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PRESS RELEASE

Frankfurt, 12 January 2011

Short and Fine - Last Nine Short Domains Finally Registered

DENIC registered dw.de, e.de, f.de, g.de, hr.de, sr.de, x.de, y.de and 
z.de
On 12 January, the last nine remaining short domains were entered in the 
DENIC domain register. The domains dw.de, e.de, f.de, g.de, hr.de, sr.de, 
x.de, y.de and z.de had previously been blocked for registration due to 
temporary injunctions. The object of the legal disputes was privileged 
registration. DENIC'S "first come, first served" registration standard 
has, however, been confirmed by several court rulings. To ensure equal 
opportunities for all applicants also for the much-sought after short 
domains, the registration procedure was automated to a large extent. But 
today's technology provides possibilities for dialling a fax number very 
quickly and very often. To grant equal opportunities also in this respect, 
DENIC took measures such as very short activation periods of the fax lines 
and fax configurations that permitted no more than one page to be received 
per transmission. The first fax applying for any of the domains that met 
all formal requirements triggered registration of the respective domain. 
The nine short domains were registered in the names of seven applicants. 
"We are very pleased with the result. 'First come, first served' has been 
established as the registration standard and the chosen procedure worked 
perfectly," DENIC's CEO, Sabine Dolderer. Since DENIC considerably relaxed 
its terms and conditions for registration in October 2009, the Cooperative 
has registered about 2,200 one- and two-character or so-called short 
domains and nearly 33,000 domains with names composed of numerals only. If 
you want to know who are the holders of the new domains, go to the DENIC 
website and find out via DENIC's information service whois under 
http://www.denic.de/en/background/whois-service/webwhois.html.

Background information:
Legal context
The aforementioned domains were excluded from registration when DENIC 
launched one- and two-character domains in October 2009 because temporary 
injunctions had been imposed on DENIC which prohibited registration of 
said domains for the time being. These temporary injunctions are no longer 
effective. As regards the dw.de domain, the applicant withdrew her motion 
for a temporary injunction. The applicant of the domains e.de, f.de, g.de, 
x.de, y.de and z.de waived his rights resulting from the temporary 
injunction after the Frankfurt Court of Appeals had ruled in favour of 
DENIC in the main proceedings of the x.de domain. The temporary 
injunctions relating to the hr.de and the sr.de domains were recently 
lifted by the Frankfurt Court of Appeals. In its ruling, the Frankfurt 
Court of Appeals confirms permissibility of the registration standard of 
DENIC, which provides for the option to carry out registrations, including 
first registrations of domains at a specific point in time set by DENIC, 
applying the "first come, first served" principle. Similar reasons had 
been given by the Court of Appeals when it confirmed the ruling issued by 
the Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main in October 2009, which rejected to 
issue a temporary injunction that would have compelled DENIC to also block 
registration of the tv.de domain at that time. Thus, all attempts of 
individual applicants to evade the "first come, first served" principle 
with regard to the release of short domains or to be granted privileges 
have failed. You can view all the rulings on our website under 
http://www.denic.de/en/background/court-decisions.html
The Registration Procedure
Registration was made applying DENIC's standard "first come, first served" 
principle. Since the number of available domains was extremely limited, 
DENIC used a special procedure: Applicants had to submit requests by fax 
to fax numbers established for this particular purpose. That was the only 
permitted submission channel. There was a separate fax number for each 
domain, which was active for a period of 30 minutes. The first period 
started on 12 January 2011 at 10:00 (CET).
DENIC accepted only registration requests which were submitted on a 
specific request form designed for that purpose. It was available for 
download on the DENIC website under 
http://www.denic.de/en/domains/general-information/registration-short-domains.html
. There was a separate form for each domain. The fax server was configured 
to receive no more than one page per fax transmission and automatically 
terminated the connection after one page. Thus, interested parties had to 
ensure that their fax machine did not include a cover sheet for the 
transmission or spread the text over two pages. The above mentioned fax 
numbers were activated one day before the official launch of the 
registration period, so that senders could test their own fax 
configurations. 
The application form had to be completed accurately, fully and legibly, 
and be signed before it was sent to DENIC. The domain was assigned to the 
applicant whose complete, correctly filled in and signed fax application 
was received first by DENIC after opening of the registration period of 
the respective domain – synchronized with the time server of DENIC 
(ntp1.denic.de). Factual registration was effected immediately afterwards, 
the domain simultaneously being recorded in the DENIC database. After 
that, the domain could ad hoc be queried via the DENIC information 
services (whois etc.). 

As a matter of principle, interested parties have to ensure that the 
registration and intended use of the domain does not infringe anybody 
else’s rights nor break any general law.

The holders of the successfully registered domains will be informed by 
DENIC in writing and must communicate by 26 January 2011 (date of receipt 
of letter or fax by DENIC) the member of the DENIC Cooperative who is 
going to administer the domain in the future. Otherwise, the domain will 
be administered by DENICdirect. 

Kind regards

Beate Schulz
Public Relations
-- 

DENIC eG
Kaiserstraße 75-77
60329 Frankfurt am Main
GERMANY

E-Mail: presse AT denic.de
Fon: +49 69 27235-274 
Fax: +49 69 27235-235
http://www.denic.de

Angaben nach § 25a Absatz 1 GenG:
DENIC eG (Sitz: Frankfurt am Main)
Vorstand: Sabine Dolderer, Helga Krüger, Carsten Schiefner, Dr. Jörg 
Schweiger 
Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Elmar Knipp
Eingetragen unter Nr. 770 im Genossenschaftsregister, Amtsgericht 
Frankfurt am Main