IEDR Wants YOUR Input! Should An Aftermarket For IE Domains Be Allowed?

Over the past year or so I’ve been involved with the IEDR’s Policy Advisory Committee along with representatives from other registrars, the Irish government and a variety of other stakeholder organisations. So far we’ve been working our way through a number of policy changes that have been on the table for some time.

Some of the policies we’ve been looking at aren’t terribly exciting, though changing them will hopefully make things easier and better. Other policies are “visible”, like the upcoming introduction of IDN (internationalised domain names)  domain names in .ie, which will mean you’ll finally be able to register .ie domain names using fadas!

But the current policy which we and the IEDR are looking for feedback on is probably a little bit more controversial. It shouldn’t be, but the IEDR policies have always been incredibly conservative.

If you register a domain name in pretty much any other domain extension you are able to sell the domain if you choose. You cannot “own” a domain name. All you ever “own” are the rights to use it, so it’s like a license. And in most domain extensions you can transfer your license to another user.  IEDR up until now have not allowed this. In fact, at the moment they will go as far as deleting a domain name if they think that it is being sold!

The proposal won’t change the registration rules for IE domains. It only impacts what a registrant can do once they’ve registered a domain name.

The proposal also does not weaken the strength of intellectual property rights holders. They’ll still be able to lodge disputes using the ieDRP, which is the IEDR’s dispute resolution process which is managed by WIPO.

So if you think this policy should be changed please let them know. Of course you may disagree, in which case you should also let them know, but please provide a rationale for your views, be they positive or negative.

You can download the public consultation document which outlines the  policy proposal here:

and submit your comments directly via email to: aftermarket-consult@iedr.ie or via the web page here.