Robert Ambrogi Blog
Hold on to your hats — the new .law and .abogado top-level domains go on sale today to the legal community at large and there is likely to be a land rush of lawyers flocking to buy them.
But buying one today will cost you a bundle — an extra $12,500 over the minimum annual registration fee of $200. That early-access fee gets lower each day this week until Oct. 19, when it will disappear. The chart below shows the early-access fee schedule.
The .law domain is the latest of a number of new law-related generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to become available. It went on sale July 30 to trademark holders who were given an advance opportunity to register names corresponding to their trademarks.
Two other law-related names — .attorney and .lawyer — went on sale last year. For three others — .esq, .llp and .llc — the sale dates have yet to be announced.
How to Buy One
The .law and .abogado domains can be purchased can be purchased from any authorized registrar. Only qualified lawyers can buy them. According to the .law website:
A Qualified Lawyer is a professional who is licensed to practice law by an approved regulator of legal services in a given jurisdiction. A Qualified Lawyer must be identifiable as a currently-licensed practitioner in the public records kept by the relevant approved regulator.
The registry that runs the .law and .abogado domain names says that it will engage an independent verification company to verify applicants. Applicants will be required to provide the full names under which they hold their law license, the jurisdiction in which they are licensed, their registration number, and other related information.
The registry plans to complete most verifications within 48 hours of submission. If an application is rejected because it fails verification, a process will be provided for the applicant to appeal.
See also: