The good thing about pre-registrations is that you can already collect your customer's orders before the extension is available. These pre-registrations are free of charge and non-binding, until the moment they turn into 'real' registrations. This article describes the workflow that is followed for pre-registrations.
Initial information e-mail
4 to 6 weeks before the General Availability of an extension starts we send you an e-mail with all information about prices, dates, procedures and policies. The e-mail also informs you on which date the pre-registrations will turn into real registrations ('locking' of the domains; normally ±5 days before the General Availability starts). The e-mail contains a lot of information, including:
- An overview of your pre-registrations; if a domain is marked Premium or Blocked, we will not process it in the pre-registration process and the domain is cancelled in your account. A list of those domains is in the e-mail.
- Exact dates and times of the launch schedule; this includes Sunrise, Landrush, General Availability and any other launch phases,
- Full pricing details of the extensions; this is tailored to your price tier in Openprovider, so might be subject to change if you move to another tier before General Availability starts.
- The total amount to be charged to your account (based on the current domain list and the current price tier of your account).
- Registry policies and restrictions; examples are a required local presence, limited character sets or other eligibility requirements.
- An overview of the next steps.
- Tips about registering your domain before General Availability starts.
Final reminder
Some 5 days before we lock the domain names, you will receive a final reminder. The locking date is reminded and you are informed that these are the last days for making any changes to you domain (including remove it from the pre-registration queue).
Status update locking
Around 2 working days before the General Availability starts, we 'lock' the domains for further changes. This means that existing pre-registrations can no longer be changed or removed. New pre-registrations can still be ordered until a few hours before the General Availability starts. The pre-registrations are charged on your account balance.
You will receive an e-mail with an update, for example domains that could not be turned into real registrations because of insufficient balance.
Those last 2 days we will prepare the pre-registrations for their registration in the registry systems. We will create the contact and nameserver objects at the registry, generate the registration commands, ensure that the registry is ready and any other actions that will lead to the maximum speed of registration at the moment the registry opens.
Trademark Claims Notifications
If a domain name matches a trademark that is registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), we are obliged to send a Trademark Claims Notification to the domain holder. This e-mail contains a list of matching trademarks and asks the domain holder for an explicit approval before being able to register the domain. With his approval, the domain holder declares that he is aware of those trademarks and knows that he might infringe a third party's rights on that name.
You will receive an overview of all domains for which a Trademark Claims Notification (TCN) is sent; you might want to ask you customer to handle this e-mail urgently.
The TCN's are typically sent 24 to 48 hours before the General Availability opens.
Further information about the Trademark Claims Notifications follows in a separate article.
Status update registrations
Once the General Availability started and we sent all registration requests to the registry, we will inform you about the results. All successful registrations are listed as well as unsuccessful registrations, including the reason for failure.
From this moment on, the extension is moved to 'live' and can be registered as any other extension; in most cases realtime. Note that during the first 90 days (or more, depending on the registry), a Trademark Claims Notification might be required if a domain name matches a trademark that was registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse.
