Right to Reserve guidelines for .uk domains

What is the right to reserve?

In 2014, the .UK registry introduced .uk as a shorter, sharper domain name to sit alongside existing options such as .co.uk and org.uk.

If you registered a .co.uk, .org.uk or .me.uk domain before 10 June, 2014, you may have the reserved right to the matching .uk domain. For example, the owner of www.mydomain.co.uk would have the right to www.mydomain.uk.

Do I have this right?

The qualifying .co.uk, .org.uk or .me.uk domain name must have been registered before 29 October 2013 and have been continually renewed.

Use this tool to check if you own the rights - it will show the qualifying domain, whose owner has the right to the .uk. If there is no match, the domain is not reserved and can be bought on a first-come, first-served basis.

What are my options with this right?

Register it now:

• By registering now, you can start putting your .uk domain to use straight away. For example, you can use it for a new product category, a special marketing campaign, or as your email address.
• DON'T MISS THE DEADLINE! Any rights you may have will expire 25 June 2019, so please act before then in order to protect your .uk domain. On 1 July 2019, the domain will become available for anyone to register it, be it a competitor, a namesake or an investor. If you do not renew the qualifying domain (.co.uk, .me.uk or org.uk), you will also lose the right to the matching .uk.

Pass on your .uk domain:

• If you do not wish to keep your .uk domain, no action is needed.
• If you would like to allow someone else to buy the .uk domain name prior to the 25 June 2019 deadline (e.g. you may have been asked if you would be interested in selling the domain name), you could register the .uk domain name yourself and then transfer the domain name to the interested party.

Any extra steps to register my .uk domain?

The Right to Reserve contact check is done automatically during the registration process, so no extra steps are required.

How do the eligibility rules work?

See the registry FAQs for full details of the eligibility rules.

More info

• Get more information about .uk domains.