The Sunrise period for registering domains with the .mobi designation has been extended by a month to September 22nd by registrar Dotmobi.
An extended sunrise period, where trademark and IP holders can register their relevant names in the new top-level .mobi domain, will give them more time to file for those domain. A .mobi address will indicate content targeted at the growing market of people who use the Internet from their mobile phones.
Domain tracking site Ipwalk posted the news about Dotmobi’s decision. A formal announcement of the extension should come later this week.
In an interview with Ipwalk, Alexa Raad, Dotmobi’s VP of marketing and business development, spoke of a couple of reasons for the extension:
For one, she said that a large amount of companies have requested more time, citing late application paperwork as well as noting that July and August are notorious vacation months.
The second reason is Dotmobi’s own. They want more time for what Raad called an “IP and trademark outreach program.”
“We want more time to educate the business community and let them know about Dotmobi,” she said.
That education will include recommending businesses protect their trademarks by registering their relevant .mobi domains, and encouraging them to deliver quality content to mobile browsers as they do with PC-based web browsers.
In an article last month, it was reported that Dotmobi planned to hold back common words and place names from the marketplace, to avoid cyber-squatting speculators from hoarding them. Instead, Dotmobi will make these “premium names” available, possibly by auction, at a later date.
Raad claimed this move is to ensure such names go into the hands of sites that will support them with quality content. We wonder how Dotmobi will compel a high-bidder to do so once a domain has been lawfully paid for and registered by a purchaser.
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
