News

Domain names in Nicaragua are regulated through the Law on Trademarks and Other Distinctive Signs, which contemplates this matter in its article 85, by regulating the cancellation and transfer of the Domain Name when a well-known distinctive sign is included as part of the name or an email address of an unauthorized third party.

In these cases, by request of the holder or legitimate owner of the well-known trademark, it will be canceled or modified the inscription of the domain name or email address before the NIC.NI, as long as the use of that name or address is likely to infringe upon the exclusive rights in the use of trademarks.

The NIC.NI is the non-profit organization that in 1988 the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), now ICANN (Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers), empowered to take over the stable and reliable operation of the only authorized database called Domain Name System .NI (DNS), all of these by the request of the National University of Engineering, being the second domain code open and delegated in Latin America.

In order to obtain the registration of a domain name before the NIC.NI, a quick administrative process must be carried out, which basically consists in choosing the name of interest and verifying if it is available, (this can be done online on the NIC.NI website). If available, fill out an online form with technical and legal information required, make the payment of the official fees and finally the domain name is granted for a period of five years where annual fees must be paid.

The NIC.NI is informed of the possible trademark infringement by means of the domain name, and said institution informs the owner to allege what considers appropriate. It also notifies the Intellectual Property Registry and requests information in order to define how to proceed.

Mayra Navarrete Crovetto
Senior Associate
García & Bodán
Nicaragua