.BR – Release process modified

The Brazilian registry announced at the end of August that starting this September, the liberation process for .br domains will be held differently.

Previously, if you wanted to re-register a .br domain that was previously not renewed you had to wait for a “proceso de liberaçao” (Release process).

This took place three times per year for a period of two weeks each. If you were lucky enough to be the only one requesting the domain, there was no problem.

Problems started when there was more than one requestor for the same domain: in that case the registration would be forwarded to the next release process (meaning you would have had to wait another four months).

It’s important to highlight that you could go through a maximum of six release processes before the domain would be permanently “frozen”. You can imagine that re-registering a domain name of a well-known brand would thereby become extremely difficult.

This has now changed. Here are the main differences:

The process will be held monthly
It will last one week
Any domain receiving more than one request will have to pass a Bidding Process (Proceso Competitivo) (previously only applicants with a Brazilian trademark could prevail over other applicants)
Each applicant will be able to apply for up to 200 domains during each Process. (the limit was 10 domains per applicant)

More details on the Bidding Processes:

First bidding processes will only include domains that have been previously permanently frozen
On the first new Release Processes, available domains receiving more than one application will return on the second release process. There will be no bidding in this case
In future Release Processes, Brazilian registry will notify directly the applicants of those domains that will receive more than one registration request.
After the bidding starts, new applicants are also allowed to apply for the domain, up to the end of the ongoing one week Release Process.
Bidding period will end 24 hours after the end of the “one week application period.” It can be extended in order to end during a workday.
Minimum amount for the bid will be R$50 (a little more than €13). Maximum initial bid is up to R$1,000 (a little less than €270).
New bids must surpass current bid in at least R$50 and not add more than R$1,000 (afterwards, bids of more than R$5,000 greater values will apply)
Highest bidder will be assigned the domain name only after payment.

Not paying the promised amount will have as consequence that the Brazilian Registry will not allow the bidder to apply in the following Release Processes. Domain that was not acquired will not be assigned and offered once again in the following Release Process.

The registry has only communicated the dates for 2017 for the moment: