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The new .pt Terms & Conditions (registration rules) take effect today. In 1998, by the hands of the FCCN, the first step was taken towards the consolidation of the instrument that, over the last decades, has presided over the registration process under the national ccTLD, the .pt. In more than two decades that followed, the wording was revised twelve times, two of them, respectively in June 2014 and May 2018, already under the responsibility of the DNS.PT Association (.PT).

The dynamics associated with the domain registration matter is well known and has always been one of the engines that does not allow us to crystallize over time. We must be aware, do the constant exercise of looking outside and adapting the .pt to the new realities and challenges that we see daily in the digital world. This is what we have tried to do.

For the first time in our ccTLD, the entire review of the articles was based on a collaborative, open and participatory work. This resulted in the public consultation, the discussion of the document among partners and stakeholders, the opinions of the Advisory Board, which is now largely representative, and all the valuable opinions that have come to us. The conditions were therefore created and disseminated to ensure the full participation of all those who felt they should be involved in the process. We would like to thank you once again for all the contributions received, which in one way or another were valuable for a fruitful discussion and from which a final text capable of containing but the best options can result - we cannot afford to do so - but a range of fairer, more agile registration conditions, consistent with similar models and, at the same time, capable of contributing to the maintenance of .pt security, resilience and trust.

Far is the time when security and trust in the registration of a domain were inseparable from the application of closed, highly restrictive conditions, which were largely shielded in the sense of a domain name as an extension of a brand, seeking, under that ceiling, the constant supplementary protection guaranteed by the legal regime applicable to distinctive signs of trade in general.

This was also a way of dealing with the .com, that insisted on stealing market share, especially from ccTLD’s, and where the rule was, and remains, only one: first come first served. The paradigm today is different: in our vision, the domain name gradually gained a dignity that gives it its own life.

In this same sense, we considered this to be the moment to formally clarify the understanding of the nature of the domain name, which is assumed to be a multifaceted right, of an atypical nature, a right of use, immaterial and autonomous that gives to its owner the exclusivity of use of it.

Domain and brand are now autonomous legal institutes regarding their scope and extent of protection. They are together without necessarily overlapping. To prohibit a domain registration because there is simply a coincident trademark is to limit market competition, the free flow of ideas and content on the Internet and, ultimately, the freedom of expression itself. Thus, these institutes are today fundamental and complementary pieces in the construction of a business model and mechanisms to promote competition.

This is one of the cornerstones of the new Rules, the brand must not be a castrator of the domain name. We do not even allow ourselves to question the fundamental role of brands as an instrument of value creation, as well as the recognition by the different agents that operate in the market of their multiple valences, nor to even write a dead letter of a historical ballast mainly marked by the primacy of the brand over the domain name. In this context, we have sought to provide this new set of instruments that contribute to a more objective and clear analysis and application of criteria, and therefore tend to be fairer, in the context of the possible conflict between a brand and a domain name, often generating heated controversy, although with a predictable outcome.

This text, while not seeking to explore exhaustively all the changes now made, nevertheless has the ambition to focus on those we have identified as most relevant. We therefore invite all those who follow this blog to come back next week, where we will focus on the issue of the responsibility of registrants and the .PT and on the solution proposed to safeguard the possible removal of domains hosting illegal or qualified content under the concept of DNS Abuse.

We hope this is the way, we count on everyone.