Kia ora 

Brent Carey
Domain Name Commissioner 

Updates from the team

Annual report

Highlights from the year in review included:

• 722,391 domain name registrations: at 31 March 2021 up from 708,507 at the same time last year 

• 76 authorised registrars, 63% of which are incorporated in New Zealand

• 1,501 domain names investigated for possible fake registration details. 932 of these names were suspended, including 103 covid-related names.

• 200 domain names investigated were referred to us by our online safety partners; top referrer CERTNZ.

• being named winner of New Zealand’s employer of choice public sector/not for profit agency in the Human Resources Directors Awards

InternetNZ elections 

Council elections for 2021 have concluded at the InternetNZ AGM for the election of two Council members and the office holder positions of President and Vice President.  We welcome Jeff Montgomery and Richard Hulse as Councillors and congratulate Joy Liddicoat on becoming President and Jay Daley on Vice President. We look forward to working with our parent company’s Governors on matters of strategy related to the management of the .nz domain name space.

New telephony Dialpad

Dispute resolution service 

New expert decision – Window business reclaims its name

Dispute over designwindows.nz 

The complainant had both registered and unregistered trade mark rights in the name Design Windows and a well-established brand in the window industry. The domain name that was registered (designwindows.nz) by a competitor had been redirected to a competitor’s website.

The expert considered the following factors in determining that the domain name should be transferred to the complainant:

• The redirection of the domain name might deceive, mislead, or at least confuse customers 

• The respondent had very likely been aware of the complainant business when it acquired the domain name 

• The use of the domain showed an intention to make financial gain and unfairly disadvantage the complainant, and its use by the competitor compromised the trade mark.

Thanks also to Ben Cain from James & Wells for the write up in the Bay of Plenty Times of our previous released decision about jetcharge.co.nz 

Decisions can currently be found on https://old.dnc.org.nz/decisions. Our new website will be updated soon to provide access or links to domain name dispute decisions. 

Update for .nz domain name holder

.nz registry fact of the month

Did you know that since July 2019, all new .nz registrations are analysed to detect fake webshops? In the 2020/2021 financial year, we analysed 149,000 domains and detected 267 fake webshops.

Updates for industry

Domain name retention

Registry lock update

InternetNZ is making good progress on a new service that you can opt in to offer to your customers - a registry lock. This service adds another layer of safety to .nz domain names by locking it at the registry level. To make changes to a locked domain, the registry is required to carry out additional levels of verification checks of authorised contacts associated with the domain name. Registry locks help to prevent domain name hijacking attempts. 

You will be able to opt in to the registry lock service by the end of 2021. We’ll keep you updated.

Outreach and engagement

Overseas Investment Office

We met up with staff from the Overseas Investment Office in July. Part of our function is to ensure that the .nz market is operating properly and to approve changes of control of registrars. With the rules on investing in New Zealand businesses having changed significantly since COVID and with increasing overseas transactions affecting .nz registrars, it was very helpful to upskill in this area. 

We are grateful to Charlotte Connell the Stakeholder and Customer Engagement Lead at the OIO Reform Programme for making this happen.

2021 Global Summit - Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism 

At this year's summit various reports from a number of working groups were released including a collection of research to expand the hash-sharing database's taxonomy in order to continue combating terrorist and extremist content online. The GIFCT is currently calling for volunteers for a number of its working groups with applications closing 25 August 2021.

Follow Us on Twitter & LinkedIn

Be sure to follow the Commission on Twitter & LinkedIn. We have committed to sharing content regularly there on a daily and weekly basis. The perfect way to stay connected and informed in between newsletters.

Interesting news 

• Beware the prowling bots
• Preventative actions to safeguard your domains and recover from domain name hijacking
• Microsoft targets homoglyph domains used by cybercriminals targeting businesses
• Have your say: auDA 2021-25 Proposed Strategy released for consultation
• Online marketplaces, counterfeits and consumer disappointment
• InternetNZ's Māori Design Group 
• Get IP: Before You Begin 

Upcoming events

• Register APTLD & Pacific IGF Joint Forum, 6-9 September 

Feedback 

And, as always, please give us feedback via email info@dnc.org.nz or on Twitter (@nzdnc). What topics do you want to hear more about, what bullet above is your favourite? What do you want more or less of?