27 Registration Life Cycle

Prototypical answer:

Commercial Connect, LLC. expects to reserve certain premium domain names to be made available for auction sometime in the second year of operations. In addition, there will be a sunrise period and trademark period. The trademark registration period will come first, then it will be followed by a premium domain name registration period where the cost for the .SHOP TLD will be significantly higher. This is done to reduce the impact of the open registration. After the premium registration and open period of registration will begin.


Add Contact
In order to register a .SHOP domain name, one must first be verified as a verified .SHOP domain name owner. In order to become a “verified owner,” the owner’s information must be supplied to Commercial Connect, LLC with a verification fee. Verified Owners must agree that they are not acting as agents to other entities as all .SHOP domain names must be owned by the person operating the e-commerce site. The verification process can take as long as two business days to complete. Once a contact is verified, a flag is placed on that contact, so that it will be allowed to be used as an owner for a .SHOP domain name.

Applied Status
During verification process, if a domain name is requested it is placed under and Applied for status until the owner can be verified. The Applied status can lock the domain for up to seven (7) days while he verification process is completed.

New Registration
Once an owner is “verified” they can continue the process of registering one or more .SHOP domain names.


Registrar Transfer Rules
A created domain name must be 61 days old or older to be available for transfer between registrars. A domain name can be transferred in one-year increments from one to 10 years. A one-year renewal is the default setting. If the difference between the current date and the new registration date is more than 10 years abut less than 11 years, then the transfer will be clipped to 10 years. If the difference between the current date and the new registration date is greater than 11 years, the transfer will be rejected. The pending-transfer period is five (5) days. If the transfer request is neither approved nor rejected by the losing registrar within the five-day pending-transfer period, Commercial Connect will automatically approve the request. As stated above, registrar transfers of premium names are prohibited.

Bulk Transfers
Subject to Commercial Connect’s discretion and approval (and any transfer fees or charges that may be assessed by CCLLC), registrars may request bulk transfers of .SHOP domain names by submitting a bulk transfer request in writing accompanied by a complete list of the domain names to be transferred and signed by both the gaining and losing registrars.

Grace Periods
A grace period refers to a specified number of calendar days following a registry operation in which the domain name may be deleted and a credit may be issued to a registrar. Relevant registry operations in this context are:
• Registration of a new domain name (“add grace period”)
• Explicit renewal of an existing domain name (“explicit renew grace period”)
• Auto-renew of an existing domain name (“auto-renew grace period”), and;
• Registrar transfer of an existing domain name (“registrar transfer grace period”)

Add Grace Period
The “add grace period” is a specified number of calendar days following the initial registration of a domain name. The value of the add grace period is five (5) calendar days. If a delete, explicit renew, or transfer operation occurs within the five calendar days, the following rules apply:
• Delete: If a domain name is deleted within the add grace period, the sponsoring registrar is credited for the amount of the registration. The domain name is deleted from the registry database and is immediately available for registration by any registrar. If a domain name is deleted after the five-day grace period expires, it will be placed in “redemption period” status for 30 calendar days.
• Explicit Renew: If a domain name is explicitly renewed within the add grace period, there is no credit for the add. In addition to the initial registration charge, the registrar’s available credit will be debited for the number of years the registration is explicitly renewed. The expiration date of the domain name is extended by the number of years as specified by the registrar’s requested explicit renew operation up to a maximum resulting registration period of not more than 10 years.
• Registrar Transfer: A domain name may not be transferred within the add grace period.

Explicit Renew Grace Period
The “explicit renew grace period” is a specified number of calendar days following the explicit renewal of a domain name registration period. The value of the explicit renew grace period is five (5) calendar days. If a delete, explicit renew, or transfer operation occurs within the five calendar days, the following rules apply:
• Delete: If a domain name is deleted within the explicit renew grace period, the sponsoring registrar receives a credit of the explicit renew fee and the domain name is placed on “redemption period” status.
• Explicit Renew: A domain name can be extended within the explicit renew grace period for up to a maximum of 10 years. The domain name renewal request will be rejected if the totals years requested are greater than 10 years. The registrar’s available credit will be debited for each of the additional number of years the registration is explicitly renewed.
• Registrar Transfer: If a domain name is transferred within the explicit renew grace period, there is no explicit renew credit. The expiration date of the domain name is extended by one year for the transfer and the years added as a result of the explicit renew remain on the domain name up to a maximum of 10 years. The gaining registrar is charged for that additional year for the transfer, even in cases where a full year is not added because of the 10-year maximum limitation.

