News

We take this opportunity to inform you about new developments in the field of Domain Name registrations in Serbia.

This letter is for those interested in having their Domain Names protected in Serbia through the new .RS TLD (.RS Top-Level Domain, which will substitute the former .YU TLD).

As you are probably aware, two years ago, Serbia and Montenegro divided into two separate countries and as a result became two independent Intellectual Property jurisdictions, with different country codes.  The old YU country code was replaced by 2 new country codes: RS and ME.

All aspects of IP rights in Serbia were affected by the territorial division and the relevant information relating specifically to .RS domain names is as follows:

All domain names, registered with the former .YU TLD, will expire by September 2009 (ICANN has set this deadline for deletion of the .YU TLD). Consequently, there is a term (hereinafter: the pre registration period) provided for those who are interested in converting their .YU domain names into .RS domain names. Those who have already registered .YU domain names will have priority (privileged pre registration) in the pre registration period to pre register their YU domain names and to convert them into .RS domain names. After this period, domain names which were not converted will be available for non-privileged registration, following the rule of first-come-first-served.

We have just been informed by the members of the Serbian National Register of Internet Domain Names, the pre registration period will begin during the month March 2008.

The services we offer you regarding the pre registration and registration procedure are as follows:

•     To be your administrative contact in Serbia for the purpose of pre registration/registration
•     To receive your orders for pre registration/registration of domain names
•     To effect the annual payment for maintenance of RS domain names
•     To check the availability of domain names you are interested in
•     To negotiate with the owners of prior domain names you would be interested in registering
•     To represent you before the permanent arbitration body/authority in case of dispute regarding domain names
•     To provide you with relevant information regarding the owners of prior domain names, details of pre registration/registration and arbitration procedures, costs involved and legal opinions.