Explanatory Note N 4

To the Domain Policy

Of 15 October 2008

Regarding Reproduction in Domain Names of the Marks Whose Text Part Uses Letters Common for the Latin and Cyrillic Alphabets

The .UA Domain Administrator, being guided by:

• Civil Code of Ukraine
• Law of Ukraine "Protection of Rights in Trademarks and Service Marks" of 15 December 1993, with revisions and addenda;
• .UA Domain Policy;

taking into consideration that

• According to Clause 3.2 of the .UA Domain Policy, the second-level private domain names in the .UA domain shall only be delegated if spelling of the respective domain name in full or of its second-level component (before character ".", but exclusive of this character) coincides with the Mark, the rights of whose use in Ukraine are held by the respective registrant. The term “Mark” according to Clause 1.6 of the .UA Domain Policy means a word mark for goods and services with regard to which a Trademark or Service Mark Certificate of Ukraine is issued by the central executive authority dealing with the issues of legal protection of intellectual property, or such mark that has obtained legal protection in the territory of Ukraine pursuant to the Arrangement of Madrid Concerning the International Registration of Trademarks or, if such a registered trademark or service mark consists of text and other symbols, it means its word part, which in itself is an object of legal protection;
• According to Clause 3.4 of the .UA Domain Policy, spelling of the Mark shall be its representation by characters from among the letters of the Latin alphabet, Arabic numerals and the "-" symbol. If the Mark contains characters of other alphabets except for the Latin one, numerals of other numerals systems and/or other characters, the spelling of the Mark shall be its transliteration in Latin characters carried out in compliance with transliteration rules of the alphabet, by means of which the Mark is written
• According to Clause 3.5 of the .UA Domain Policy, a Mark containing characters of the Cyrillic alphabet shall be presented in Latin transliteration;
• According to Article 492 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, and, equally, according to Article 1 Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Rights in Trademarks and Service Marks,” a trademark (mark for goods and services) is a designation, with the designation image to be presented in the respective certificate;

taking into account a significant body of experience of domain dispute resolution developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization as presented in numerous decisions of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, accepted pursuant to the Uniform Domain Resolution Policy UDRP, and being guided by:

• GOST 16876-71 Standard SEV "Rules of Cyrillic Alphabet Transliteration Using Latin Alphabet Letters";
• UL (Ukrainian Latin alphabet) transliteration table recommended for the Ukrainian language and approved by the State Standards Committee of Ukraine (Derzhstandart) on 18 October 1995;
• "The Standard Table for Reproduction of Ukrainian Proper Names in English" approved by Decision N8 of the Ukrainian Commission on Legal Terminology, Minutes N2 of 19 April 1996,

accounting for the fact that the graphics of some letters are common for the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, viz.:

• capitals: "á", "õ", "ï", "å", "÷", "¶", "ë", "í", "î", "ò", "ó", "ô", "è"
• lowercase letters: "Á", "Õ", "Ï", "Å", "¦", "È", "Ò", "Ó"

acting within the scope of Clauses 3.2., 3.4., 3.5. and 1.6.

of deems it permissible and reasonable to delegate the second-level private domain names in the .UA domain only if spelling of the respective full domain name or its second-level component (before symbol "." but exclusive of it) coincides with the Mark the rights to whose use in the territory of Ukraine are held by the respective registrant

In this case, where a Mark contains only the letters indicated above herein, which makes it impossible to conclude unambiguously as to whether the text part of the Mark is presented either in the Cyrillic or Latin script, in order to provide the best possible protection for the Mark holders, it seems appropriate to ensure delegation of domain names in both versions (upon registrant’s request), with the transliteration to be implemented in accordance with the table below:

N	Cyrillic letters	Latin transliteration of Cyrillic letters
1	á	A
2	õ	U
3	ï	O
4	å	E
5	÷	V
6	¶	I
7	ë	K
8	í	M
9	î	N
10	ò	R
11	ó	S
12	ô	T
13	è	Kh
14	Á	a
15	Õ	u
16	Ï	o
17	Å	e
18	¦	i
19	È	kh
20	Ò	r
21	Ó	s

Therefore, domain names will look as follows, e.g.:

N	Mark image	Domain name Version I	Domain name Version II (as transliteration of Cyrillic character)
1	á÷ôï	abto.ua	avto.ua
2	Á×ÔÏ	avto.ua	-
3	xop	xop.ua	khor.ua
4	cop	cop.ua	sor.ua

According to the .UA Domain Policy, both domain name versions may be delegated based on one Certificate and may be used by one registrant. Also, the registrant shall have the right to delegate any one domain name out of the two versions, and in this case, another registrant shall have the right for delegation of a domain name left vacant, if such registrant has the right to use a Mark, which allows delegation of such domain names pursuant to the .UA Domain Policy.

The registrants, which owned the Marks subject to the provisions of this Explanatory Note before latter's enactment, and are already using a domain name, shall have the right for delegation of another domain name to which they have the right pursuant to this Explanatory Note, should they so desire.

This Explanatory Note shall be published on the .UA Domain Administrator's official website (www.hostmaster.ua).