SECTION I
General Provisions
Article 1
Purpose
The purpose of the present Regulations is to establish the rules for registering top level domain names, with the suffix “.gw”, (country code Top Level Domain – ccTLD), namely DNS – Domain Name System.
Article 2
Legitimacy
1. A domain name available for registration will be granted to the first applicant who meets the requirements for its registration, in accordance with the conditions described in these Regulations.
2. All independent professionals, sole proprietors, applicants or owners of trademarks, as well as all other individual or corporate entities, may register domain names under .gw, regardless of their nationality or the location of their registered office.
Article 3
Administrative Conditions for registering .gw domains and documentation
To register a domain name, it is mandatory for the applicant to:
1. Supply valid data on the domain’s registrant, requested in the compulsory fields on the ARN’s form, namely:
I. For a Legal Entity:
a) Name of the company;
b) Tax identification number details;
c) Physical and electronic address;
d) Name of the person responsible;
e) Telephone number;
f) The Domain Name that you wish to register.
II. For a Physical Entity:
a) Full name;
b) Tax identification number details
c) Identity Card details;
d) Physical and electronic address;
e) Telephone number;
f) The Domain Name that you wish to register.
2. Configure, within a maximum of 14 (fourteen) days, counting from the date and time of the issue of the receipt for registering the domain, at least 2 (two) DNS servers responding for the domain to be registered;
3. Supply:
a) Contact of the entity, which must be represented by someone directly assigned to its management, responsible for maintaining and updating data, registering new domains and changing the domain’s other contacts;
b) The contact of the person responsible for the general administration of the domain name, including any changes and updates for the technical contact and for billing. It is recommended that this person be directly assigned to the entity’s administrative staff;
c) The contact of the technician responsible for maintaining and changing the technical data of the DNS servers. It is recommended that this person is represented by the supplier, if you have one, or by a person responsible for the entity’s technical area;
d) The contact of the person responsible for billing, responsible for supplying and updating the electronic address to which invoices are sent for payment and billing. It is recommended that this person be directly assigned to the entity’s functional staff;
4. Registration of a domain under .gw does not imply the presentation of the respective support documentation, except if that has been requested by the ARN, sending a mere copy of the said documents constituting adequate proof.
5. The ARN may request at any time that certified copies of any of the documents mentioned in the previous paragraph be sent.
Article 4
Technical Conditions for registering .gw domains
1. For a domain to be delegated in the .gw zone, a primary name server and at least one or two secondary servers must be installed and configured.
2. Whenever it is technically viable, the various servers should be installed in different buildings and they should not use the same local network.
3. It must be guaranteed that the servers have permanent access to the Internet, so that they can be consulted at any time.
4. The servers must be configured in accordance with the parameters established by the ARN.
5. The registration of domains simply for the purpose of reserving a name does not require any technical data.
Article 5
How to Register
1. To register a .gw domain, the interested party must do so in one of the following ways:
a) Carry out the registration on-line, on the ARN’s website;
b) Send the duly completed form by fax or post;
c) Register directly at the ARN’s desks.
2. In the case of failure to comply with the established requirements, the applicant will be contacted using the address indicated on the registration form, having fifteen days, as from the date of advice, to settle the request.
Article 6
Deadlines for Activation, Validity and Renovation
1. After registering the domain, paying the management and control fee and checking that the servers are correctly configured and checking their connectivity, if applicable, the domain will be activated within a maximum of seven working days.
2. The domain will remain active for the period that has been paid for and will expire, if there is no desire to renew it.
3. The registration period starts on the date the domain name is registered.
4. The domain name is registered for an initial period of 2 (two) years and renewable for an equal period.
5. Should the domain name have been registered on 29th February and expire on a non-leap year, the domain name will expire, in the respective year, at the end of the 28th February.
Article 7
Those responsible for the Domain
a) Registrant – Individual or corporate entity that takes on the ownership of the domain. It is their responsibility to choose the domain name and assume complete responsibility for it. The registrant may indicate an entity to manage the respective registration/maintenance process, or choose to assume these tasks himself. In the case of a corporate entity, the full name of an individual to be contacted, when necessary, must also be indicated. It is the registrant’s duty to make all alterations to the details given as well as to remove the domain.
b) ARN – responsible for managing the registration, management and control of the domain. On its website, the ARN provides the name of the person to be contacted, as well as details regarding the people responsible for administrative and technical matters;
c) Administrative Contact – representative of the managing entity responsible for handling the registration process, administrative and financial matters. Correctly completing the process of registering the domain, namely regarding the support documentation and applicable direct payments, are entirely his responsibility. The administrative contact will be duly notified of problems of an administrative nature that arise from the domain registration, management and control process.
d) Technical Contact – representative of the domain’s registrant indicated for handling technical matters. The technical administration of the names within the domain is their responsibility, as well as the performance the domain’s hosts.
