.no

.no is the country code top-level domain name for Norway. Its operations are managed by Norid.

Controversies

Norid announced in October 2010 that it and CoDNS would begin offering third-level .co.no names to the public, in order to bring some flexibility to the .no ccTLD. CoDNS was slated to be outsourced by Norid as the registry offering registrations under the .co.no domain name.

Prior to 2001, the domain name co.no -- and other similar two-letter possibilities -- were on a list of .no names forbidden from user registration. In 2001, the restriction was lifted, and a company called Elineweb registered co.no. Nine years later, the name was placed back on a list of forbidden names, and registrants were allowed to maintain usage of those names, though theyre barred from transferring them to other registrants.

Norid realized in 2009 that the Whois record for co.no lists Elineweb as the owner of the domain name, though rights had already been outsourced to CoDNS for selling registrations under that third-level domain name. CoDNS had already offered a similar service in the Netherlands, under the third-level domain name co.nl. According to the Operational Manager of CoDNS, Sander Scholten, CoDNS sued Norid in 2011 after an inability to solve the ownership dispute in an "amicable way".

Elineweb also sued Norid in October 2011. In July 2012, Norwegian courts ruled that Norid cannot revoke Elineweb's registration or transfer it to a third party. As a result, Elineweb plans to offer .co.no domain names, in partnership with CoDNS, on a first-come, first-serve basis.