UK domain registrations extended to a decade

UK businesses will be able to hang onto their .uk domains for ten years, Nominet has said.

Internet registry Nominet will extend the amount of time domain holders can hold onto their URLs from two years to ten staring from May 2012.

The development may help curb “cybersquatting”, where a failure to renew a domain results leaves it at risk of being acquired by a third party and ransomed back to the original owner.

“The change will give businesses and individuals the opportunity to lock in their domains for up to ten years, giving them security of tenure and a longer period between renewals,” said Nominet. Businesses are free to choose registrations periods up to ten years and give them “the opportunity to offer more flexible service”, it said.

“For millions of businesses, their domain name is mission critical, from their website to the email addresses it supports,” said Nominet CEO Lesley Cowley. “By offering longer registration periods, these businesses will have peace of mind that their domain name is secured for a number of years, and they won’t have to worry about renewing so frequently.”

Lady GaGa lost a legal battle over LadyGaga.org owned by a fan in September of this year, and in October Google lost a similar case against the owner of Goggle.com, a website frequented by those who misspell the popular search engine.