Indonesian domain names - expansion and new rules

Indonesia is introducing an additional top level domain name (DN) - .id. Organizations with a strategy to defensively own major new domain names in major markets need to consider whether to register.

On 15 January a new Indonesian DN - .id (known as anything.id) was launched. From 20 January 2014, the Indonesian Domain Name Administrator (PANDI) will accept anything.id domain registrations in 4 phases:-
                           
• A Sunrise privileged period for trademark owners to seek their .id DN by showing their TM certificate or TM application as issued/filed. The .id DN should be exactly the same as the trademark as registered/applied for. 
• A Grandfather privileged period ( 21 April to 13 June 2014 ) for existing second level DN holders (.co.id, .or.id, etc.). The .id DN should be exactly the same as the holder’s existing second level DN. 
• A Land Rush Period (16 June to 15 August 2014) for Indonesian citizens and institutions to apply for the .id DN (subject to an open bidding should there be more than one party applying for the same DN).
• A General Availability Period after 17 August 2014 (Indonesia’s Independence Day) for Indonesian citizens and institutions to apply for the .id DN using ‘first-come first-served’ basis.

This will be Indonesia's first new top level DN - along with the other 11 ccTLDs  - ac.id biz.id, co.id, desa.id, go.id, mil.id, my.id, net.id, or.id, sch.id and web.id.

In general there was a restriction that all Indonesian DNs must be held by Indonesian entities. In practice foreigners held such DNs through local agents. However, a separate Domain Name Management regulation from the Ministry of Communication and Informatics states that a foreign party who has a trade mark registration in Indonesia may register and use DNs through a local legal entity.  This clears up a previously uncertain situation.

During the sunrise period only is there an ability for trademark owners to protect their DN position. For foreigners registering through agents or subsidiaries will need to provide POAs to the agent showing consent from the trademark owner. So trademark owners who defensively file major new domain names can take early action.

A key question is what level of cybersquatting is likely, to help a company decide whether to incur the cost of defensive registration? Many companies who do not defensively register or who merely monitor and enforce may choose not to register .id.

There are several cases of cybersquatters in Indonesia. A Supreme Court case brought by a local personal care products company Mustika Ratu many years ago established that domain name squatting could constitute trademark infringement. EBay is presently in dispute with a local business over ebay.co.id at present. Some sectors appear to be higher risk than others.

PANDI is not a signatory to the UDRP so arbitration proceedings are not yet possible for Indonesian DNs.  However there is a proposal to set up a corresponding arbitration system which will enable more effective domain name recovery.