Nigeria has a new national airline, but domain names are already taken

On 18 July, Nigerian Minister of Aviation, Sirika Hadi, announced that plans were underway for a new Nigerian national carrier. However, a few days later it emerged that the domain names NigeriaAir.com, NigeriaAir.ng and NigeriaAir.com.ng had already been bought by a private individual who had put them up for sale. This has elicited a debate among Internet governance communities on the preservation of brands, cybersquatting and dispute resolution in county level domain (ccTLDs) names. Nigeria’s ccTLD .ng is administered by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) whose complaint handling policy allows for independent arbitration of disputes.