Newsflash

Registrations under top-level .VE available for trademark owners

NICVE, the registry operator for Venezuela, has announced that domain names are now available for registration under the top-level .VE. Until now, only second-level extensions were available such as .COM.VE or .CO.VE and, while there has not been an official launch, trademark owners are entitled to apply for domains matching their trademarks under the top-level .VE. The registry might open the TLD at a later stage.

Please note that applications might take several weeks to be processed.

If you wish to secure your trademark and for further information on documents required and pricing, please contact your Domain Strategist or contact us directly.

GlobalBlock – 2025 Price Adjustment

The Brand Safety Alliance have announced that following the addition of 51 new TLDs this year, bringing the total to over 600 extensions, and in anticipation of the next batch of extensions that will be added, the cost of GlobalBlock and GlobalBlock+ products will increase on 9 January 2025. This price change will apply to both new registrations and renewals. If your current GlobalBlock/+ product is up for renewal before 9 January, or if you’re thinking about getting one, feel free to contact your Domain Strategist to lock in the current rate before the increase takes effect.

NIS2 – Visibility of domain data

Article 28(4) of the NIS2 directive requires domain registrars to make publicly available, without undue delay after the registration of a domain name, the domain name registration data which are not personal data. To comply with this, all domain name holder information for domains sponsored by Com Laude which is not personal data (i.e. the data of a natural person) will now be made publicly available through our Whois and RDAP services.

.AI registry transitioning to Identity Digital

Last week, the Government of Anguilla and Identity Digital announced a new partnership and Identity Digital will become the new backend operator for .AI in January 2025. There is no action required from registrants and the fees will remain the same. We will inform you as soon as there are more details available.

The future of .IO

Earlier this month the United Kingdom and the Republic of Mauritius published a joint statement concerning the Chagos Archipelago, stating that the sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory (the official name for the Chagos Archipelago) will be transferred to Mauritius. You can read the full statement here.

The .IO TLD is the country-code TLD of the British Indian Ocean Territory. This announcement raises questions about the future of .IO because if the British Indian Ocean Territory ceases to exist then this might affect the future of .IO domains. There have not been any announcements on the future of the TLD, but we will inform you if there are any developments.

TWNIC announces the Launch of one-character Chinese IDN registration

TWNIC, the Taiwanese registry, has announced the launch of one-character Chinese IDN under the second level TLDs .TW and .台灣 (.xn--kpry57d), on a first-come, first-served basis as follows:

All phases will start and finish at 10:00 am Taipei time (GMT+8).

Any local or foreign entity, or natural person, can apply, there are no restrictions other than that only one-year registrations will be allowed.

Some terms will be reserved by the registry, and your Domain Strategist can advise on these as well as on domain pricing.

For more information about any of the above, or if you have any questions, contact your Domain Strategist or contact us directly