[registrars] Payments for multi year registrations.

[Robert F. Connelly]

At 03:51 PM 5/29/2007 Tuesday  +0000, Rob Hall wrote:
>Frankly, I don't think any Registrars still pay only a year at a time,
>as there is a negative incentive to do so.

Dear Rob: That's the way it occurred to me.  Glad to hear that it's a thing of the past.

>  With the Registry prices rising each year, a Registrar would be crazy to not pay it all the years
>up front, as their costs are only increasing every year.
>
>That said, although we don't do it, I know some Registrars offer a
>registration period longer than 10 years.  I think that is perfectly
>acceptable for them to do so as a business model.
>
>If a client wants to buy a 100 year Registration, and they enter into a
>contract with a Registrar to do so, I see nothing wrong with that. 

It never occurred to me that the RAA would permit taking registrations for more than ten years.  I guess I need to read it again.

The ten year figure is not  good idea.  We inherited it from IANA.  While we are permitted to accept a registration for ten years, as a practical matter we can only renew for nine years.  If we renew even a day before expiration, we can only add nine years.  

The renewal periods for Trademarks in many countries is ten years.  Some Trademark holders would like to synchronize domain name renewals with Trademark renewals.  Under the present system, the registrant must renew for nine years, hold back the fees for one more year and then renew again for one year (manually?) some time in the first year of the renewal.  Too easy to forget;-}

Regards, BobC