Terms & Conditions

Upperlink Domain Name Registration Agreement

This Domain Name Registration Agreement ("Agreement") is by and between Upperlink Limited and you the registrant, and is made effective as of the date of electronic execution. This Agreement sets forth the terms and conditions of your Domain Name Registration and represents the entire agreement between You and Upperlink Limited. By participating in this transaction, You acknowledge that You have read, understand and agree to be bound by all the terms and conditions of this Agreement, along with any new, different or additional terms, conditions or policies.
In addition to transactions entered into by You on Your behalf, You also agree to be bound by the terms of this Agreement for transactions entered into on Your behalf by anyone acting as Your Agent, and transactions entered into by anyone who uses the account You've established with Upperlink Limited, whether or not the transactions were in Your behalf.
You acknowledge that Upperlink Limited is a registrar bound by an agreement between Upperlink Limited and NIRA. You agree that Upperlink Limited may modify this agreement in order to comply with applicable law and the terms and conditions set forth by NIRA as well as any registration rules or policies that may be published from time to time by Upperlink Limited.

1. Fees

In consideration for the services and products ("service") purchased by You and provided to You by Upperlink Limited, You agree to pay Upperlink Limited at the time service is provided. Payment is to be made by You. You understand that NIRA requires Upperlink Limited to collect a small registration fee when You purchase Your domain name registration. You agree to pay such fee. Payments are non-refundable. If for any reason Upperlink Limited is unable to charge Your Payment Method for the full amount owed Upperlink Limited for the service provided, or if Upperlink Limited is charged a penalty for any fee it previously charged to Your Payment Method, You agree that Upperlink Limited may pursue all available remedies in order to obtain payment. You agree that among the remedies Upperlink Limited may pursue in order to effect payment, shall include but will not be limited to, immediate cancellation without notice to You of any domain names registered or renewed on Your behalf.

2. Domain Name Renewals

Upperlink Limited will give you adequate notice of one (1) month of the expiration of your domain. If You fail to respond to our notices, Your domain name registration will expire. You can renew your domain name only by calling Upperlink Limited and requesting that the domain name be renewed.
NIRA, in its sole discretion, shall have the right to reject any application for the registration of a Domain Name and refuse to register any Domain Name for any reason whatsoever with no liability of NIRA whatsoever, Upperlink or any other Person.
You acknowledge and agree that applications for the registration of a Domain Name shall be made to NIRA by Upperlink on your behalf in accordance with the applicable Registry PRP.
You agree that Upperlink Limited will not be responsible for cancelled domain names that You fail to renew in the timeframes indicated in this Agreement. In any case, if You fail to renew Your domain name in a timely fashion, additional charges may apply.

3. Term of agreement; modifications

The term of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect as long as You have any domain name registered through Upperlink Limited. You agree that You will not transfer any domain name registered through Upperlink Limited to another domain name registrar during the first sixty (60) days from its initial registration date. You further agree that Upperlink Limited may charge You a small fee if You cancel Your domain within the five (5) day grace period after registering.
You agree that Upperlink Limited may modify this Agreement from time to time. Upperlink Limited may also discontinue services it provides under this Agreement. You agree to be bound by any changes Upperlink Limited may reasonably make to this Agreement when such changes become effective. Should You elect to cancel Your Agreement with Upperlink Limited, You will not receive a refund for any fees You may have paid to Upperlink Limited.

4. Up to date information; use of information and expiration

You agree that for each domain name registered by You, the following contact data is required: postal address, email address, telephone number, and if available, a facsimile number for the registered name holder and, if different from the registered name holder, the same contact information for, a technical contact, an administrative contact and a billing contact.
You acknowledge and agree that domain name registration requires that this contact information, in whole or in part, be shared with the registry operator.
As required by NIRA, this information must also be made publicly available by means of Whois, and that the registry operator may also be required to make this information publicly available by Whois. You hereby consent and give permission for all such requirements and disclosures. Further, You represent and warrant that, if You are providing information about a third party, You have notified the third party of the disclosure and the purpose for the disclosure and You have obtained the third party's consent to such disclosure.
You agree that for each domain name registered by You the following information will be made publicly available in the Whois directory as determined by NIRA Policy and may be sold in bulk as set forth in the NIRA agreement:

The domain name
Your name and postal address
The email address, postal address, voice and fax numbers for technical and administrative contacts
The Internet protocol numbers for the primary and secondary name servers
The corresponding names of the name servers; and
The original date of registration and expiration date

