With 5 days to the end of the landrush for .me domain name extension, trademark-holders have until June 26, 2008 to follow the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Skype and Digg and register their company and product names with .me domain, which is being marketed as a generic top-level domain by the country of Montenegro.

The .me registry says it has received thousands of domain name registrations in the first week of availability. Apple, for example, has already registered apple.me, ipod.me and itunes.me. Other multinationals that have registered .me domain names extension are Microsoft, Skype, Digg, MTV and BMW. Afilias, which handles back-end registrations for .me, predicts the domain will have widespread appeal.

The senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Afilias, Roland LaPlante says:

“The .me extension gives every company on the planet the opportunity to personalise their brands name and make them more relevant to today’s internet-savvy teens. Companies should be registering .me names not just from an intellectual property protection standpoint, but because there is so much business opportunity to personalise products.”

Predrag Lesic, CEO of the .me registry in Montenegro, says:

“The new internet extension will appeal not only in English-speaking countries but also across the former Yugoslavia, Italy and Spanish-speaking countries, where the letters ‘me’ have a similar meaning as in English.

“We think .me can offer a new business around domain names with verbs,” Lesic says, such as drive.me or fly.me. “This is the start of a new opportunity on the internet.”

The last time a country tried to market its country code extension as a generic domain name was the tiny island nation Tuvulu, which runs the .tv registry. Although .tv names have been available for a decade and have been marketed by VeriSign for online video content, the .tv extension is not among the 10 most popular country code top-level domains.

“I think .tv is starting to get some traction,” LaPlante says. “But .me’s appeal is more immediate and a lot more obvious to people…it should sell well into the millions. And it has corporate appeal not just for TV stations, which are limited in number.”

Companies will need to pay a sizeable sum for a .me name. The retail price for .me names range from 110 to 200 Euros per year for a minimum of five years. That equals $825 to $1,500 for the five-year registration.

In contrast, .com names cost around $15 per year, and .tv names cost around $50 per year.

Companies can reserve .me names from more than 60 domain name registrars. Anyone can register a .me name from June 6 through June 26. The .me registry is scheduled to go live on July 17.

Registration Schedule:

  • Pre-registration: ON NOW!
    Be ahead of the game, pre-register now to be first in line for the landrush period.
  • Landrush: June 6th - June 26th, 2008
    Your only chance to apply for .ME domains before they’re live for open registration!
  • Quiet Period: June 27th - July 6th, 2008
    You will receive an email stating that you have been awarded with the domain or that it will be auctioned between the requesting parties.
  • Open Registration: July 17th, 2008
    All unregistered .ME domains will be available to the public and issued on a first-come first-served basis.