dotAsia sunrise period

A few local domainers have expressed interest in joining the .ASIA sunrise  for trademarks and registered companies.  If you're interested, please send me a private email at jed@i.ph, and we will contact you once we are ready. 

Here is the latest info from DotAsia:

.ASIA Sunrise Period for Trademark Holders to Launch in September  
The dotAsia registry has released a draft launch schedule for the new .ASIA top-level domain name, as well as proposed registration requirements and processes for trademark holders and other organizations before registrations become available to the general public in next year’s Land Rush. 

The Phase I Sunrise Period is expected to begin in mid-2007 with registrations for local government agencies, followed by Phase II in September for trademark holders. The registry has indicated that companies may be asked to provide such details as owner name, trademark name, filling date, registration date, trademark class and type, and country of registration, but has not confirmed if copies of documents will be needed.

The Phase II Sunrise Period will have three stages:

• Reserved for trademarks applied for before March 16, 2004 and registered at the time of the domain name application.
• Reserved for trademarks applied before December 6, 2006 and registered at the time of the domain name application.
• Reserved for trademarks applied for during phases "a" and "b" with the actual class description. For example, Trademark ABC registered under a class for chemical goods could apply for the domain name “ABCchemicals.asia.” More than one application will be possible based on the number of classes in which a given trademark is registered.

The Phase III Sunrise Period for legal entities is tentatively scheduled for November 2007. The registry has indicated that a copy of a business registration certificate will be required and posted on the WHOIS for third party objections and challenges, but details have yet to be finalized.

Much as .EU is restricted to members of the European Union, at least one of the contacts for .ASIA domain names will be required to have a presence in one of the 73 countries defined by ICANN as being part of the Asia-Pacific region, including India and China as well as Australia and Japan. Global Reach estimates that more than 64 percent of Internet users are non-English speakers and that Asian languages alone make up 33 percent of the online population. While current gTLDs tend to focus on a vertical group (e.g. commercial entities, network providers, organizations, etc.), .ASIA is designed to allow organizations and individuals to demonstrate membership in the Asian community.