You agree that, to the extent permitted by NIRA, Upperlink Limited may make use of the publicly available information You provided during the registration process.
If You engage in the reselling of domain names You agree to provide any individuals whose personal information You've obtained, information about the possible uses of their personal information pursuant to NIRA policy. You also agree to obtain consent, and evidence of consent, from those individuals for such use of the personal information they provide.
You hereby grant to us the right to disclose to third parties through an interactive publicly accessible registration database the following information that You are required to provide when applying for a domain name:

The domain or sub-domain name(s) registered by You;
Your organization name, type and postal address;
The name(s), position(s), postal address(es), e-mail address(es), voice telephone number(s) and where available the fax number(s) of the technical and administrative contacts for Your domain or sub-domain name(s);
The full hostnames and Internet protocol (IP) addresses of at least two (2) name server hosts (one primary and at least one secondary) for Your domain which must be on separate networks and in different regions and must be pre-configured on the domains
The corresponding names of those nameservers;
The original creation date of the registration; and
The expiration date of the registration.

If You transfer any domain name, You agree to provide the information required by, and to abide by, the procedures and conditions set forth in this Agreement.
In the event You are purchasing a domain name on behalf of a third party, You through You using Upperlink Limited's registration services, that they are in fact registering their domain name through Upperlink Limited and that Upperlink Limited is an accredited registrar with NIRA. You agree not to represent that You are an NIRA accredited registrar or that You are in any way providing superior access to the NIRA.

5. Domain Name Registry.

You agree that Upperlink Limited is not lending You access to its registrar connections or its registry access, nor will You be deemed to be a registrar in Your own right. Furthermore, You agree You will not attempt to gain access to Upperlink Limited’s registrar connections or registry access. You agree to provide complete, accurate and current data for each registrant to be added to a registry in accordance with NIRA requirements for inclusion in the Whois database.

6. Suspension of services; breach of agreement

You agree that, in addition to other events set forth in this Agreement:
Your ability to use any of the services provided by Upperlink Limited is subject to cancellation or suspension in the event there is an unresolved breach of this Agreement and/or suspension or cancellation is required by any policy now in effect or adopted later by NIRA;
Your registration of any domain names shall be subject to suspension, cancellation or transfer pursuant to any NIRA adopted specification or policy, or pursuant to any Upperlink Limited procedure not inconsistent with an NIRA adopted specification or policy;
To correct mistakes by Upperlink Limited or the registry operator in registering any domain name; or for the resolution of disputes concerning any domain name.
You agree that Your failure to comply completely with the terms and conditions of this Agreement and any Upperlink Limited rule or policy may be considered by Upperlink Limited to be a material breach of this Agreement and Upperlink Limited may provide You with notice of such breach either in writing or electronically (i.e. email). In the event You do not provide Upperlink Limited with material evidence that You have not breached Your obligations to Upperlink Limited within ten (10) working days, Upperlink Limited may terminate its relationship with You and take any remedial action available to Upperlink Limited under the applicable laws.
Irrespective of the above, NIRA shall reserve the right to maintain the following list of domains that SHALL NOT be available for registration or will be withdrawn if registered already

Offensive Names: This list shall contain words as determined by the NIRA board to be offensive first to the Nigerian community and then to the global community. ALL requests for domains under this list would be rejected.
Restricted Names: This shall be a list of domains that may give a wrong impression if used. This could pertain to military, government or other related words. ALL applications for these domains would be rejected.
Premium Names: These are domains with generic words ONLY but command premium value. Brand names cannot also be registered by anyone but the licensed registrars with name rights (copyright/trademarks) to such names. Where brand names are registered such names can be retrieved and transferred to the lawful owner. Premium domains would however be made available to registrants though a competitive bidding and auction process. Premium names are limited to the names listed in NIRA’s list as ‘premium’. This list shall contain words as determined by the NIRA board to be premium.

Our SLDs (second level domains)

7. Domain SLD purpose

com.ng Commercial entities and purposes (Open)
edu.ng Higher and further education and research institution (Closed)
name.ng Personal names (Open)
net.ng Internet Service / Telecoms Providers' infrastructure (Closed)
org.ng Not-for-profit entities (Open)
sch.ng Other Academic institutions (Closed and at regional level)
gov.ng National, regional, and local government bodies and agencies (Closed)
mil.ng Military and related purposes (Closed)
mobi.ng For mobile devices meeting .mobi.ng TLD standards (Open)

i. Specific Rules for registration in the .com.ng SLD
These are the specific rules for the .com.ng SLD, administered directly by us. They form part of and, in the case of conflict, take precedence over the Policy.

