Halfway through the Sunrise, with 20,000 applications submitted, DotAsia Organisation slash Landrush prices, commence auctions and extend deadlines.

Landrush Pricing

To promote applications under the .ASIA Landrush, which commences on 20 February 2008, DotAsia Organisation have announced that every registrant of an application that is successfully submitted on the first day will receive a discount of 50% on the $20 official registration fee, a saving of $10.

As anyone, anywhere in the world can submit a Landrush application provided they can supply a so-called Charter Eligibility Contact who is a legal entity in one of the 73 countries covered by .ASIA, this offer should prove attractive to the many thousands of hopefuls who are lining up applications for generic terms.

Multiple competing applications under the Landrush will go to auction, with the highest bidder winning the name.

We are charging £50 to submit a Landrush application plus the official fees as described above. If you want us to apply for you on the first day, please ensure that you send your Landrush applications to us in good time, no later than close of business (GMT) on Monday 18 February 2008. Our .ASIA Landrush application form can be found in the resources section of our website at www.comlaude.com.

Sunrise Auctions Begin

The auction process for terms that more than one organisation has applied for under the .ASIA Sunrise begins in the second week of January 2008.

If one of your applications qualifies for an auction you will be notified at this time and given at least 10 days preparation time before the auction commences. An English Auction model is being used, with the winner being the highest bidder. Auctions will run for a maximum of seven days or until 24 hours has passed since the last bid. You can view the details and challenge the eligibility of other bidders before an auction starts. However, you will not know who you are bidding against in a live auction, if faced with more than one competitor, because all bids will be masked with an alias.

All bids start at USD $0. Bids will then be established on a first come first served basis. For a bid to be successful it will need to be at least one increment higher than the current auction price. A proxy bid may be set and the system will automatically bid incrementally on behalf of the auction participant up to their submitted proxy bid.

There is a requirement to pay to Pool.com, which is running all .ASIA auctions, a winning bid within seven days. We have lobbied DotAsia for a much longer timeframe and are delighted that we have won some flexibility. Pool.com has written to us saying, “Invoices will be provided and payees not being able to remit payment to Pool.com within the specified timeframe will have to contact Pool directly. Cases will be evaluated on an individual basis. We will be flexible on the timing with confirmed participants.”

If you require assistance in running an auction, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Confirmation of Registration

A large proportion of the .ASIA Sunrise 2a applications have now been processed by Deloitte, the Validators appointed by DotAsia Organisation. Of the 1,000 + names we submitted in phase 2a, 80% have been successfully registered.

Extension to Sunrise phases 2b, 2c and 3

After feedback from Registrars, DotAsia have announced an extension to phases 2b, 2c and 3 of the .ASIA Sunrise, which are now running concurrently. Instead of ending on 15 January 2008 they will all now end two weeks later on 31 January 2008.

This is what you need to remember about these three phases:

Phase SR2b is the General Sunrise for owners of registered trade marks applied for on or before 6 December 2006.

Phase SR2c offers Extended Protection for trade mark owners: applicants who have already applied or who qualify under SR2a and SR2b may apply for a domain which includes the mark and relevant words found in the class description of the mark. For example, we might push together “Com Laude” plus “Domain Names” and apply for comlaudedomainnames.asia.

Phase SR3 is for owners of registered companies in the Asia region incorporated on or before 6 December 2006.

If you would like our assistance in applying, please ensure that your contact us no later than close of business (GMT) on Friday 25 January 2008.

Celebrity and Social Pioneers

Should you be involved in the protection of the rights of well-known or famous people, you may also be interested in the DotAsia Celebrity Pioneer Programme that they are launching together with a similar scheme for not-for-profit organisations called the Social Pioneer Programme. We understand that the full details will be available in early January 2008. There are just two paragraphs of information available so far: go to http://pioneer.domains.asia/.