sunrise names be awarded?
8. What are the registration terms for domains registered during the Sunrise period?
9. How and when will Sunrise billing take place?
10. Will applications be visible in the WHOIS?
11. Will the .ME Registry review Sunrise applications?
12. Will registrars have access to cancel Sunrise or Land Rush applications?
13. What is the Sunrise dispute process?
14. When can I start using a domain registered during the Sunrise Period?
15. What trademark data is required in Sunrise? What are the details for those fields and the EPP commands?
16. Will registrars be able to access the registry during the Quiet Periods?
17. Who is eligible to apply for a domain during the Land Rush?
18. What are the registration terms for domains registered during the Landrush period?
19. What are the Landrush restrictions?
20. How will Landrush names be awarded?
21. How and when will Landrush billing take place?
22. Will Landrush applications be visible in the WHOIS?
23. What is Open Registration?
24. What dispute process will be used for names registered in Landrush and Open Registration?

1. What is the rollout schedule?

   May 1 15:00 UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) - May 6 17:00 UTC: Montenegrin Sunrise

   May 6 17:00 UTC - May 20 17:00 UTC: General Sunrise

   May 20 17:00 UTC - June 6 15:00 UTC: Quiet Period

   June 6 15:00 UTC - June 26 17:00 UTC: Land Rush

   June 26 17:00 UTC - July 17 15:00 UTC: Quiet Period

   July 17 15:00 UTC: Open Registration

   
   

2. What domain names are not available in the rollout?

   Please see our Policies page for links to the lists of Reserved and Premium names.

   
   

3. Who is eligible to apply for a domain during the Montenegrin Sunrise?

   Montenegrin entities, such as Montenegrin companies or citizens, who own a current registered trademark or service mark applied for prior to June 28, 2006 are eligible to apply for a second-level domain name during the Montenegrin Sunrise period. Montenegrin Sunrise applications may be submitted exclusively at www.registruj.me.

   
   

4. Third-level domain names are open to Montenegrin entities only.  Third-level names -- in co.me, org.me, etc. -- are not subject to the Sunrise process.  Third-level domains may be registered by Montenegrin entities on a first-come, first-served basis beginning on May 1.   Third-level domain names may be submitted exclusively at www.registruj.me.

   
   

5. Who is eligible to apply for a domain during the General Sunrise period?

   Owners of any current registered trademark or service mark applied for prior to June 28, 2006 are eligible to apply for a second-level domain name during the Sunrise period. Applicants from around the world (including Montenegrin entities) may apply in this period. Applicants should apply through an accredited registrar. 

   
   

6. What are the Sunrise requirements and restrictions?

   Please see the Sunrise Challenge Policy. Registrars and registrants who participate in the Sunrise are expected to become intimately familiar with the Sunrise eligibility criteria. Especially note section 4 (and its footnotes) of the Sunrise Policy. It describes what trademarks are eligible, and how they can be represented in second-level domain names.

   An overview of the basic eligibility rules:

   1. At the time of your registration of the Domain Name, a current (non-expired) trademark or service mark must be registered in your name; and
   2. The Domain Name must be identical to the textual or word elements of the trademark or service mark registration on which the registration of your Domain Name is based, and
   3. The trademark or service mark registration on which the registration of your Domain Name is based must be of national effect, and
   4. The trademark or service mark on which the registration of your Domain Name was based must have been registered or applied for prior to 28 June 2006 with the trademark authority with which the mark is registered.

   Registrars are reminded that they must submit accurate data, and that registrant data needs to reflect the trademark owner.

   It is registry policy that registrations by proxy, or employing proxy registration contact data, are NOT allowed during the Sunrise Period or the Landrush period. A registration by proxy or proxy registration during either of these periods will be seen as a material breach of the Registry-Registrar Agreement.

   
   

7. What is the process of applying for a domain during Sunrise?

   Trademark and service mark holders interested in registering their marks during the Sunrise Period should contact their preferred .ME Registry-authorized registrar to submit their name applications.

   See below for the trademark data that registrars will need to submit with each Sunrise application.

   The .ME Registry will not charge registrars to submit Sunrise applications. Registrars are free to set their own retail prices to applicants.

