Offices & Countries / Russia / Domain Names

Speaking about the legal regulation of domain names in Russia, one should note that the Russian legislation does not define a domain name. The only reference to the domain name is in Item 2, Art. 4 of the Russian Law "On Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin". In January 2001 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation defined a domain name as a mean of individualization of the producers and their goods/services on the Internet, the main function of which is transferring the Internet Protocol addresses, made as figures, to the names, which facilitate search and identification of a domain name administrator on the Internet.

.RU domain name may be registered through several authorized Russian organizations, for instance, through the Autonomous Nonprofit Organization "Regional Network Information Center" (RU-CENTER), www.nic.ru.

Registration of .RU domain name is valid for one year. It may be further renewed for a year, provided that the relevant fee is paid.

It is possible to pay for registration and renewal of .RU domain name by credit card. The payments may also be effected by wire transfer and by cash at the office of Registrar.

As for sale-purchase of a .RU domain name, a clause prohibiting sale-purchase of .RU domain names was cancelled on February 20, 2004. Before this, sale or offering to sale a .RU domain name might result in cancellation of a domain name registration.



It is also admissible to register the generic domain names - the Russian Naming Authority has already registered such domain names as shop.ru, book.ru, mail.ru, reclama.ru ("advertising.ru").

There are no restrictions for registration of a .RU domain name. Any person (legal entity or natural person) may apply for one or more .RU domain names. It is not necessary to be a resident of the Russian Federation, confirm a right to the identical trademark or company name, like in Ukraine or Georgia, for instance.

There are no special requirements for registration of a .RU domain name. It is necessary to conclude agreement with the Russian Naming Authority and file a request for .RU domain name. The applicant shall submit the following information: full company name for legal entity or full name for natural person, address/legal address, mailing address, phone, fax numbers, admin-c, tech-c, notarised copy of the Registration Certificate of the company, Article or Memorandum of Association for legal entity, primary and secondary DNS (optional). Registration of .RU domain names takes 1-3 working days.

In case of bringing a domain dispute before the court, the aggrieved party can seek a transfer of the domain. Pursuant to Item 3.3.4 (c) of "Regulations for registration domain names in RU domain" registration of a .RU domain can be cancelled as per the judgment of a court before registration expires. In addition, the aggrieved party has a privilege of registration of the .RU domain in question in its name. A request to register can be filed within a month after the court renders a judgment. This Item was incorporated in the Regulations in April 2002. Before this the claimants had problems with re-registration of the disputed domain names in their own names.

What is domain name .SU?
Domain name .SU is a country-code of the territory of the former USSR. The cost of registration of a .SU domain name is USD 100 (excl. VAT). The term of validity of the domain name is 1 year. After this registration of a domain name may be renewed, cost of renewal is USD 100 (excl. VAT).