Legal entities
Names of a generic nature and that are not tied to any special interest for all or part of the Swiss community are basically ineligible for .swiss domain names.
Brands and company names that have a designation that is generic and that are not tied to any special interest can still be assigned to the holder of the trademark rights, provided that issuing the domain does not result in any confusion, damage to a third party or major competitive advantage on the internet.
Domain names of a generic nature or that resemble generic domains and are tied to a special interest for all or part of the Swiss community are eligible to apply via a name allocation agreement for the domain name.
Such terms include ones that generally refer to or describe the following areas:
- a category or type of goods (e.g. chocolate.swiss)
- services (e.g. bank.swiss, hairdresser.swiss)
- people or communities (e.g. consumers.swiss, attorneys.swiss)
- organizations (e.g. universities-of-applied-sciences.swiss, associations.swiss)
- things (e.g. machines.swiss, vehicles.swiss)
- subject areas (e.g. baking.swiss, carpentry.swiss)
- activities (e.g. sport.swiss, yoga.swiss)
Private individuals
Generic professions or names that are similar to these ones cannot be assigned to private individuals as .swiss domain names. Examples of such generic names are “smith.swiss”, “miller.swiss” or “brewer.swiss”. Private individuals can only register such names if they are supplemented by another name (e.g. first name, fictitious name or reference to a hobby).
Name allocation agreement
OFCOM has published a list of generic name examples that can be assigned with a name allocation agreement. This list is not exhaustive.
A name allocation agreement is a mandate agreement that regulates the conditions of use of a generic domain name. This name allocation agreement is concluded between the applicant and the registration authority nic.swiss (part of the Federal Office of Communications).
Every interested party must be able to prove that it fulfills the conditions set out in the name allocation agreement and serves as a representative of the relevant group of people or that the registration is significantly supported by said group of people.
A name allocation agreement can include several similar .swiss domain names in German, French, Italian and English.
Special prices apply to domains allocated in the name allocation agreement. This article discusses everything you need to know about the topic in more detail.
The current list and further information about the name allocation agreement can be found on the official .swiss website.
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