.ASIA Landrush Ends March 12, 2008

Foley & Lardner LLP warns that the Landrush period for .ASIA will end on March 12, 2008 (Hong Kong time). Following the Landrush period, .ASIA domain names will go live on March 26, 2008 and domain name registrations will continue on a first-come, first-served basis.

According to Foley,

[R]egistering the .ASIA domains now that are most important to your business will help deter registration of such domain names by cybersquatters who may register and use such domain names in a bad faith attempt to trade upon the goodwill associated with your brands. Although .ASIA domains are governed by ICANN, and thus subject to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, it is more cost-effective to register these domains now rather than attempting to recover them from third parties later.

The only requirement to be eligible to register a .ASIA domain name is that at least one of the domain contacts associated with the domain must be an existing and current legal entity in the DotAsia community, which includes more than 70 countries (specified by ICANN). Because this requirement can be satisfied using an ICANN-accredited registrar located in one of those countries (which Foley routinely uses on behalf of its clients), you do not need to have a physical company address in the defined DotAsia community to acquire a .ASIA domain name.