Your (un)fair advantage

Cyrillic domain names now available in the Russian Federation
2/12/2009

The Russian Registry recently announced the release of IDN domain names under .РФ (the Cyrillic ccTLD for the Russia Federation) from November 25, 2009 to March 25, 2010 (Sunrise Domain Registrations) for owners of Cyrillic Russian trade marks.

Prior to this most recent development governments, companies and individuals could register domain names based on different languages only in Latin transliteration. The current Internet domain system will go much further by allowing Cyrillic characters in a URL.

The first stage of registration started on November 25, 2009 and will continue until March 25, 2010. Only government organizations and owners of officially recognized trade marks - there are at least eight thousand trade marks owners in Russia - will be allowed to apply for a .РФ address during the first month. Only trade mark holders can submit a Sunrise registration application.

If two or more owners of the same trade mark submit applications for the same domain within the Sunrise registration period, the domain will be registered in the name of the first applicant who has fulfilled the registration terms and conditions.

Non-residents may submit Sunrise registration applications if they are holders of a registered trade mark under the national procedure in the Russian Federation or international procedure with Russia being one of the designated countries. Trade mark owners applying for .РФ domain names will be required to submit the following:

• Russian trade mark number or International trade mark number (confirming protection in the Russian Federation);
• trade mark certificate; and
• Applicant’s company registration certificate together with the applicant's company seal.

Under the .РФ ccTLD, only characters in the Cyrillic alphabet, numbers and hyphens will be allowed. No Latin or other characters will be allowed.

It will take approximately 10 days to verify the application.

РФ domains have a yearly registration term and are renewable each year.


Adams & Adams
Steven Yeates
2 December 2009


  Featured Act Contract law: non-variation clauses in contracts not always enforceable
As long ago as 1964 the Supreme Court of Appeal laid down a principle which has consistently been applied in our law of contract. The so-called Shifren principle provides that a contractual non-variation clause is valid and effectively entrenches both itself and all other terms of the contract against an oral variation thereof. Simply put, where such a non-variation clause appears in a contract, no variation or amendment thereof will be valid or binding between the parties unless they have reduced such variation or amendment to writing. In most instances, non-variation clauses also require that the variation/amendment so reduced to writing must be signed by both parties and/or their representatives. 		  Featured Case Law Valentino Globe BV vs Phillips & another 1998 (3) SA 775 (SCA)
In this case, however, it was held that, if the trade mark application relied on was without substance or for some reason invalid, that application does not qualify as a person aggrieved. 		  Related People Steven Yeates
Partner
Trade Mark Attorney
Tel: +27 (0) 12 432 6127
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The firm practises directly in several Southern African countries and through long-established associates in others.