Those that are must register the name exactly corresponding to the company name, except for characters not in the English character set, and certain reserved words in English and in Welsh. The process of allocation is eventually to be automated, though Nominet UK expect to verify a sample of the applications. Originally, Nominet did not intend to introduce the 'plc.uk' domain, but they were advised by their legal experts that any company registered with plc would be comitting a criminal offence by registering a domain name ending in 'ltd.uk' - an indication of how legally sensitive domain naming can be. It will be interesting to see whether the commercial subdomains within the 'uk' TLD open up on similar lines to those envisaged for the iTLD's, giving options such as 'chem.uk', 'paint.uk', 'soap.uk' etc, thus challenging the iTLD's. One point in their favour, and apparently not covered in the RFC's, is that of language.
Smaller companies are likely to require expressive domain names in their own language.
Perhaps we will soon see 'chim.fr', 'peinture.fr', 'savon.fr', etc. as well. All rights reserved. This newsletter is copyright material. In the interests of dissemination of information, forward circulation is permitted provided it is distributed in its entirety including these notices, that it is not posted to newsgroups or distribution lists and that it is not done for commercial gain or part of a commercial transaction. For other uses please contact the publisher.