How to register domains in the zone .UA

UPD: moved to Domainer

I would like to start with a general description of the procedure through which you need to go in order to become the owner of the domain in the zone .UA

First of all, you need to know that to register a .UA domain, you must first register a trademark (TM) in Ukraine with the same name that will be in the domain. For example, if you want to register vasyapupkin.ua, you (ideally) need a TM called “VASYA PUPKIN”. But there is a mass of pitfalls, which later.
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So how do you register a trademark in Ukraine?

There are two (as far as I know) ways to do it yourself for the lobo to use the services of a patent attorney / lawyer. I never did it myself, because I heard that the tape was awful and that at the end of the procedure the person regrets that he did not pay a lawyer for registration.



So, my first registration was 3 years ago. Then I needed to register only one domain. After reviewing the information on the patent offices on the Internet, I chose one small Kiev company, which had quite reasonable prices at that time. After I explained that I want to register a domain in the .UA zone, they explained the TM registration procedure for this domain.

First, you need to search for already existing (similar) trademark applications in the database of the patent office. This search is paid and takes from 4 to 8 days, and the price varies from 400 to 1000 hryvnia (depending on the office with which you work). For example, if you want to register for registration under the name “VASYA PUPKIN” for registering the domain vasyapupkin.ua, you will be advised to search for trademarks similar to “VASYA PUPKIN”. And this is why:

First:

In Ukraine, there are several dozen "classes" of trademarks. There are about 45 of them in total. Each of the classes corresponds to a certain type of activity. For example, Class 3 is “Bleaching preparations and other substances for washing; preparations for cleaning, polishing, degreasing and abrasive treatment; soap; perfumery, essential oils, cosmetics, hair lotions; tooth powders and pastes ”and Class 8 are“ Hand tools and instruments; cutlery; forks and spoons; steel arms; razors.

So, when you register a trademark, you need to choose a class (or several classes) to whose activities it belongs and in which it will be registered. For example, if you register TM “KOLOBOK” (for the subsequent registration of kolobok.ua) you can define it to class 28 (toys).

Important: for registering a domain, a brand can be in any of 45 classes.

Second:

There are (usually) three different terms of registrations TM.
Normal: ~ 18 months (~ 2050-3000 hryvnia)
Accelerated: ~ 8 months (~ 4100-5000 hryvnia)
And the fastest: ~ 2.5-4 months (~ 5900-7000 hryvnia)

Third:

There is a possibility that a TM registration will be denied to you if its name consists of common words. For example, there is a possibility that you will be refused registration of TM “STUL”, since the word is too general. But what if you want a domain stul.ua? To do this, you can "play" with spellings of the name TM. It so happened that according to the rules of registration of domains in the zone .UA - the names of TMs can be transliterated, and also all unnecessary characters that are inaccessible for writing in the domain are removed from them. For example, to register a domain stul.ua you can submit for registration one of these trademarks: “CHOOL” (probability of failure), “STUL” (probability of failure), “ST: UL”, “S & T: UL” and so on. When registering a domain, all letters will be transliterated and the signs ":" and "&" will simply be deleted. As a result, with each of these TM you can register stul.ua. As you can see - options for the sea.

So, why all this information.

I'll tell you by example. For example, you want to register a domain kolobok.ua.
1) You pay for the search for existing TM (or applications for their registration) that can be potentially suitable for registering the domain kolobok.ua. Such a search should reveal (it turned out not always - about this below) such TMs as “KOLO & BOK”, “KO & LO: BOK” and all others.
2) The search did not reveal any trademarks (or applications for them) suitable for registering the domain kolobok.ua. You can move on.
3) Despite the fact that the search did not reveal similar TM, you still decided that it was too risky to submit a TM with the name "KOLOBOK" because of the prevalence of the word. Therefore, in the end, they decided to submit for registration TM under the name “KOL & OBEK” We chose the 28th grade (toys) for the application and the 8 month registration period, since waiting for 18 months does not suit you.
4) Applied for registration, wait 8 months
5) After this time - you receive a certificate of registration of TM and already with it - register a domain.

It would seem that in 8 months you will become the owner of the domain kolobok.ua. But it's not always the case. There are several reasons why a domain registration procedure may fail.
1) You will be denied registration of TM due to the prevalence of the word or because of the similarity with other trademarks. The first is solved by a non-standard way of writing (described above) and the second should (ideally, but not always) be identified by a preliminary search for similar TMs.
2) You will simply be ahead. Take the example above with the registration of TM "KOL & OBOK". If someone wants to register a domain before you - all they need to do is come up with a slightly different (but still suitable for registering a domain kolobok.ua) spelling of a trademark, for example “KOL && OBO: K”. Next, choose any other class besides the 28th (in the example) and pay for a faster registration procedure (2.5-4 months). As a result, their registration certificate will appear in 2.5-4 months and you will have it in 8. Since both TM spellings will be suitable for registering the domain kolobok.ua, the one who has the registration will appear faster and become the owner of the domain. This problem can be solved only in one way - to conduct a search and make sure that there are no already active applications, and then submit for the fastest registration.

Ps. I am not a professional in this field and all the information in this article is only my personal experience obtained from the registration of about 20 brands and domains (most of them are for the clients of our studio).