Extended responsibility for '.no' administrator likely

A Ministry of Transport working group has issued its report regarding Phase Two of the liberalization of Norway's domain name regulations. The report focuses on the administration of the country-code top-level domain '.no', which is the responsibility of NORID.

The working group recommends that NORID continue as administrator, but it proposes extending the jurisdiction of the current appeal organ (NORIDs klageorgan) to include conflicts involving third parties (eg, a dispute between the owner of the domain name and a third party claiming that the registration of the domain name represents an infringement of his/her rights). Currently, such conflicts are resolved in the ordinary courts.

Furthermore, the working group proposed that NORID be authorized to withdraw a registered domain name if it clearly represents a breach of registration rules or third-party rights.

The working group has proposed a regulation governing these issues.

Phase One occurred in February 2001. The most important change was that legal entities were given the right to register up to 15 domain names, up from the previous limit of one.

Lars Tyrgve Jenssen, Advokatfirma Lindh Stabell Horten, Oslo