   
   

8. How will Sunrise names be awarded?

   In the Sunrise periods, different parties may submit applications for the same domain name. (In other words, it is not a first-come-first-served process.) At the end of the Sunrise, the applications will be examined. If there is only one application for a domain name, the domain name will be awarded to that applicant. If two or more parties apply for a domain name, those parties will enter an auction for the domain name. The domain name will be allocated to the auction winner.

   Please see the Auction Rules for full details about auctions.

   Applications from the Montenegrin Sunrise and the General Sunrise will be pooled together. If an applicant from the Montenegrin Sunrise and the General Sunrise both apply for the same domain name, they will compete against each other in the auction.

   
   

9. What are the registration terms for domains registered during the Sunrise period?

   Sunrise domains may be registered for a registration term of a minimum of five years, and up to a maximum of ten years.

   
   

10. How and when will Sunrise billing take place?

    If a name was auctioned, the auctioneer will collect the auction’s realized price from the auction winner. The name will be allocated after the auctioneer has confirmed payment from the auction winner.

    Registrars will be billed for the domain’s registration at the time it is officially awarded (allocated) to the applicant. The registrar will bill the registrant for the Sunrise registration.

    Applicants should therefore know that if a name is auctioned, they will be assessed the auction price in addition to the basic registration.

    Please see the Auction Rules for details.

    
    

11. Will applications be visible in the WHOIS?

    No -- Sunrise and Land Rush application records will not be visible in the WHOIS. Auction participants will not be given the identities or contact data for competing auction participants. Only awarded names will be visible in the WHOIS. However, registrars will be able to look up the applications they submitted via EPP and the registry Web Admin Tool.

    
    

12. Will the .ME Registry review Sunrise applications?

    In order to minimize potential fraud in connection with the .ME Sunrise process, doMEn will engage the services of a trusted third party to audit the Sunrise applications to identify potential non-compliant applications. If an application whose compliance with the Sunrise terms and conditions is considered suspect, the applicant will be asked to provide further proof of his or her qualifying trademark rights. Failure to provide this documentation in a timely fashion will result in the application being rejected. Notwithstanding this audit process, any third party that still believes a successful Sunrise applicant is in non-compliance will have opportunity to challenge that domain name through the Sunrise Challenge process (see below).

    
    

13. Will registrars have access to cancel Sunrise or Land Rush applications?

    No – applications will be locked upon submission. Note that the registry will not charge registrars to submit applications. Sunrise applications may not be moved to Land Rush.

    
    

14. What is the Sunrise dispute process?

    doMEn intends on utilizing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to provide Sunrise Challenge dispute resolution services in connection with .ME Sunrise. The .ME Sunrise Challenge process will be modeled after the successful .MOBI Sunrise process which WIPO also administered. doMEn and WIPO will endeavor to have the .ME Sunrise documents finalized in the near future.

    Challenges may be filed with WIPO during the Sunrise Challenge Period, which begins on Monday, 9 June 2008, and ends on Monday, 7 July 2008.

    Please see the Sunrise Challenge Policy and Sunrise Challenge Rules for full details.

    
    

15. When can I start using a domain registered during the Sunrise Period?

    Names registered during the Sunrise Period will be locked at the time of application for verification and challenge purposes. While locked they cannot be updated or transferred. They will be unlocked after the Sunrise Challenge period ends on 7 July 2008; the exact date of the unlocking will be announced by the .ME Registry. Names challenged according to Sunrise Challenge procedures will remain locked for dispute resolution.

    The only exceptions are for transfers required as a result of a successful Sunrise Challenge or an order from a court of competent jurisdiction.

    
    

16. What trademark data is required in Sunrise? What are the details for those fields and the EPP commands?

    After the Sunrise period concludes, these fields become optional. A .ME registrar will be able to update existing trademark information but cannot remove or substitute it with null values.

    To submit a domain name application in Sunrise, registrars must submit the following mandatory intellectual property information associated with the domain name application. Five trademark data fields are mandatory in Sunrise. This data is required in order to successfully create a Sunrise name. Registrars can submit applications via EPP or the registry Web Administrative Tool.

    Sample EPP commands are available in the readme.ipr file in the Registrar Toolkit (RTK) (Liberty RTK add-on package) available for download at: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=26675

    Leading and trailing spaces are not allowed.

