Welsh businesses and individuals can stand out from the online crowd now that .cymru and .wales have got the official go-ahead. For those keen to promote their association with Brand Wales, we are publishing the rules and processes for these two new domains today. We ran a three-month consultation on our proposals, and we believe that the decisions we have made will create a strong policy framework for .cymru and .wales to develop and grow.
Wales occupies a special place in the UK and in the world, with a distinctive identity and culture, and of course its own language, spoken by around one in four. We’ve worked closely with the Welsh Government every step of the way to ensure that these new domains are good for Welsh businesses, good for Wales and those who want to address the Welsh market, and support the Welsh language online.
We would like to thank everyone who responded and who helped us to develop our proposals. We have published a short analysis of the responses we received and a policy statement setting out our conclusions following the December 2012 consultation.
If you’re a trade mark holder, you should act now to give yourself the best possible chance to secure the corresponding domain name by submitting it to the Trademark Clearing House before the end of July. Everything you need to know about the trade mark process is here http://www.trademark-clearinghouse.com
Don’t worry if you don’t have a trademark though – if you are a business operating in Wales, there will be a further opportunity to secure domain names that match your business name or brand.