binaryman

Sorry to be a bother but I need this advice very urgently so I can cancel my registration in time still.
I registered 5 .us domains but did not realise you must be an American citizen or have a presence in the USA.Does this mean that I cannot legally own these domains??? What must I do now???
Please advise -I am frantic with worry
Thnx
Binary

fonzie_007

As far as I know, you need to either live in the USA or have a business located in the USA to register .us domain. That being said, there are many people who do abide by the above two requirements and still hold domains. If they are found out, I believe the domains can be taken away from them.

Your best bet is to probably sell them or let them expire (unless you think they are worth enough to have a business incorporated in the USA). PM me the domains and I may be interested depending on what they are.

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gazzip

Their terms are on the following link

Who can register a .US domain name?


Any U.S. citizen or resident, as well as any business or organization, including federal, state, and local government with a bona fide presence in the United States can register a .US domain name.

One of the following eligibility requirements must be met:

A natural person (i) who is a citizen or permanent resident of the United States of America or any of its possessions or territories or (ii) whose primary place of domicile is in the United States of America or any of its possessions, or

Any entity or organization that is incorporated within one of the fifty (50) U.S. states, the District of Columbia, or any of the United States possessions or territories or (ii) organized or otherwise constituted under the laws of a state of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, or any of its possessions or territories, or

An entity or organization (including federal, state, or local government of the United States, or a political subdivision thereof) that has a bona fide presence in the United States. See Section B.3.1 of the NeuStar proposal to the Department of Commerce for details concerning what constitutes a “bona fide presence


http://www.nic.us/faqs/index.html#who_can_register

primacomputer

You can not legally own the names. Also, proxy registrations are officially NOT recognised. To be legally entitled to hold the names you will need to meet the criteria laid out above.

I don't know anyone who has lost a name because they didn't meet the requirement, but Neustar has certainly made it clear that this can and will happen.

One point of interest is that once they go after you for this you must prove your eligibility, establish your eligibility, or loose the name. You can't simply sell it on to an American when you get into hot water.

binaryman

Fonz I,ve sent you a PM

blaze7716

Are the names any good? I may be interested in buying them from you. PM me.

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OffshoreMillionaire.com

Zeeble

I would simply register a Ltd company (possibly in the UK) and use that as the registrant name

To register a UK Ltd company (you don't have to be a UK citizen to do so, or live in the UK) costs just £25 at http://ukplc.net/

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“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” - Adam Smith

primacomputer

That'd be great if the requirements were to have a UK presence instead of a US one

But the principal is sound. Form a US company if the names are worth spending that much on. Or form a partnerships with an American. This could be a simple agreement or a registered partnership.

Zeeble

You don't need to be a US entity. A Uk company can do business in the US... see what I'm saying?

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“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” - Adam Smith

primacomputer

Once again, that would be great if “being able to do business in the US” was the qualification Unfortunately it's not. A bona fide presence is required.

Registering a UK company does not give you a bona fide presence in the US. Establishing a bona fide presence in the US for a UK company will probably cost you as much as just setting up in the US to begin with. Just skip it and setup a US company.

Zeeble

That is a pretty lose requirement. As far as I can tell you just need to be able to prove that you do business in the U.S or that you do business with U.S entities.

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“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” - Adam Smith

cache

how can you derive your conclusion? (what IS a bona fide presence?) If you were correct, then anyone on ebay can buy US goods.

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weblord

you cant cancel but you can't refund on most tld domains purchases.

primacomputer

The term is is bit vague, but it is clarified in a few places to include:

“must have real and substantial lawful connections with, or lawful activities in, the United States of America.”

“Regularly performs lawful activities within the United States related to the purposes for which the entity or organization is constituted (e.g., selling goods or providing services to customers, conducting regular training activities, attending conferences), provided such activities are not conducted solely or primarily to permit it to register for a usTLD domain name and are lawful under the laws and regulations of the United States and satisfy policies for the usTLD, including policies approved and/or mandated by the DoC;”

“Maintains an office or other facility in the United States for a lawful business, noncommercial, educational or governmental purpose, and not solely or primarily to permit it to register for a usTLD domain name.”

I don't see anything there that would imply that having a company that happens to buy or sell a few things in America will qualify.

At any rate, the point is that you can avoid any problem by simply registering a US company instead of foreign one. You are then a US entity and don't have to meet the “bona fide presence” requirement If someone's going to go through the cost of acquiring a company just to hold US names it would be silly to get anything but a US company.

dna

It doesn't matter what the rules are if they don't enforce them.
And they don't.

slaughterbeck

There are a number of peole here who own .US domains but don't have a legal right to do so.

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Feed the Children

primacomputer

This is a good point, but it's not that the rules aren't enforced. It's that the procedures for enforcing them is complicated

Many of the more mature ccTLDs have liberalised the requirements and many now allow anyone to register names. It's entirely possible that .US might go the same way by the time any names you are holding illegitimately attract any attention.

By the same token, Neustar may continue their increasingly hard stance on the requirements and decide to simplify the complaint process. In this case any name worth more than regfee would be in danger.

The potential risks and rewards for an authorised .us registrations are about the same as registering names that infringe on trademarks. Some people do it, but it's generally accepted to be a bad idea.