No two-letter domains allowed

Why can't you register a two letter domain name? This is a question I asked the IEDR some time ago. Forgive the very long post, but here's their reply. I'm not sure I think the arguments are very strong, especially number 3. (HP is referenced, as that company is known to be unhappy about the situation.)

"1. Individual Merits of an Application:

IE Domain Registry Ltd is a managed registry, thus every applicant must authenticate their claim to the domain name that they are looking to register. We do not dispute that xxxx could claim an entitlement to the domain name xx.ie if two letter domains were available for registration; however as per Section 3.1 of the Naming Policy, this is not the case.

Historically, there was a technical reason for the restriction. There is currently no longer any technical reason to prevent the registration of two-letter domains under .ie. However the decision to restrict two letter domains has not been made exclusively on the basis of technical concerns. There are various reasons why international registries have decided to restrict the registration of two letter domains.

5 reasons why the IE Domain Registry has decided to restrict the registration of two letter .ie domains, include inter alia:

1. Our responsibility in administering the national domain demands that we maintain the quality of domains being issued. The release of two letter domains has the potential to create a new and unregulated market that could dilute the quality of domains available for registration within the IE suffix.
2. The IEDR may determine it necessary, in the interest of the local internet community, to diversify and broaden the variety of domains available in future and a significant component of this potential strategy would involve offering specialized second level domains to Irish internet users (eg: .ac.ie for academic institutions).
3. It may be argued that hp.ie would not cause confusion as .hp does not represent the country-code top level domain, however occasionally new territories emerge, either through conflict (eg: .ps for Palestine) or peaceful negotiation, (eg: .sk for Slovakia). For this reason we cannot be sure that .hp will not represent a territory at some time in the future. The IEDR is obliged to take a long term view on this matter.
4. As the body responsible for administering the .ie domain, we, the IEDR commit ourselves to operating a wholly fair and transparent registry. We would consider it to be inequitable to release a specific domain name type for the benefit of a particular corporate entity.
5. We believe that permitting the registration of two letter domains has the potential to mislead the general public and diminish the unique quality of the IE Top-Level Domain. By preventing the registration of domains that include other ccTLD domain extension prefixes (eg: uk.ie, hr.ie etc…), we are protecting the quality of the Irish national domain whilst avoiding the possibility of misleading Irish internet users who may view for example, .us.ie as an American Irish domain as opposed to a distinctly Irish domain.

2. Best Practice Principles

At present there is no clearly defined, published international best practice guideline that dictates whether or not two letter domains should be permitted in ccTLDs. Most English speaking country level domains do not allow two letter registrations. (See: Fig 1)

1. Although some English speaking ccTLD registries do permit the registration of two letter domains, the majority of these registries offer two letter domains in the second level only (eg: Austrailia - hp.com.au, New Zealand – hp.co.nz). In fact two of the largest English speaking ccTLDs, .uk and .us presently restrict the registration of two letter domains.
2. Within European Union members states for example, of the 25 registries we have examined only 12 permit two letter domain registrations.

It is clear from our findings that there is no best practice consensus regarding the issuing of two letter domains.

3. Absence of an agreed and irrefutable method for allocating two letter domains

The IEDR take a view, similar to that of Nominet.UK, that in the absence of an agreed and irrefutable method for allocating two letter domains, the process of determining which of the many potential competing applicants is entitled to a certain domain is likely to pose significant difficulties.

We consider that there is a distinct possibility of many trademark holders looking to register the same two letter domain. As per our registration policies, if the trademark corresponds closely with the letters XX, many separate requests to register xx.ie may be acceptable for registration. At present there are numerous Community Trade Marks registered, word or figurative, that may be acceptable for registration under our policies."

Comments

[Ed Byrne]

What's more, the IEDR actually DO permit registration of 2 character names (alphanumeric) such as o2.ie and 3v.ie, which would seem to contradict the trademark policy.

And 'most' being 12 out of 25?

To be fair, there are benefits of a managed registry : such as a level of automatic trademark & business name protection, but some of the policies in place are a bit antiquated.