Article 8
Notifications
1. The domain’s administrative contact will be notified of any administrative or financial non-compliance in the domain registration process.
2. Should any technical problems be detected in the domain, the technical contact will be notified.
3. In the cases provided for in the previous paragraphs, the person responsible that has been notified, must correct the pending situation within seven days, under penalty of the domain registration process being archived.
4. The ARN will use electronic mail as the means of contact with the various people responsible for the domain and will only use other means when the former is not available.
5. Notifications sent to the addresses indicated by the applicant will always be deemed valid and delivered.
Article 9
General conditions for composing domain names
1. Unless otherwise indicated, the domain name to be registered must have between 2 and 63 characters belonging to the following group:
0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
2. The domain name may also have special characters from the alphabet, due to the use of accents and graphic signs, in accordance with the following table:
3. In order to separate words, only the hyphen «-» is acceptable, which may not be used at the beginning or end of the domain name.
Article 10
Prohibited Domain Names
1. The domain name cannot:
a) Correspond to words or expressions contrary to law, public order or morality;
b) Correspond to any Internet top-level domain;
§ Top-level domain is understood to be any TLD (Top Level Domain) which has been assigned by ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and is, as such, part of the DNS Root Zone, managed by IANA – Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.
c) Correspond to names that would mislead or cause confusion about their ownership, namely, by coinciding with notorious or prestigious trademarks that belong to another;
d) Correspond to any protocols, applications or Internet terminology, these being understood to be those defined by the IETF, The Internet Engineer Task Force;
e) Contain two hyphens «–» in a row in the third and fourth position;
f) Correspond to a geographical name.
§Geographical name is understood to be any name, regardless of the language in which it is written, which coincides, namely, with:
a) Any alpha-3 code listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard;
b) The name of a country or territory listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard;
c) The name of a country or territory recognised by UNESCO;
d) The name of a city, civil parish, municipality, administrative region or demarcated area of Guinea Bissau;
e) The name of a foreign capital, city or demarcated area which, due to its notoriety or relevance, is of common knowledge;
f) Other national or foreign toponyms, such as rivers, hills, neighbourhoods or historic areas, which due to their notoriety and relevance, are of common knowledge.
2. The registrant of a .gw domain name guarantees that the registered name and its ownership do not conflict with established rights of others.
SECTION II
Domain registration
Article 11
Composing the Domain Name
1. The .gw domain name must obey the following rules:
a) Have between 2 and 63 characters belonging to the group provided for in paragraph 2 of article 9;
b) In the case of geographic names, these can only be legitimately registered by the competent authority which carries out the administration of a restricted geographical constituency, namely the State over its territory, the Local Government over the administrative constituency in which they carry out their responsibilities;
c) In the case of corporate bodies, the domain name must coincide with the duly registered name or denomination of the company;
d) In the case of public entities, the domain name must coincide with that published in the Official Gazette;
e) In the case of duly registered sole proprietors, the domain name must coincide with the respective name, firm or denomination;
f) In the case of independent professionals, the domain name must completely coincide with the respective professional name as it appears on the document proving the professional category. When there is no pre-defined professional name, namely with a professional body, this will have to be comprised of a minimum of two names;
g) In the case of owners of nationally or internationally registered trade-marks or of applicants of requests for registering trade-marks through any of those means of protection, the domain name must obey the requirements set out in sub-paragraph b) of the next paragraph;
h) The domain name must correspond to the title which is used as its basis except in the case whereby it is comprised of special characters and the applicant chooses not to use them, which is permitted, unless that name has already been registered.
2. The following will also be accepted as domain names:
a) Abbreviations and acronyms of names found in the documents mentioned in sub-paragraphs c), d) and e) of the previous paragraph and in the documents that prove the social, educational or economic relevance for the national community as mentioned in paragraph 4, unless they result in inversions/addendums to them;
b) Requests or titles of word marks and the signs of mixed registered trademarks on behalf of the domain’s applicant, as they appear in the respective national or international registry, as long as in the latter cases, the trademarks are extended to Guinea Bissau.
c) If the request to register a trademark identified in the previous paragraph should be refused, the domain name will be removed immediately.
