Launch of new personal domain - .me.uk

Nominet UK creates domain for individuals

Nominet UK, the organisation, which manages the .uk Top Level Domain, today announced the launch of a new personal domain, .me.uk. Registrations for the new domain will be accepted from 00:01 on Monday 14th January 2002, and will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.

Until now, there has been a lack of a personal domain within the .uk domain space, and therefore individuals have typically registered domain names within the company domain, “.co.uk”, for example petersmith.co.uk. However, as a result of the new domain, individuals will have an opportunity to register personal domain names, such as petersmith.me.uk, thereby better reflecting their status as an individual. The creation of a new personal domain follows calls from the internet community which had voiced concerns over the ever decreasing amount of available domain names in the .co.uk domain space.

Although the new domain is intended for use by individuals, companies or other organisations may wish to register their name within the .me.uk domain in order to prevent cybersquatters from registering sought after company names. Any disputes arising under the .me.uk domain will be subject to Nominet's Dispute Resolution Service – for further information on Nominet's DRS click here

For further information on how the new domain may affect you, please contact Stephen Whybrow by telephone on +44 (0)20 7367 2183 or by e-mail at [email protected], Susan Barty by telephone on +44 (0)20 7367 2542 or by e-mail at [email protected], Lucy Kilshaw by telephone on +44 (0)20 7367 2376 or by e-mail at [email protected] or Simon Moran by telephone on +44 (0)20 7367 3680 or by e-mail at [email protected].