1. History

Most countries have their own Top Level Domain. The .uk TLD was first used in 1985,^[1] and at that time a voluntary group called the "Naming Committee" managed the registration of .uk domain names. This consisted of members of LINX as full members (the main ISPs in the UK), and their resellers as guest members. By the mid 1990s, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who registered domains for their customers were joined by a new breed of domain name specialists who had an entrepreneurial attitude to domain names. The Naming Committee operated a ruleset that forced all name registrations to 'exactly' match the name of the registering company and also limited all companies to a single domain name. Although such rules were not exceptional for the time (Network Solutions operated a similar policy in the United States), the growth of a commercial internet soon brought these restrictions into close focus. As demand for domain name registrations grew, it became clear that a voluntary group could no longer cope with the volume of registrations being requested.^[2] It also became clear that the existing ruleset was not sustainable and the Naming Committee was going to break down under pressure of registrations.

1.1. Birth of Nominet

When it became clear that a new organisation with a new approach was needed to manage the .uk TLD. The Naming Committee mailing list had mutated into a discussion group for domain name issues and many discussions about what type of corporation the Registry should be were held. Meanwhile, at UKERNA, Dr Willie Black and John Carey, were watching the situation and in 1996 John Carey wrote a proposed plan for a new organisation to be called Nominet. This was distributed widely, and the first Nominet meeting was held at a hotel at Heathrow Airport on 11 April 1996.

The options to set up as a profit-making company or a charity were rejected, and Nominet was established on 14 May 1996 as a private, not-for-profit membership company, limited by guarantee.^[3] Whilst the move was generally popular, there was strong resistance from some parts of the industry.^[4] Although formed with a board composed of Willie Black (who became the first CEO of the new company), John Carey and the four co-founders drawn from the internet industry,^[5] elections were held by the new membership which resulted in the first elected board members to oversee the growth of the UK domain name industry.

1.2. Pre-Nominet Domain Names

Moving domains to the newly formed company registrants of existing domains were invited to agree to Nominet's new terms and conditions. There were several complaints from pre-Nominet domain owners objecting to the need to start paying for something that was previously free.

Many pre-Nominet domain names had little or no contact information, as a result it has been hard to work out ownership of the domain names. Nominet are running an internal project (the PreNom project) to clear out the remaining pre Nominet domain names so by the end all domain names would be under the new Nominet terms and conditions.

Nominet soon realised it had to work hard to protect both the information it held and the legal position of intellectual property and brand owners.

1.3. Structural Issues

Nominet's success brought with it a number of structural concerns. Over time, it built considerable cash reserves. In 1999, candidates stood for the board on platform similar to 'carpet bagging' attempts with mutual building societies;^[6] whilst this was roundly defeated, controversy over its cash reserves remained.

2. Registry

2.1. Top-Level Domains

Nominet manages the registry of the following top-level domains:

• .uk – top-level domain for the United Kingdom
• .cymru – top-level domain for Wales
• .wales – top-level domain for Wales

2.2. Second-Level Domains Managed by Nominet

Nominet manages the following second-level domains:

• .co.uk – unrestricted, intended for businesses
• .org.uk – unrestricted, intended for non-profit organisations
• .net.uk – reserved exclusively for UK internet service providers
• .ltd.uk – reserved exclusively for UK limited liability companies; subdomain must correspond to the company's registered name
• .plc.uk – reserved exclusively for UK public limited companies; subdomain must correspond to the company's registered name
• .sch.uk – reserved exclusively for primary and secondary schools
• .me.uk – unrestricted, intended for personal use

2.3. Second-Level Domains Managed by Other Organisations

• .mod.uk – operated by the Ministry of Defence
• .mil.uk – operated by the Ministry of Defence

2.4. Quasi Second-Level Domains

The following are widely used as second-level domains but are registered with Nominet as top-level domains:

• .gov.uk was used as a second-level domain for UK government agencies until 2012 when gov.uk started functioning as a Nominet-registered independent domain.
• .ac.uk is commonly used as a second-level domain for UK education and research establishments but ac.uk is actually a Nominet-registered domain held by JANET.