In the emerging e-conomy, opportunities are won and lost in the blink of an eye.

Understanding the rapid evolution of Canada’s management of the .ca top level domain name system may help you avoid disaster in your business’s online presence and create advantages to help it flourish.

As of November 1, 2000, new rules for the eligibility and registration of a .ca domain name come into effect, and these will impact not only the more than 90,000 organizations that have a .ca domain name registration, but any individual or organization that wishes to obtain one after that date.

The .ca registration system is currently administered as a closed model, perhaps reflecting the fact that it is managed by a single volunteer employee of the University of British Columbia with the support of a committee of volunteer internet organizations. The system was designed with strict rules to limit the number of .ca domain names that could be registered.

A company may register only one .ca domain name, and that company must be incorporated federally, be doing business in more than one province, and/or have a registered trademark corresponding to the domain name.

This contrasts with the rules governed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) regarding the popular .com top level domain, where domain names are granted on an essentially first-come, first-served basis. Under this more open model, a business can register an unlimited number of domain names, subject to availability and the rights of trademark owners.

A new organization is assuming the governance of the .ca registration system from UBC, and the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has adopted the more open model of governance. CIRA is to act as a central registry of domain names and not as a registrar dealing directly with the public. The list of current registrars is online at www.cira.ca, which is home to much emerging information on the .ca registry system.

The migration of the system to CIRA will occur in two stages. In the first stage, which began Sept 18th this year, all current .ca registrants must pre-register their domain names with CIRA before the commencement of stage two to ensure their domain name is included in the CIRA database.

By now, CIRA should have contacted all .ca registrants to ensure they have pre-registered, but if your business has not yet been advised of this, you can update your contact information at www.cdnnet.ca/update.html.

Stage two is the transfer of all operations to CIRA, and the critical “operational transfer date” is now slated to be November 1, 2000.

New .ca domain name requests will be processed by CIRA, through its registrars, as of that date. Existing .ca domain names that have not been pre-registered during stage one will cease to exist as of the operational transfer date, subject to a short grace period (currently stated to be 30 days) and the requirement to pay a surcharge. Once this grace period elapses, if your .ca domain name is not registered with CIRA, it will be lost and available to others.

CIRA is currently creating and revising many of its operational policies, but it has established some basic rules in registering new domain names that reflect the open model. Registrations will be made on a first-come, first-served basis, and may be made for individuals rather than just corporate entities.

The key is that the applicant must meet CIRA’s Canadian Presence Requirements (available at www.cira.ca) which are intended to show the applicant has a Canadian presence and a legitimate interest in this country. This requirement seems somewhat contradictory to CIRA’s goal of facilitating e-commerce through an open model and may prove difficult for it to apply.

As of Nov. 1, 2000, three obvious opportunities present themselves with these changes:

* if you are an individual, you can obtain a .ca domain name for the first time;
* because any one applicant can now hold multiple .ca domain names, registrations specific to corporate divisions, product lines or specific products can now be accomplished; and
* if your existing .ca registration has a second or third level domain elements (business.calgary.ab.ca), you can upgrade it to a top level domain, if available (business.ca). This should be done now during the pre-registration stage.

Next month: dealing with domain name disputes under the CIRA registry system.

(Anthony Morris is a lawyer with McCarthy Tetrault, practicing exclusively in its Technology Law Practice Group and can be reached at 260-3527 or amorris@mccarthy.ca. The comments herein should not be construed as legal advice, and the reader is encouraged to seek the advice of counsel for any specific question.)