3. Domain names may also be accepted if they coincide with names of projects, initiatives, plans or actions with proven social, educational or economic relevance for the national community.
Article 12
Assigned rights
1. Following the registration, the registrant acquires the limited, transferable, renewable and exclusive right to use the domain name during the registered period.
2. A domain registration can only be transferred on the express authorisation of the ARN.
Article 13
Monitoring and Immediate Removal
1. Apart from the cases set forth in the following article, as well others provided for in the present regulations, the registration of a domain will be removed immediately if, after monitoring it is found that the conditions concerning the composition of names have not been met.
2. The removal will be communicated to the interested party and as from that moment the domain will be free.
Article 14
Legal Assessment of Domain Registration
1. The ARN will carry out an a posteriori control, as to the legitimacy and basis for registration of the domains registered on-line, in order to verify compliance with the present Regulations.
2. Following the control provided for in paragraph 1 and whenever the ARN deems fit, the domain registrant may be asked to send a copy of the registration’s support documentation to Autoridade Reguladora Nacional, by email or by fax, within seven days.
3. Non-compliance with the rules for registering domain names following the verification carried out within the terms of this article, as well as insufficient or incorrect data leads to the immediate removal of the domain.
Article 15
Providing and Updating Data
1. The domain registrant authorises the data regarding the domain, as well as the respective contact, to be put into electronic format and disclosed on the Internet by the ARN, for consultation by the public in general, enabling the domain name to be associated with its holder and those responsible for its management.
2. The holders of the data provided on the Internet by the ARN, have the right to access it and must update it whenever there is an occurrence that requires such an update.
3. The holders of the data provided on the Internet can oppose to its disclosure, in which case they should inform the ARN in writing of that intention.
Article 16
Payments
1. The registration of a domain implies the payment of an amount for the right of maintenance, in accordance with the decree by the member of the Government responsible for ICT, on the proposal of the Board of Directors of the ARN. The amount due for right of maintenance covers the costs of registration, management and maintenance of the domain.
2. For the purpose of applying the amount due for the right of maintenance, the date of the domain’s submission on the ARN’s database will be considered.
3. Public entities are exempt from the payment identified in paragraph 1.
Article 17
Invoicing
1. Once all the technical, administrative and legal conditions for registering the domain name have been fulfilled, the ARN issues an invoice in accordance with the table published at www.nic.gw.
2. Invoices regarding the domain registration and subsequent renewals will be sent by the ARN to the person responsible for billing in the sense of sub-paragraph d) of paragraph 3 of article 3 or to another contact expressly indicated as authorised for that purpose.
3. The ARN shall send an e-mail notification to the registrant’s address, thirty days in advance, informing him of the domain’s expiry date and bringing his attention to the possibility of renewing it using the renewal mechanism mentioned in that notification.
4. Activating the renewal mechanism implies the issue of a new invoice for the same period, which must be settled within thirty days.
5. If reactivation does not take place within the period mentioned in the previous paragraph, the domain name will become free for registration.
Article 18
Methods of payment
The ARN accepts all possible payment methods in force.
Article 19
Review of Prices
1. The ARN reserves the right to annually review the amount owed for the right of maintenance mentioned in paragraph 1 of article 25 of the present Regulations.
2. The amount to be paid is that which is in force on the invoice date and does not imply that amount being updated or any additional charge or reimbursement to the registrant during the period covered by that payment.
Article 20
Procedures for Changing Data
1. To make any changes to the data in the domain process, using the access credentials given at the time of registration, the respective contact should carry out the desired alterations on-line and these will be duly processed within 48 hours, except in the case of any irregularity;
2. When the changes imply alterations to the primary and/or secondary server, the previous Technical Contact should make the respective changes in order to guarantee correct use of the domain.
3. Changing the ownership of a domain, when that is possible, depends on express request to the ARN by the registrant, attaching the support documents that legitimise that transferral. When authorised, the change will be made by the ARN, who will inform the previous registrant, whilst the domain name must continue to obey the rules for composing the name.
4. Whenever a registrant wishes to register a new domain name, to do so he should remove the previous domain and request the registration of a new domain.
