Info About .UK Domain Names

After a period of  discussion, .UK domain names are being brought to the market soon by Nominet. We’ve all heard of the .co.uk ccTLD, and later this summer, people will be able to purchase the shorter .uk domain names. There are grandfathering rules in place to protect the owners of other .uk domain names, and once that is all sorted out, .UK domain names will be available for others to purchase later

I received a marketing email from 101Domain this morning, and since I am not all that up to speed on this market, I thought I would share the procedure and some of the rules the company shared in the email blast:

Grandfathering:

This pre-registration phase is for existing customers who already have a .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk or . plc.uk registered before 23:59 UTC October 28, 2013. .Co.uk takes precedence if there is more than one request.

Existing owners have until 07:59 UTC June 10, 2019 to activate their equivalent .UK domain through this phase. Pre-registrations will be submitted to the registry on June 10 at 08:00 UTC.

Right to Reserve: New registrations of a .co.uk made before 08:00 UTC June 10, 2014 will get the rights to a new .UK domain provided there is no equivalent under org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, ltd.uk or .plc.uk. After launch new registrations within the .co.uk, .org.uk,. etc. no longer get automatic rights to register the new .UK.

General Availability

Anyone wanting a new .uk domain, where there are no existing domains of the same name with rights (.co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, ltd.uk or .plc.uk), will simply be able to register the new .uk domain.

Please check here if the domain you wish to register has existing rights: http://www.dotuklaunch.org.uk/rights-lookup-tool. See Grandfathering phase for further details on reserved domains.within the .co.uk, .org.uk,. etc. no longer get automatic rights to register the new .UK.

Because a UK address is required to register .UK domain names, 101 Domain and other likely other registrars offer what they call a “trustee service” for registrants who live outside of the area.

If you are interested in ccTLD domain names, perhaps .UK is an opportunity you will want to explore. Although I shared the 101Domain marketing email (for my convenience), you can buy them at most domain registrars.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

6 COMMENTS

  1. Unless it’s an absolute premium name, this is yet another ‘investment’ avenue to avoid IMO. .Co.uk’s aren’t a big seller of the aftermarket as far as I can tell.

  2. Agreed, it should be a totally top name otherwise don’t even bother. These extensions seem like they’re going to thin out the market a ton.

    However, it might be good for some of those big companies looking to create brand name URLS. For an investment point of view, not so sure. There are tons of extensions…

    Oh, but the premium names.. soooo expensive! I’d wait till the domain names become cheaper, muuuuch cheaper.

  3. When .co.uk were good for somebody targeting the local market (research shows their higher believability than .com), .uk makes it simpler and “more to the point.”
    Not to be underestimated…

  4. .UK Definitely not to be underestimated. .co.uk sales tailed off until the .uk was a done deal, category cluster reg’s to carry (persist) common brand elements looks interesting.

  5. “Existing owners have until 07:59 UTC June 10, 2019 to activate their equivalent .UK domain through this phase.”

    2019? Okay, well so much for any of the ones I was looking at…

    Meanwhile you should be able to find Great Britain whois in .US domains frequently if you look…

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