Just a short time ago we congratulated Netherlands on achieving the 3 million mark in national domain registration. Following a success of the .NL top level domain, a new second level domain has been introduced. It is .CO.NL and today, November 18, 2008 starts the first phase of Sunrise period dubbed the Grandfather period. Up until Thursday 15 January, 2009 anyone currently holding a legitimate .NL domain name will have a right to register a matching .CO.NL name.

The second phase of Sunrise period is to be run from Tuesday 10 February, 2009 until Thursday 26 February, 2009 and is intended for trademark owners.

After all the trademark issues has settled, on 17 March, 2009 (going on until 31 March, 2009) starts the Landrush domain registration period. Top quality and generic domains will be granted to those who have pre-registered their interest (at an extra fee depending on the registrar you go with).

All the leftovers will be distributed during the Go Live period that starts on Wednesday 15 April, 2009. If you are currently holding a .NL domain name, act now. Go to see the list of accredited .CO.NL registrars and submit an application.

This second level domain is a good idea. NL is recognizable worldwide and the combination .CO.NL looks familiar due to the striking success of similar domain name extensions of .CO.UK, .CO.NZ and .CO.JP. This new domain is available to anyone (you don’t have to be Dutch to register it) and is operated by EuroDNS, the organization behind the .EU domain name.

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