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Release of domain names from Registro.br and its consequences

Every five months Registro.br goes through a process of releasing of all the registered .BR domain names that have not been renewed by their owners. These domain names are made available in the market to be registered again. The process of releasing takes 15 days, when any person can order a ticket and request registry of the domain name to be released. In case the domain name registry has more than one suitor, it is not released to be registered and is automatically transferred to the next release process.

Registro.br has wisely created an alternative to solve the dispute: in case one of the suitors owns the registered trade mark at INPI or has been using a company name contained in the web address for more than 12 months, they may request from Registro.br an analysis for the concession of the registry despite the contestants. We can evaluate the consequences of this policy concerning the two main types of registry: brand domain names and generic domain names.

The registry of a domain name in which a brand name is contained is usually regularly renewed, unless the company has gone bankrupt or out of business. Therefore, the brand name domains hardly ever go into the release process and even when they do, they are not very disputed, since the brand name is valuable only for its owner. On the other hand, the generic domain names are highly disputed. The dispute owes to the appearance of Yahoo and Google's Sponsored Links and the partners networks. These networks allow any domain owner to make money by inserting ads in their website.

Registering generic domain names is perfect for this kind of business model because they allow "Direct type-in", that is, instead of searching for content via search engine, the user tries typing in the browser an address that might feature what they are looking for. As internet users become more knowledgeable, direct type-in traffic may become very intense at generic domain names. That is why domain names such as sex.com or business.com sold for millions.

It may be noted from Registro.br 's last processes of releasing that the most relevant generic domain names are never made available in the market, since they are always being disputed by more than one suitor.

The consequence of the current concession policy within Registro.br 's releasing processes is that dozens of thousands of important domain names cannot be used by the market. Domain names such as voip.com.br or cursophp.com.br may never be released.

Since domain registry and its resolution is one of the pillars that support the existence and development of the web, it would be convenient to make domains available as easily as possible. As to the releasing process, my suggestion is that the domain name be made immediately available in the market in case the owner does not renew its registry.

This is the policy adopted by other Registries, including VeriSign. If a domain name is not renewed, it is immediately made available in the market on a first come, first served basis.

This article does not aim at criticizing Registro.br 's excellent performance, it only suggests in a constructive way that the release process be simpler and less bureaucratic.

For more info on the release process and a list of the domain names featured in the last processes, visit http://www.nomer.com.br /processoliberacao/

For more info on Registro.br 's policy, visit: http://registro.br/info /proclib.htm