Last week, in "Belgium, Flanders domain names: closing date for priority approaches", Class 46 reported here on registration of the .vlaanderen and .brussels GTLDs. There have been some notable developments since then, as we discovered from Ton van der Reijken (DomainMasters; a member of DNS Belgium), who had received the following information:

At the start of the registrations of the .vlaanderen and .brussels domain names it was pointed out that only Benelux and European (CTM) trade mark holders would be allowed to register their domains during the trade mark sunrise period. I sent in an application for one of our customers based on an International Trademark and that application was refused, stating that only Benelux and European trade marks would be valid. 

The Trade Mark Clearing House (TMCH) noticed this and ICANN was involved, resulting in granting owners of International Trademarks to apply for a .vlaanderen and/or .brussels domain name in a special phase. 

The following guidance has now been prepared by DNS Belgium:

Additional registration period for trade marks registered in the TMCH

Dear registrar,

The TMCH phase for .vlaanderen and .brussels, which ran from 1 September to 1 October 2014, was limited to EU and Benelux trade marks. We decided on this approach after carefully checking the RPM requirements from ICANN concerning this launch phase. However, ICANN has recently raised some questions about this phase, and insists that the phase should have been open to all trade marks registered in the TMCH.

DNS Belgium and ICANN both want to work towards solutions that are beneficial for the prospective registrant, rather than engaging in a legal quarrel about the RPM requirements. DNS Belgium has therefore decided to run an additional TMCH phase, open to all trade marks worldwide. This supplementary phase will run in parallel with the eID phase from 13 November to 15 December and prior to Landrush and GA. Registrations will be made according to the “first come, first served” principle.

This phase will use exactly the same technical setup as the previous TMCH phase, so no additional adaptations are needed. During this phase, a SMD file will again be needed to complete the registration for a certain domain name. The only difference will be that we do not longer restrict the jurisdiction of the SMD file to European Community (EM) or Benelux (BX) trademarks.

If you are a registrar participating in the TMCH phase, you will need to interact with the TMCH database and successfully complete the testing procedures. For more information, please see the ICANN website and the TMCH website.

Registrations during this phase can only be processed via EPP. Please consult the quickstart guides on our .vlaanderen or .brussels registrar sites.

If you are a reseller, we advise you to contact the ICANN-accredited registrar you chose, for more information.

Kind regards, DNS Belgium