First dibs on .kiwi domain names

After more than two years of planning, Dot Kiwi Ltd. (Dot Kiwi) has opened up its exclusive registration period for trademark holders, known as the Sunrise period.  

Trademark holders have until March 17 to secure their trademark as a .kiwi domain name. Following this date Dot Kiwi will review the applications, and for domain names with only one valid applicant Dot Kiwi will immediately register the domain name. If there are multiple trademark holding applicants for the same domain name, all parties will be invited to bid for the domain name. 

.kiwi is one of the hundreds of new domain names, known as generic top level domain names (gTLDs), launching online. In mid-March .kiwi will become one of the first in the world to officially launch to the public, meaning all New Zealanders will be able to register .kiwi domain names and immediately activate them. 

Tim Johnson, CEO of Dot Kiwi, says individuals and businesses are getting excited to activate .kiwi domain names in the coming months and the Sunrise period is designed specifically to protect the rights of trademark holders. 

“We know New Zealand businesses around the globe have been waiting to purchase .kiwi domain names, which means in some instances more than one trademark holder might exist for a certain name. The Sunrise period gives everyone a level playing field to make sure they can get the domain names they want,” says Johnson. 

To qualify for the Sunrise period, companies need to register their trademark with the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), an international entity created by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to protect the rights of trademark holders during and after the launch of new domain names such as .kiwi.

Robert Rolls, Commercial and Finance Director of Digiweb, welcomes the introduction of further choice for businesses and consumers in New Zealand and globally with the launch of this exciting new domain name.

“The Sunrise period is a critical phase for trademark owners to head off any potential cybersquatting risk when .kiwi domains become more widely available during the General Availability phase,” says Rolls. 

Trademark holders wanting to take advantage of the Sunrise period should visit https://dot-kiwi.com/sunrise or http://www.trademark-clearinghouse.com.