In recent years, many websites providing goods and services have appeared as a consequence of the development of the internet as a business environment. Consumers all over the world can find a very large range of goods and services easily and quickly. Under these circumstances it was obvious that domain names became a very important element in order to draw the consumer's attention.

Basic principles

The registration of .ro domain names in Romania is made by the Romanian National Computer Network. It is also possible to register the following second level domains: com.ro, org.ro, tm.ro, nt.ro, info.ro, nom.ro, rec.ro, firm.ro, store.ro, www.ro.

The most important thing in registrations of a .ro domain name is the fact that it is not necessary to have a local presence or a local agent in order to register such domain names. According to the Rules for the Name Registration within the .ro domain and its sub-domain, the domain name server should be active before the registration. The primary and secondary name server have to be properly configured.

Any entity (organization or individual) may register domain names, independent of the location of the entity. The administrative contact (admin-c) in the application form is responsible for a domain and is therefore required to be an employee of the organization which will be the owner of the domain name.

The requests for a .ro domain name will be automatically processed by a robot. This robot will verify the list of registered domain names to see whether there is a prior registered one. This checking is made only for the identical denominations. The registration is made on the basis of the first come, first served principle. The applicant who asks for the domain name registration is fully responsible for its entries in the application form and is therefore required to supervise any records belonging to that entity. The Romanian Registrar will consider the sending of the on-line application form as a guarantee that the applicant is entitled to use the domain name which it applied for.

The registration of the domain name will become active only after the payment of the official fees was made. Until now there are no annual official fees for this registration. If the payment is not made in due time, the domain name application will be cancelled without any prior official notice. No refund of any paid fees will be made if an owner has lost its right to a domain name registration.

It is also possible to make a reservation for a domain name. There are no differences between the registration and the reservation of a domain name. The only difference is that for a reservation application, it is not necessary to have properly configured the primary and secondary name servers.

The Romanian Registrar will delete a domain name registration in the following cases:

1. when the owner requests deletion of his entry;
2. when no or insufficient payment for registration/reservation is received; and
3. upon order by a court or governmental or administrative body.

Reasons for rejecting domain name applications are:

• incomplete entries in the application form;
• the data provided in the application form is false, it is not accurate, or it is misleading;
• the domain names contain more than 24 characters;
• the domain names contain special characters except the hyphen (-);
• the domain names contain a hyphen as the first or last character;
• the domain names are identical with an already registered domain name;
• the domain names are identical with a previously valid domain name application;
• the administrative contact is not a member of the entity stated as the organization which is the domain owner (not applicable for natural persons);
• the domain names are in bad taste;
• the domain names incorporate foul language;
• the domain names are injurious to public order or to public sensibilities;
• the domain names are misleading or deceptive;
• the domain names have an offensive character;
• the domain names have obscene or pornographic words;
• they include names of famous individuals; and
• outstanding payments.

The Romanian Registrar may cancel a registration or suspend delegation of a name:

• if the name is administered in a way likely to endanger operation of the DNS;
• if the basis on which the name was registered has changed, for example the organization making the application no longer exists, or the contact data was modified to inaccurate or false data;
• it is drawn to ROTLD attention that the name is being used in a manner likely to cause confusion to internet users; and
• where ROTLD has been informed that legal action has been commenced regarding use of the name;
• in cases of conflicts of a domain name between parties, until the dispute is resolved;
• the use of the domain name is misleading other internet users;
• where ROTLD is of the opinion that one of the above events is likely to occur.

Domain names disputes

Referring to the domain names disputes, the Romanian Registrar cannot act as arbiter of disputes arising out of the registration of and use of domain names. More than that, it has no obligation to warn the parties about the eventual conflicts which may appear between that domain name and other domain name, registered trade marks, well-known names, names of famous individuals and so on.

If the parties cannot reach an amicable solution, the complaint is the subject of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy endorsed and approved by ICANN.

Unfortunately we have no special laws regarding the solving of the domain names disputes. As we mentioned before it is possible to file a complaint in front of the Court of Bucharest. In this case the procedure is quite long and not very easy.

Another way to solve these disputes is to file a complaint to WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre. In this case the procedure seems to be much easier and faster than the procedure with the complaint filed with the Court of Bucharest.

On basis of the decision made by these authorities, the Romanian Registrar will delete, transfer or maintain the registration of a .ro domain name.

Transfer of the ownership of a .ro domain name registration

The transfer of the ownership consists of two steps:

• the withdrawal of the domain name which is registered by the previous owner; and
• the recordal of the same domain name in the name of the new owner.

In fact the new owner has to file a new application after the withdrawal was filed by the previous owner. The new owner has also to pay the official fees referring to the registration. The transfer of the ownership is completed when the payment is confirmed by the registrar.

Slowly but surely the internet will become one of the most efficient environments in which to do business. In order to avoid unpleasant surprises it is necessary to protect all the rights which belong to an owner, including the domain name.

Lucian Enescu (pictured) and Daniel Plosca