.SO is the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) assigned to The Republic of Somalia, which will be re-launched as an unrestricted ccTLD.

According to the current draft policies the following extensions will be available for registration:

.so – general purposes
com.so – commercial entities
net.so – network use
org.so – not for profit organisations

Proposed Launch Schedule

Sunrise (November 1st - November 30th, 2010)

Holders (owners, licensees or assignees) of Eligible Trademarks will have the opportunity to submit a corresponding application for the registration of a domain name in the .SO TLD. If more than one Applicant has submitted an Application during this phase for an identical domain name, it will be registered following the outcome of an auction process.

An Eligible Trademark is a registered trade mark that:

• has been issued by any competent public authority and has national effect; and
• was registered on or before 1 January 2010; and
• is in full force and effect when the application is validated by the clearinghouse appointed by the .SO registry.

An applicant cannot rely on a trade mark application, common law trade mark or US state trade mark.

Sunrise Auction (December 1st - December 15th, 2010)

Auction for domain names with more than one credible application.

Landrush (December 16th - February 9th, 2011)

Domain names not previously registered or applied for during the Sunrise Process may be registered by any interested party. If more than two Applicants have submitted an Application during this phase for an identical domain name, it will be placed into an auction.

Landrush Auction (February 10th - February 28th, 2011)

Auction for domain names with more than one credible application.

General Availability (March 1st, 2011)

Domain names will be registered on a “first come, first served” basis.

Email [email protected] for the draft .so domain name registration policies.
The domain name prices will be made available during October 2010.