The presence of a registered trademark is a prerequisite for registering a domain name in the most prestigious domain zone of Ukraine - UA. Such a requirement is established by the administrator of the domain zone and is enshrined in the relevant rules and regulations, which are binding on all domain registrars.
So, what does the regulation tell us?
The approved regulation stipulates that a domain name is delegated only if it is fully or its second-level component (up to the "." Sign, but not including this sign) spelling coincides with the Token, the rights to use of which in Ukraine belong to the relevant registrant .
Here, the Sign means the Certificate for a sign for goods and services, in other words, a trademark.
In simple words, the domain must be the same as the registered trademark.
What brand should be in order to get the right domain?
When registering a trademark, it is necessary to take into account a number of very important points in order to subsequently be able to register exactly the domain name that you need:
- Legibility of the notation.
- Lack of third-party graphic elements resembling symbols.
Consider each item more similarly:
Legibility of the notation.
Trademarks claimed for registration are different. A mark can be written in various fonts, which are sometimes ambiguous. Based on the presence of an ambiguous mark, you may be denied the right domain.
Case study:
The submitted mark was declared as "FJ". According to the results of registration, the customer wanted to get the fj.ua domain, while the characters in the sign are not read clearly. The letter J has a tail that is too long and can be interpreted as U. In this particular case, we recommended that the client change the designation. After the designer’s work, the sign began to look like this:
The letters were clearly spelled out, a graphic element was also added. In this form, the sign was submitted for registration. After receiving the security document, the client without any difficulties received the domain fj.ua he needed.
Lack of third-party graphic elements resembling symbols.
A common situation is when a sign is declared for registration in which, in addition to the text part, there is a graphic element. Such a sign is called combined and, if there is a graphic element resembling a symbol in it, difficulties may arise.
Case study:
In this case, the client wanted to get the alden.ua domain, but in the graphic part of the mark one can clearly see another letter “A”, which is located above the verbal part of the mark. If the sign was given in this form, then it was possible to count only on the aalden.ua or a-alden.ua domains, which, of course, did not suit the customer. Due to the fact that obtaining the right domain was a priority for the customer, we suggested that he apply for registration a verbal trademark without graphic elements. The brand passed it successfully, and at the end we registered an alden.ua domain for the client.
Transliteration of Cyrillic-Latin.
Domain names in the UA zone are not Cyrillic, all of them are registered exclusively with Latin characters. Moreover, there are many trademarks registered in Russian or Ukrainian languages - in Cyrillic.
What to do in this case? The answer to this question is also described in the domain registration regulations. It says that when transliterating characters, the registrant (domain owner) can choose one of the approved transliteration tables:
- The table of transliteration of the Ukrainian alphabet in Latin letters, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated January 27, 2010 No. 55;
- the current interstate transliteration standard GOST 16876 71 (Art. CMEA 1362 78);
- Normative table for the reproduction of Ukrainian proper names in English, approved by decision No. 8 of the Ukrainian Commission on Legal Terminology, protocol No. 2 of April 19, 1996;
- Transliteration table “UL” (Ukrainian Latin), recommended for the Ukrainian language, approved by the State Standard of Ukraine on October 18, 1995;
- Full information and tables can be found at: https://hostmaster.ua/docs/
A form is posted on the zone administrator’s website with which you can understand which domain name can be registered under the sign in Cyrillic. There may be several spellings, and you are free to choose the one you like best. Moreover, you can register all spelling options for a domain under one brand. Sometimes companies, for security and to prevent cybersquatting (registering a domain for resale), register all spellings.
Special characters: dots, dashes, ampersants ...
Often there are cases when a designation is registered as a trademark, which includes special characters.
For example, consider the world famous brand "procter & gamble". As you can see, the “&” symbol is present in the sign itself, it is called an ampersant. At the same time, there can be no such symbol in domain names, the domain includes only Latin alphabet characters, dashes and numbers. What to do in this case?
The answer can also be found in the domain registration regulations. It says that the display in the domain name of special characters that are part of the Mark, but cannot be included in the domain name in accordance with current technical standards, is recommended to be carried out in only one of two ways at the registrant's discretion:
- By replacing special characters with their symbolic names in English (for example, "&" - "and", "/" - "slash", "." - "dot", "@" - "at", etc.), which, at the request of the registrant, can also be marked with “-” signs on both sides (for example, “&” - “and-”). The characters ““ (space) and “_” (underscore) can be replaced with the character “-“.
- By removing special characters from the Mark represented as a domain name, without replacing them.
Using the “procter & gamble” sign as an example, one can obtain the following domain variations:
- Procterandgamble.ua.
- Procter-and-gamble.ua.
- Proctergamble.ua
Each of these options is available to the owner of the same name brand. In the first case, the ampersant is replaced with the symbolic name “and”, in the second case - also with the symbolic name, which is additionally marked with a dash on both sides, and in the third case the ampersant is completely removed from the domain.
The registrant decides which option suits him. There is also a right to purchase domain names with a different spelling.
The regulation also describes the rule for displaying Roman numerals from a trademark in a domain name. They can be displayed by their equivalent, from a numerical point of view, represented by Arabic numerals. Moreover, the registrant must notify the registrar of such a desire by sending a written application.
How is UA domain registration and sign validation done?
You can apply for a domain registration only after receiving the Certificate, that is, when the brand is already registered. The rules do not provide for any reservation or preliminary registration of names, the application is accepted only if the number of the Certificate is indicated in it.
The registration procedure itself is quite simple and consists of the following steps:
- Domain check.
- Entering registrant data.
- Payment.
If everything is clear with verification and payment, then at the time of data entry we will dwell a little more. Since there is a link “trademark-domain”, the name is registered exclusively for the owner of the registered designation. When entering data, it is necessary to rewrite them from the Certificate itself.
In practice, it happens when a brand is registered with several owners, while a domain can have only one. In such cases, it is possible to specify the second owner as the administrative contact of the domain.
After payment and filing the application, the registrar transfers it to the zone administrator - Hostmaster LLC. She, in turn, conducts such checks:
- Is the mark really protected on the territory of Ukraine;
- Validity of the Certificate (whether the validity period has expired);
- whether the mark matches the declared domain;
- whether the owner of the brand matches the declared owner of the domain.
The ground for refusal of registration may be a violation of any of the items listed. In case of refusal, the money will be returned to the registrant, and the application is rejected.
If we talk about typos, for example, when specifying the owner of the domain, then this can be corrected and apply for the domain again. If the reason for the refusal was a domain mismatch with the sign, only the registration of the necessary trademark will help to rectify the situation.
According to the regulations, the application review period can take up to 14 days, but, as a rule, this happens faster.
How to register a brand in order to get the right UA domain: basic recommendations.
We have collected several recommendations, observing which, before applying for the registration of a trademark, you can get exactly the domain name that you need:
- Register a verbal trademark.
- Check the transliteration table in advance.
- Do not use conflicting fonts and spellings.
- Do not use additional graphic elements resembling letters or numbers.
Implementation of these simple recommendations will allow you to correctly register the trademark and get the right domain name under it. In our company, we have developed a special package within which we offer customers to register a trademark for the UA domain. Such registration is performed according to the accelerated procedure in one class and provides for free registration of the UA domain for one year. More details at the link: https://profitmark.ua/