SLD Charter
Domain Names registered in the .com.ng SLD are intended to be used for commercial purposes, and the 3LD are intended to reflect and be related to these purposes. This SLD would be fully open from July 5, 2008, before then only entities with Nigerian presence may register on this SLD.

ii. Specific Rules for registration in the .org.ng SLD
These are the specific rules for the .org.ng SLD, administered directly by us. They form part of and, in the case of conflict, take precedence over the Policy.

SLD Charter
Registrants in .org.ng are intended to be not-for-profit or public service enterprises, and a 3LD within this SLD is intended to be related to these enterprises and their activities. These may include, as non exhaustive examples, charities, trades unions, political parties, community groups, educational councils, and professional institutions.

iii. Specific rules for the .name.ng SLD
These are the specific rules for the .name.ng SLD, administered directly by us. They form part of and, in the case of conflict, take precedence over the Policy.

SLD Charter
The .name.ng SLD is intended to provide a personal namespace within the .ng Top Level Domain.
Domain names must be, and remain at all times, natural persons (a “qualifying person”), and shall not be recorded on the register as being the agent, trustee, proxy or representative for any person or entity (whether having an individual legal personality or not) which is not a qualifying person.
No registration, transfer, renewal or change may be requested to a .name.ng domain name which would be in breach of Rule 8.2, and any such request may be rejected. If, despite the previous sentence, such an action is requested and does occur, NIRA may reverse that action at any time in addition to any other rights NIRA may have by contract or otherwise.

Charter
Where, as the result of the DRS or judicial proceedings (of relevant jurisdiction) a .name.ng domain name is to be transferred to a person who would not qualify (the “transferee”), the transfer to, and continued registration by, the transferee shall be permitted provided that no use is made of that .name.ng domain name for any purpose, for so long as the transferee holds the domain name.

iv. Specific rules for the .edu.ng SLDs
These are the specific rules for the .edu.ng SLDs, administered directly by us. They form part of and, in the case of conflict, take precedence over the Policy.

SLD Charter
The .edu.ng SLD is a closed one and reserved for ONLY tertiary academic institutions as approved and accredited by the relevant authorities like Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), NCCE and any other body as recognized by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Rules
All registrations on the .edu.ng SLD would be at the 3LD. Various department or institutions under the qualifying institution may then be sub domains and NOT full domains.

Requirements
Registrants in the .edu.ng SLD are required to be approved and accredited Degree Awarding Tertiary Institutions. Notwithstanding the Policy, no Domain Name shall be registered in this SLD unless, in our reasonable opinion, the applicant is an approved/registered Degree awarding institution and the Domain Name registered is the same as or a similar variant of the applicant's name.
Without prejudice to any other test that we may apply, the applicant shall only be deemed to be an Approved/Registered School if the applicant is either:

Duly registered or incorporated under the relevant laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria;
AND the applicant:
Has a provisional or full approval by the relevant accreditation body and government for the provision of Degree awarding institutions. For example for a university it must have an NUC approval.
Any Domain Name registered in .edu.ng may only be used in the manner set out in this Clause, and we may suspend or cancel the registration if we believe it is not being so used, in accordance with the termination provisions set out in our Registrant Agreement.
Each approved/registered tertiary institution may apply for multiple domains ONLY if it relates to the academic institution and NOT a department or unit of the academic institution

v. Specific rules for the .net.ng SLD
These are the specific rules for the .net.ng SLD, administered directly by us. They form part of and, in the case of conflict, take precedence over the Rules.

Charter
This SLD is reserved for the computers of network providers, that is the network information centre (NIC) and network operation centre (NOC) computers, the administrative computers, and the network node computers.

Requirements
Registrants in the .net.ng SLD are required to be Licensed Internet Service or Telecoms Providers. Notwithstanding the Policy, no Domain Name shall be registered in this SLD unless, in our reasonable opinion, the applicant is a Licensed Internet Service / Telecoms Provider and the Domain Name registered is the same as or a similar variant of the applicant's name.
Without prejudice to any other test that we may apply, the applicant shall only be deemed to be a Licensed Internet Service / Telecoms Provider if the applicant is either:

a company registered with the Corporate Affairs commission of Nigeria; or
a partnership as defined by the Partnership laws of Nigeria or
a sole trader;

AND the applicant is:

Licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission for the provision of Internet and Telecoms services
Any Domain Name registered in .net.ng may only be used in the manner set out in this Clause, and we may suspend or cancel the registration if we believe it is not being so used, in accordance with the termination provisions set out in our Registrant Agreement.
The Domain Name must not be used in connection with any service provided by the registrant on behalf of any other entity. For example, the Domain Name must not be used as part of another entity's e-mail address or URL.

vi. Specific rules for the .sch.ng SLD

These are the specific rules for the .sch.ng SLD, administered directly by us. They form part of and, in the case of conflict, take precedence over the Policy.

