On Monday, September 1st, DNS Belgium is launching the new .BRUSSELS and .VLAANDEREN extensions.
Here is some information that you will need to know in order to register a domain under one of these two new TLDs:
1. The Sunrise period: from September 1st to October 1st, 2014.
During this period, trademark holders registered with Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) may register a .BRUSSLES or .VLAANDEREN domain name if the trademark in question:
- is a trademark registered with the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (OBPI), or
- is a community trademark registered with OHMI in Alicante
Simply having the trademark registered with TMCH is therefore not enough to assure the right to register a domain in one of these extensions during this phase.
The principle of assignment is rather conventional in that it takes the form of "first-come, first-served". The registration cost is €445.13 excl. VAT per year under A rates. Once this period has ended, there will be two other periods.
2. The registration period restricted to the private and public sector, as well as associations: from October 2nd to November 3rd 2014.
During this period, it will be possible to register a .BRUSSELS or .VLAANDEREN for the following entities:
- institutions and bodies belonging to national, regional, provincial and local government bodies
- public authorities, organizations or bodies
- European, international and intergovernmental organizations.
Suppose that you are member of an association and would like to make a registration request during this period; This would be possible, though you would need to provide documents to the Registry before your registration could be completed.
In the event that there multiple requests for the same domain name, an auction will take place. The rules for this auction will soon be published on the website of DNS Belgium at http://www.nic.brussels/
If you would like to participate in this phase, you will need to chose the "Landrush" registration type between October 2nd and December 3rd, 2014.
The cost of registration during this period: €145.13 excl. VAT per year, under A rates.
3. The limited registration period that is only available to Belgians runs from November 13th to December 15th, 2014.
Any Belgian national that has a Belgian electronic ID card may make a registration request, whether or not he or she resides in Brussels.
However, only domain names containing the first and last name of the applicant will be accepted.
For example, if your name is René Magritte, you would be able to register one of the following combinations:
magritte.brussels: last name
magritterene.brussels: last name + first name
renemagritte.brussels: first name + last name
magritter.brussels: last name + first initial
rmagritte.brussels: first initial + last name
Some accented characters are authorized, so renémagritte.brussels would also be a valid request for example.
You must first go to the Registry's website at nic.brussels and use the e-ID-Wizard.
Once your eID has been validated, a reservation code will be sent to you by the Registry. Please save this code, since you must send it to Gandi's customer support in order to complete your registration.
This code is only valid for 7 days, so you will want to be sure to act quickly. If you miss the deadline, you will need to start the process over from the beginning, and hope that someone with the same name does not get it before you, since it is still sold on the first-come, first-served basis.
UPDATE: If you would like to participate in third phase, you will need to chose the "Landrush" registration phase type between November 13th and December 15th 2014. Your order will then change its state to "error", while waiting for the reception of your e-ID, which will be validated by our support team.
If you do not provide this before the end of the phase, the operation will be automatically cancelled on December 16th!
The cost of registration during this period is €1.50 excl. VAT for one year, under A rates.
4. The Landrush period: from December 16th to January 15th, 2015.
No special eligibility criteria is required for this phase. In the event that there are two requests for the same domain name, the registry will perform an auction.
The cost of registration during this period is €145.13 excl. VAT for one year, under A rates.
5. General opening: January 20th, 2015
The dates and times of opening are subject to change at the discretion of the Registry. Please don't hesitate in consulting their website for any additional information.
The cost of registration during this period is €38.25 excl. VAT per year, under A rates.
