City names registration

[Takwa]

Hi

hope people here can help me.
Q. Can we register city names? Because i saw barcelona.com was transferred to the city authorities while mexico.com was not, and i always see lots of city names domain being sold?

 

[Beasty]

Hi

hope people here can help me.
Q. Can we register city names? Because i saw barcelona.com was transferred to the city authorities while mexico.com was not, and i always see lots of city names domain being sold?

The barcelona.com decision was overturned in the US courts - the original registrants still have it as a travel site.

 

[Takwa]

So is it safe to register city names? or should i just stay clear of that area?

 

[aZooZa]

I think you are quite safe to register city names. No authority is going to have a claim on a city name. Or a country name. Or the name of a planet. They are geographical, generic names and are all up for grabs. IMHO.

Having said that, I would just steer clear of vatican.anything but that's the only exception in the universe that I can think of.

 

[Beasty]

So is it safe to register city names? or should i just stay clear of that area?

There were specific provisions in relation to cities for the Sunrise period of .eu - but that has passed now. Certainly for .com and .uk there are plenty of authorities that say that registering a city domain is legitimate.

 

[grandin]

County Court

Beasty do you think it is highly unlikely that a registrant would take Nominet to court over the contract of registration? Would you agree that even a small claim for damages would be referred to the high court due to complex nature of domain names? and as a result of that referral the registrants legal bill will no longer be contained?

I do not understand the legal framework so can you shed some light on this beasty?

Lee