SLD Charter
The .sch.ng SLD is a closed one and reserved for both primary and secondary schools as designated and approved by various levels of government. Also schools accredited and approved by other agencies like the CPN are eligible for registration under this domain.

Rules
All registrations on the .sch.ng SLD would be ONLY at the 4LD. This is due to the large number of schools and the similarities of the names. Also approving authorities for schools are at the local and state government levels. With all these considered sch.ng SLD would have a qualifying 3LD based on the listed states in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. For examples Mary Don School located in Surulere, Lagos state can register marydon.lagos.sch.ng. While Pillars school in Zaria can register as pillars.kaduna.sch.ng

SLD Requirements
Registrants in the .sch.ng SLD are required to be approved Primary, Secondary or other non degree awarding institutions. Notwithstanding the Policy, no Domain Name shall be registered in this SLD unless, in our reasonable opinion, the applicant is an approved/registered non degree awarding institution and the Domain Name registered is the same as or a similar variant of the applicant's name.
Without prejudice to any other test that we may apply, the applicant shall only be deemed to be an Approved/Registered School if the applicant is either:

a company registered with the Corporate Affairs commission of Nigeria; or
a partnership as defined by the Partnership laws of Nigeria or
a sole trader/registered business name;

AND the applicant is:

Approved and registered by the relevant accreditation body and government for the provision of Non Degree awarding institutions.
Any Domain Name registered in .sch.ng may only be used in the manner set out in this Clause, and we may suspend or cancel the registration if we believe it is not being so used, in accordance with the termination provisions set out in our Registrant Agreement.
Each approved/registered school is only allowed a single registration under the .sch.ng SLD.

vii. Specific Rules for registration in the .mobi.ng SLD

These are the specific rules for the .mobi.ng SLD, administered directly by us. They form part of and, in the case of conflict, take precedence over the Policy.

SLD Charter
Domain Names registered in the .mobi.ng SLD are intended to be used for access by mobile phones, and the 3LD are intended to reflect and be related to these purposes. Also published content on this
SLD are expected to meet the specification as released from time to time of the Mobile Top Level domain corporation and as adopted by NIRA.

viii. Specific rules for the .gov.ng SLD

These are the specific rules for the .gov.ng SLD, administered directly by us. They form part of and, in the case of conflict, take precedence over the Policy.

SLD Charter
The .gov.ng SLD is a closed and limited only to the following

Governments at all levels and
Ministries, Department and Parastatals at all levels as well.

Rules
Registrations on the .gov.ng SLD would be both on the 3LD and the 4LD. Registration at the 3LD is ONLY permitted for the following

The Federal government
The State government
Federal Ministries, Departments, Parastatals and Institutions

For example justice.gov.ng, npc.gov.ng, ogunstate.gov.ng, nigeria.gov.ng, etc. For registrations on the 4LD this is available for the following

State Ministries, Departments, Parastatals and Institutions
Local governments

For example justice.lagos.gov.ng would be for the Lagos state Ministry of Justice. Also surulere.lagos.gov.ng and surulere.oyo.gov.ng would relate to surulere local government in Lagos and Oyo states respectively. The 3LD to be used by the 4LD would be the state names as derived from the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

SLD Requirements
Registrants in the .gov.ng SLD are required to be full government agencies and also have the approval of each tier of government.

For Federal government registration, applicants are expected to also obtain clearance from the federal government entity setup for such approval, and present same during registration. For example, NITDA.
For State government registration, applicants are expected to also obtain clearance from the state government entity setup or designated for such approval, and present same during registration.
For Local government registration, applicants are expected to attach a valid authorization from the local government, and present same during registration:

You agree that the necessary documentation of .gov.ng SLD shall be provided at the point of registration. Registration or transfer of .gov.ng domain shall not be done where the necessary documentation is not provided not withstanding payment of fees for the transaction.

ix. Specific Rules for registration in the .mil.ng SLD

These are the specific rules for the .mil.ng SLD, administered directly by us. They form part of and, in the case of conflict, take precedence over the Policy.

SLD Charter
Domain Names registered in the .mil.ng SLD are intended to be used ONL for military purposes and as approved by the Nigerian military High command.

8. Dispute Resolution

In the event of a dispute, Dispute Resolution is Mandatory for registrants as first option to resolve disputes. NIRA’s full blown dispute resolution process will be in place as from August 1st, 2009.