.tel, the "new" gTLD, was launched in December 2008. The launch occured in three periods (Sunrise, Landrush and General Availability).

The Sunrise Period afforded trade mark holders the opportunity to secure its trade marks as a .tel domain name before it was released to the general public. It was inevitably that those who failed to take advantage of the Sunrise Period would be exposed to potential infringements.

This was the case for osram.tel, heineken.tel and novozymes.tel. These domain names were subsequently recovered in the first three .tel UDRP decisions to be decided.

While all three decisions were decided in favour of the trade mark holders, the expense and risk of submitting a UDRP complaint could have been avoided by simply securing the domain name at the first available opportunity.

We advise trade mark holders to develop a formal domain name strategy that makes provision for the securing domain names during Sunrise Periods or prior to the launch of a new brand / trade mark.

If you have been affected by such infringements or need to recovery a domain name contact our specialised domain name recovery unit (RegainYourDomain) at [email protected]. See regainyourdomain.com and regainyourdomain.tel for more information.