New '.us' domain names to be available next month

From...

By Brian Sullivan

(IDG) -- Trademark holders have until April 9 to register their company names and slogans under the new ".us" domain naming system, but the general public won't have a crack at registering names until April 24.

Washington-based NeuStar Inc. won the right to administer the names from the U.S. Department of Commerce in October and has been registering names for trademark holders through its contractors since March 4, said Barbara Blackwell, a spokeswoman for NeuStar.

This initial period is designed to allow those people and companies that hold legitimate trademarks to be able to register their property before anyone else.

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"April 24 is when the great American land rush starts," Blackwell said, joking about the day the public can register names. To register for a name, Blackwell said, people can check with the list of accredited registrars on the NeuStar site.

Anyone who can prove they have a bona fide presence in the U.S. can register a name.

In addition to handling the .us domain names, NeuStar also oversees the ".biz" naming system and handles telephone area-code changes in the U.S.

Earlier this month, a federal court issued a temporary order to shut down three British companies that the Federal Trade Commission and the U.K. Office of Fair Trading said were involved in marketing and selling $1 million worth of bogus Internet domain names, including ".brit" and ".usa" Web addresses.