.CO landrush auctions kick off today

.CO Internet has today started auctioning off domain names that had multiple applicants during the .co landrush earlier this summer.

According to the company, over 2,500 names will be auctioned over the next four weeks. The top three most-contested names were Slots.co, Insure.co and Denver.co.

Other notable .CO domain names up for auction include Mexi.co, America.co, Betting.co, Vitamins.co, UsedCars.co, Happy.co, Ebook.co and Jackpot.co.

Registrants who applied for one of the contested domains need to sign up at www.COauctions.co.

There have been almost 410,000 .co registrations since the Colombian country-code domain was opened up to international registrants last month.

So far, the biggest seller has been o.co, sold to Overstock for $350,000.

Given that slots.com sold for $5.5 million, it seems likely that slots.co could fetch something in five figures or beyond.

The .CO launch, by the numbers

The .co top-level domain is now live and open for general registrations, following a well-planned and self-evidently successful launch period.

The TLD is the country-code for Colombia, but it’s being sold as a generic alternative to .com by .CO Internet.

Here’s the story of the launch, explained with numbers:

27,000 – approximate number of active .com.co registrations made before the start of 2010, under the previous, much more restrictive regime (source).

5,000 – roughly how many of these .com.co registrants chose to participate in sunrise grandfathering, which would allow them to grab the equivalent .co domain before anybody else (source).

100 – number of brands on .CO Internet’s Specially Protected Marks List. These 100 companies, selected by Deloitte, had their brands placed on a registry-reserved list during the launch period.

83 – brands on the SPML who had chosen to register their .co names by the time the sunrise closed (source). Companies on the SPML who continue to decline their domain will see their brand released back into the pool.

10 – registrars initially approved to take .co registrations. Many more companies are selling the domains, but they’re all acting as resellers for these 10. More registrars will be approved in future.

225 to 335 – price in US dollars of a sunrise registration for trademark holders (source).

11,000 – approximate number of sunrise registrations

1,500 – approximate number of rejected sunrise applications (source)

27,905 – applications made during the landrush (source)

451 – landrush applicants applying for 10 or more domains

2,523 – domains receiving more than one landrush application. These domains will now be offered at auction. (source)

133 – number of countries where landrush applicants resided

350– Fortune 500 companies that have registered their trademarks under .co as of today

81,000 – the price in US dollars of the first .co domain to be auctioned, the single-letter e.co. The domain sold on Sedo to Bookmarks.com on June 10 (source)

350,000 – price in US dollars of the biggest seller to date, the single-letter o.co. The domain was sold to Overstock.com, directly by the registry, earlier this week. (source)

91,613 – registrations in the first 12 minutes of general availability, which started at 6pm UTC yesterday. (source)

216,159 – currently active registrations as of 10am UTC today, 16 hours into general availability (source)

? – number of .co domains still active July 22, 2011.

Have I missed anything? Let me know in the comments and I’ll add your data to the list.

.CO landrushers will be able to apply for trademark rejects

The landrush for .co domains will be extended by three days, to give people a chance to apply for strings that were rejected during the sunrise period, according to a registrar.

Key-Systems posted the news to its Facebook page earlier, but the .CO web site has yet to be updated with the same info.

The registrar said that the landrush, in which registrants apply for premium, non-trademarked strings, will now end on Friday, July 16 at 1600 UTC.

It also raised the prospect of a mini-spike in landrush applications in the last few days of the period.

Key-Systems said that domains covered by invalid sunrise applications – claimed trademarks which were rejected for one reason or another – will come up for grabs on July 12.

The list of such names, which could disclose the kind of bogus trademark claims made by those trying to game the system, will make very interesting reading. It’s due to be published July 10.