Liberalisation
of PT Domain Names
On
23 February 2012, the FCCN (Foundation for National Scientific Computing)
announced a new version of the “Regulations for registration of .PT Domains”,
which will come into force tomorrow, 1 March 2012.
The
previous regulations limited the registration of .PT domain names to legal
entities, sole proprietors, liberal professionals and trade mark owners (the
trade mark sign had to be verbal and completely identical to the domain name. As
for the remaining entities, there was greater flexibility and certain
abbreviations were accepted). The new regulations open the registration of .PT
domains to any natural or legal person,
without the need to have a prior right.
The
new regulations will not take effect immediately. In fact, the FCCN has
established a so called “Sunrise Period” during the first 60 days of the
regulations – i.e. until 1 May 2012 – in order to protect owners of formally
obtained rights, namely public bodies, firms, company names, trade marks and
other distinctive signs, copyright and professional, and literary or artistic
names. During this period, it will be possible to register names that are
completely identical to the registered rights (public bodies and legal persons
will also be allowed to register abbreviations or acronyms) as .PT domains.
When
the sunrise period finishes, the liberalisation of the .PT domains will finally
occur. However, the new regulations will not result in
a total lack of protection for trade mark owners. The new regulations maintain
the former prohibition on registration of .PT domain names if there is a
likelihood of confusion with well known trade marks or trade marks with a
reputation.
The
end of the ‘.net.pt’, ‘.int.pt’, ‘.publ.pt’ and ‘.name.pt’ subdomains
The
new regulations also introduce changes to the registration of .PT subdomains,
with the FCCN having decided to stop accepting the registration of the
‘.net.pt’, ‘.int.pt’, ‘.publ.pt’ and ‘.name.pt’ subdomains. This change will
not affect the registration of any domains made under the previous regulations.
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