Auto-Renew Grace Period
The “auto-renew grace period” is a specified number of calendar days following an auto-renewal. An auto-renewal occurs if a domain name registration is not explicitly renewed or deleted by the expiration date; in this circumstance the registration will be automatically renewed by the system the first day after the expiration date and the registrar’s available credit will be debited. The value of the auto-renew grace period is 45 calendar days. If a delete, explicit renew, or transfer operation occurs within the auto-renew grace period, the following rules apply:
• Delete: If a domain name is deleted within the auto-renew grace period, the registrar receives a credit of the auto-renew fee at the time of the deletion. The domain name is then placed on Redemption Period status.
• Explicit Renew: A domain name can be explicitly renewed within the auto-renew grace period for up to a total of 10 years. The account of the sponsoring registrar at the time of the additional extension will be charged for the additional number of years the registration is explicitly renewed.
• Registrar Transfer: If a domain name is transferred within the auto-renew grace period, the losing registrar receives a credit of the auto-renew fee and the year added by the auto-renew operation is cancelled. The expiration date of the domain name is extended by one year up to a total maximum of 10 by virtue of the transfer and the gaining registrar is charged for that additional year, even in cases where a full year is not added because of the 10-year maximum limitation.

Registrar Transfer Grace Period
The “registrar transfer grace period” is a specified number of calendar days following the completion of a domain name transfer. The value of the registrar transfer grace period is five calendar days. If a delete, explicit renew, or transfer operation occurs within the five (5) calendar days, the following rules apply:
• Delete: If a domain name is deleted within the registrar transfer grace period, the sponsoring Registrar receives a credit for the transfer fee and the domain name is placed in Redemption Period status.
• Explicit Renew: If a domain name is explicitly renewed within the transfer grace period, there is no credit for the transfer. In addition to the transfer fee, the registrar’s available credit will be debited for the number of years the registration is explicitly renewed. The expiration date of the domain name is renewed by the number of years as specified by the registrar’s requested explicit renew operation up to a maximum resulting registration period of not more than 10 years.
• Registrar Transfer: If a domain name is transferred within the registrar transfer grace period, there is no credit. The expiration date of the domain name is extended by one year up to a maximum term of 10 years.

Redemption Period Status
When a domain name is deleted outside of the add grace period or within the registrar transfer, auto-renew, or explicit renew grace periods, it is placed on redemption period status for 30 days. The redemption period works as follows:
• Domain name deleted.
• Domain name is removed from the zone.
• Domain name placed on redemption period for 30 days.
• No modifications can be made to the domain name while in redemption period status.
• The redemption period status can only be removed by using the “restore” command.
• If the domain name is NOT restored during the 30 day window, the name is then placed on “pending delete” status for five days.
• While in “pending delete” status, the domain name cannot be restored.
• After the five day “pending delete” period expires, the domain name will be deleted.

Restore Command
The “restore command” allows a registrar to remove the redemption period status from a domain name. The restore command is a billable transaction and debits the registrar’s account each time it is issued. The restore command requires the registrar to complete two actions:
• Pass the restore command to CCLLC.
• Complete the restore report.
Details regarding the restore command:
• The restore command will remove the redemption period status.
• The restore command cannot be submitted for premium names.
• The restore operation will not change the registration expiration date even if the domain name has already expired. When an expired domain name is restored and the restore report is successfully received for the domain name, the auto-renew batch process will extend the expiration date to be one year from the current expiration date.
• NOTE: If a restore has been requested but the restore report has not been processed for that domain name, then it will not be included in the Auto-Renew Batch process.
• A successful restore command will place the name on “pending restore” status for seven (7) days.
• Domain names on “pending restore” status will be included in the zone files.

