New internet real estate became available Tuesday with the launch of the .asia domain name. As the newest so-called top-level website suffix, on par with .com and .net, the domain is expected to become highly sought after as businesses seek to lock up Asia-specific internet addresses.
Trademark holders have a "sunrise" period, until Jan. 15, 2008, to register their domain names. After Nov. 15, 2007, companies in Asia that do not have a trademark but which were incorporated before Dec. 6, 2006, can join the registration process. The general public can then purchase any unregistered domains as of February, when they go on sale to the highest bidder. Then, beginning in March, the addresses will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Experts have said that companies looking to protect their trademarks in Asia will be the most interested in snapping up the domain names. Addresses can go for as little as a few dollars and up to hundreds.
The .asia domain has been in the works since 2000, and the DotAsia Organisation won approval for it in October 2006. It is the second region-specific domain to go on sale after .eu went live in April 2006. Region-specific domains for Africa and Latin America are expected to follow.
Domain names are administered by the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Although the new domains will be offered using the Latin alphabet, ICANN is testing a system that will allow addresses to be written in local alphabets, including Arabic, Persian, simplified and traditional Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Hebrew, Japanese and Tamil.
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