    Field Name	Content	EPP extension
    Trademark Name	Insert the textual or word elements of the trademark here, as it appears on the trademark certificate or as nearly as possible. (For example, “Cadbury Creme Egg” or “AT&T”.) This field can accept ASCII letters and numbers, spaces, and these characters: .,&#()-_'~`!@$%^*+={ }[ ]|:;<>?/"</. Other characters are not allowed (for example: ö, è, Ø, Σ, etc.).	<ipr:name>example</ipr:name>
    Trademark Number	Insert the trademark’s REGISTRATION number here. Note that a trademark application number may be different from the trademark’s registration number. This field can accept ASCII letters and numbers, spaces, and these characters: .,&#()-_'~`!@$%^*+={ }[ ]|:;<>?/"</	<ipr:number>A1234</ipr:number>
    Date Trademark Applied For	Date in yyyy-mm-dd format. Insert the date that the trademark office received or logged in the application. Many trademark offices call this the “Filing Date.” If not listed on the trademark certificate, the information should be available from the trademark office, especially if it offers an online database.	<ipr:appDate>2004-08-08</ipr:appDate>
    Date Trademark Registered	Date in yyyy-mm-dd format. Insert the date that the trademark office formally granted the trademark. Many trademark offices call this the “Registration Date.”	<ipr:regDate>2005-09-30</ipr:regDate>
    Trademark Country	This is the country or national jurisdiction in which the trademark was registered. Use two-character codes from the posted list of permitted jurisdictions.	<ipr:ccLocality>eu</ipr:ccLocality>
    Trademark type	This can either be “sunrise” or “landrush” depending on the phase the registry is in.  If "landrush" is submitted during the  Sunrise period, the application will be rejected by the EPP server. If "sunrise" is submitted during the  Landrush period, the application will be rejected by the EPP server.	<ipr:type>sunrise</ipr:type>

17. Who is eligible to apply for a domain during the Land Rush?

    Anyone is eligible, and no trademarks are required. Applicants should apply through an accredited registrar.

     

18. What are the registration terms for domains registered during the Landrush period?

    Landrush domains may be registered for a registration term of a minimum of two years, and up to a maximum of ten years.

    
    

19. What are the Landrush restrictions?

    It is registry policy that registrations by proxy, or employing proxy registration contact data, are NOT allowed during the Sunrise Period or the Landrush period. A registration by proxy or proxy registration during either of these periods will be seen as a material breach of the Registry-Registrar Agreement.

    
    

20. How will Landrush names be awarded?

    Via auction, using the same general award process used for Sunrise names. In the Landrush period, different parties may submit applications for the same domain name. (In other words, it is not a first-come-first-served process.) At the end of the Landrush, the applications will be examined. If there is only one application for a domain name, the domain name will be awarded to that applicant. If two or more parties apply for a domain name, those parties will enter an auction for the domain name. The domain name will be allocated to the auction winner.

    Please see the Auction Rules for full details about auctions.

    
    

21. How and when will Landrush billing take place?

    If a name was auctioned, the auctioneer will collect the auction’s realized price from the auction winner. The name will be allocated after the auctioneer has confirmed payment from the auction winner.

    Registrars will be billed for the domain’s registration at the time it is officially awarded (allocated) to the applicant. The registrar will bill the registrant for the Landrush registration.

    Applicants should therefore know that if a name is auctioned, they will be assessed the auction price in addition to the basic registration.

    Please see the Auction Rules for details.

    
    

22. Will Landrush applications be visible in the WHOIS?

    No -- Sunrise and Landrush application records will not be visible in the WHOIS. Auction participants will not be given the identities or contact data for competing auction participants. Only awarded names will be visible in the WHOIS. However, registrars will be able to look up the applications they submitted via EPP and the registry Web Admin Tool.

    
    

23. What is Open Registration?

    In Open Registration, registrations are made on a first-come, first-served basis. Anyone is eligible to register names in this period. Contact an accredited .ME registrar to make your registration.

    
    

24. What dispute process will be used for names registered in Landrush and Open Registration?

    The Uniform Dispute Resolution Process (UDRP).