.CO.NL Operator Unveils Opening Steps

The .CO.NL Operator announces today its official Launch dates for the Grandfather period, Trademark Sunrise, Landrush and Go Live. Anyone willing to secure a .CO.NL domain name will be able to submit their requests through the numerous Registrars that have already partnered with the Operator to allow their customers to benefit from this new alternative. The growing list of current CO.NL partners is available at http://domain.co.nl/en/accredited-registrars.html.

Amsterdam (PRWEB) November 12, 2008 -- Announced last June, the CO.NL extension, offers new opportunities for companies and individuals to get larger visibility and stronger international impact, while keeping a Dutch flavour. Open to anyone, with no requirement of local presence or tie with the Netherlands, a CO.NL Domain is also a great opportunity to increase traffic to a site by customers from countries like the United Kingdom, Japan or Israel.

The .CO.NL opening is divided into two Sunrise phases, preceding the standard Landrush and Go Live periods.

First, the Grandfather period will open on Tuesday November 18th 2008 at 10:00 am GMT. Specifically designed to allow holders of one or more ".NL" domain name(s) to secure its identical form with a ".CO.NL" ending, this option will help ensure stability and continuity in the Dutch namespace. The Grandfather period will end Thursday January 15th 2009 at 10:00 am GMT. For additional security during that time, the Administrative-contact attached to the.NL domain name will be contacted directly to confirm that he wants to benefit from the Grandfather period and get an identical CO.NL Domain Name.

The second Sunrise phase allows Registered Trademarks to be secured in CO.NL. It will last only sixteen days, from Tuesday February 10th 2009 at 10:00 am GMT to the 26th at 10:00 am GMT. As is customary in the domain name industry, this phase will provide applicants holding a registered trademark in any country with the opportunity to register their brands as CO.NL names before the system is open to the general public.

Under specific Partnership with the CO.NL Operator, Deloitte and Laga have agreed to bring their collective expertise - acquired as validation agents with the successful launch of numerous TLDs, including .EU and more recently .Asia - to ensure a smooth running and contribute to the deployment of the best possible sunrise. by assessing .CO.NL requests during the whole steps of the Sunrise Period.

The Landrush Period will be open to anyone without requirements of prior rights and allows customers to get their CO.NL domains sooner than in the general opening. It is also a great opportunity to get generic names before others want to. It will last from Tuesday March 17th 2009 at 2:00 pm GMT until Tuesday March 31st 2009 at 2:00 pm GMT.

Finally, Go Live period will open on Wednesday the 15th of April 2009 at 2:00 pm GMT. Application requests can be made by the general public without any restriction or priority rights, and will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.

In case any dispute arises during the registration processes, the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) has agreed to commit the resources of its Online Dispute Resolution Platform to .CO.NL domain names. Any disputes involving domain names bearing the ".co.nl" ending will be dealt with using CAC's modern online platform and rulings will be based on rules similar to those of the .EU Domains.
If you are interested in allowing your clients to benefit from the .CO.NL extension right away, please contact us at registrar@domain.co.nl.
For more information on .CO.NL, visit the official website: http://domain.co.nl/en/welcome.html

About the operator

The CO.NL Operator was established in 2007 to manage the registration of domains with the .CO.NL ending. The organization operates under the national TLD of Dutch registry SIDN but has no further ties to the foundation. The .CO.NL is directly operated from Amsterdam with the technical back-end of EuroDNS SA, a global Registrar of Internet Domain names.

###