Details regarding the restore report:
The restore report is the second step in the restore command process. Once a registrar has successfully removed the redemption period status from a domain name using the restore command, they must submit an explanation to CCLLC. This is accomplished by completing the restore report.
• Once the registrar has successfully executed the restore command, the domain name will now be on “pending restore” status.
• The “pending restore” period is seven (7) calendar days.
• During this seven-day window, the registrar must submit a restore report to CCLLC.
• If CCLLC receives the restore report, the domain name will be placed in “active” status.
• If CCLLC does NOT receive the restore report within the seven-day window, then the domain name is returned to redemption period status.

As part of their restore report, a registrar will be required to submit the following details as part of their restore report:
A. A copy of registrarʹs WHOIS data for the deleted name as it appeared prior to the deletion. The WHOIS data must contain the following:
• Correct name of the registered domain name
• Non-blank nameserver name(s), or ʺnoneʺ
• Correctly formatted date in original creation date field
• Correctly formatted date in expiration date field
• Non-blank field for the name and address of the registrant
• Non-blank field for the name and address of the administrative contact
• Non-blank field for the email address of the administrative contact
• Non-blank field for the voice telephone number of the administrative contact
• Fax number of the administrative contact, if provided
• Non-blank field for the name and address of the technical contact
• Non-blank field for the email address of the technical contact
• Non-blank field for the voice telephone number of the technical contact
• Fax number of the technical contact if provided.
B. The date and time the registered domain name was deleted. (CCLLC requires properly formatted date and time.)
C. The date and time the restore operation was performed on this domain name. (CCLLC requires properly formatted date and time.)
D. A brief explanation of the reason why the domain name was restored.

CCLLC will process all restore report submissions in a one-time batch process. Once the restore report batch is processed, CCLLC will convert the domain names to “active” status.


SYNC Calculations
The SYNC operation can be used to move the expiration date of the domain name forward to a specific date (month and day) that is provided in the command.
• The year will not be provided in the command. This will reduce the amount of invalid data and the attempts to SYNC and RENEW in one transaction. If the registrant wishes to SYNC the dates and RENEW for one to 10 years, this will be handled as two separate transactions.
• If the month and date is later than the current expiration month and date, then the expiration date will be extended within the same calendar year as the current expiration date.
• If the month and date is earlier than the current expiration month and date, then the expiration date will be extended to that month and date in the calendar year following the current expiration date.
• If the month and date in the command is equal to the current expiration month and date, then an error will be returned. (This eliminates the possibility of executing a repeated SYNC command.)
• Registrars are charged for the SYNC operation for each domain, based on the number of calendar months the expiration date is extended. The minimum charge is for one month.
• The maximum charge is for 11 months. If a registrar issues a SYNC command on a domain name setting the expiration date less than one month, CCLLC will charge the registrar for one month.
• If a Registrar issues a SYNC command on a domain name setting the expiration date to N months and X days, we charge the registrar for N months.
• If the expiration is extended within the same month (whether it is one day or 30 days), the SYNC period will be defined as one month. (e.g., January 1 to January 15 is counted as one month)

NOTE: If the current expiration is January 15 and the SYNC operation is changing it to January 1, then this will be counted as 11 months because the registration is being extended to January 1 of the following year. If the expiration is extended to a different month, then the SYNC period will be defined based on the number of calendar months. (e.g., March 5 to October 27 is counted as seven months, October 27 to March 5 is counted as five months, June 1 to July 31 is counted as one month).

SYNC Grace Period
There is no SYNC Grace Period. If the SYNC is successfully executed during an add, renew, auto-renew, or transfer grace period, the following rules apply:
• Add: A domain name can be synchronized within the add grace period. The SYNC command will not extend the domain name registration beyond the 10-year registration limit. If the domain name is deleted during the add grace period, the sponsoring registrar is credited for the amount of the registration only and not the SYNC.
• Renew and Auto-Renew: A domain name can be synchronized within the renew and auto-renew grace period. The SYNC command will not extend the domain name registration beyond the 10-year registration limit. If the domain name is deleted during the renew or auto-renew grace period, then the sponsoring registrar is credited for only the renewal or auto-renewal and not the SYNC.
• Transfer: A domain name can be synchronized within the transfer grace period. The SYNC command will not extend the domain name registration beyond the 10-year registration limit. If the domain name is deleted during the transfer grace period, the sponsoring registrar is credited for the amount of the transfer only and not the SYNC.

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