5. Alterations to previously registered domain names are not permitted.
Article 21
Suspension and Removal
1. Removal at the will of the Registrant
In order to remove a domain, using their access credentials, the registrant must make an on-line request for the removal of the domain, or alternatively, send a request to that effect, in writing, to the contacts indicated in sub-paragraph a) of article 5 of the present Regulations.
2. Removal by the ARN
a) Whenever the ARN detects a registrant’s reiterated practice of speculative and abusive domain name registrations, it can place the domain names in question in the pending status, and they will be suspended until the ARN makes a final decision to reactivate or definitively remove them;
b) A registrant’s reiterated practice of speculative and abusive domain name registration will be considered when the monopolisation of domain names is found or if these have been registered with the objective of disturbing third-parties’ businesses or to attract Internet users, misleading them or causing confusion about the ownership of the domain.
c) A domain is removed by the ARN when one of the following situations is brought to its knowledge:
i. Cessation of the Registrant’s business, which is the basis for attributing the domain;
ii. Loss of the right to use the domain, namely by the power of a judicial or arbitral decision or through loss of the permission that justifies its attribution;
iii. Registration had been granted whilst in breach of legal formalities or neglect of third-party rights, namely when finding that the rules contained within the present regulations have been broken, with regard to the acceptability of domain names;
iv. Failure to comply with the provisions of article 12 or in cases in which the request to register the trademark which was the basis for the domain registration was refused, it has expired or its lack of completion is for a reason attributable to the applicant;
3. Other cases of Removal by the ARN
Apart from the cases provided for in the present regulations, a domain can be removed by the ARN if:
a) There are payments more than thirty days overdue;
b) The servers supporting the domain do not meet the technical conditions defined as adequate and the deadlines stipulated for resolving problems were not obeyed;
c) Insufficient or incorrect data is supplied, preventing the ARN from making contact with those responsible for the domain;
d) The domain name should be in conflict with international regulations with regard to forming domain names;
e) The domain renewal mechanism is not activated within the terms of article 15.
4. Removal of the domain does not confer the registrant the right to any reimbursement, compensation or indemnification.
5. The ARN shall notify the Registrant by e-mail using the address found in the database, indicating the reasons for the removal of the domain, which will be effective seven days after sending the above-mentioned e-mail.
Article 22
The Responsibility of the Domain Registrant
1. The appropriate choice of the domain name being requested is the exclusive obligation and responsibility of the applicant. The applicant will declare to be aware that he cannot chose a name which does not obey the legislation in force, that misleads third-parties, that breaches third-party rights, that represents pre-defined concepts on the Internet, that represents abusive language or swear words, that symbolises State institutions, or coincides with other barriers which may come to be defined by the ARN.
2. The following are entirely the domain registrant’s responsibility:
a) The name chosen for registration, its use and possible content on pages mentioned by that domain, the ARN expressly declining any liability for damages arising from such acts and the domain name registrant shall answer to any legal judicial or extrajudicial suits arising from the breach of rights or damages caused to another;
b) To supply the ARN with full and truthful data and keep it up-to-date;
c) To respond to the request by the ARN to update data or present documents, should that be the case;
d) To maintain the DNS in correct operation;
e) To pay the amount for the periodic maintenance of the domain name, in a timely manner.
Article 23
Responsibility of the ARN
1. As the legal entity for the registration and management of domains under .gw, the ARN shall promote the correct maintenance of the domain name space from an administrative and technical aspect.
2. The ARN’s contractual responsibility, namely that resulting from the alteration, expiration and removal of domains, shall be limited to the cases in which fraud or gross negligence occurs.
Article 24
Applicable Law
The present regulations, their meaning and interpretation, as well as any cases omitted from them, shall be governed by the laws of Guinea-Bissau.
Article 25
Resolution of Disputes
In the case of any dispute, the Regulations for Conflict supervision, Sanctions and Resolution shall be applied.
Article 26
Interim arrangements
1. Dematerialisation of the formal domain registration process must be carried out by the ARN in order to accelerate the formalities and procedures inherent to that same registration.
2. For the purpose of the provisions of the previous paragraph, the ARN shall be at once empowered to put into operation measures to make the registration of domains under .gw more timely, but secure, using for that purpose electronic tools, namely information and online data management systems, and in that context, adapting the procedures set out in the .GW Domain Regulations.
3. The ARN may also create and implement the use of registrars, with whom it may sign protocols for them to be intermediaries for registering .gw domains.
Article 27
Term
1. The present Regulations shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.
2. The present Regulations shall not apply to registration requests that are pending as at the date of the former coming into force.