CHOOSING A DOMAIN NAME

Please note that before you apply for a domain name registration under .my, you must meet MYNIC criteria. For individuals applying for personal domain names, please refer to FAQ - About Personal Domain Names. For organisations, your organisation must have a presence in the manner stated in the Supporting Documents.

For basic information on domain names, please refer to the FAQ – About Domain Names.

Top-level domain

MYNIC administers the .my top level domain. However, MYNIC only registers third level domain names (please refer below). Therefore, MYNIC does not register other forms of domain names such as:

www.abc.com.my
abc.bcd.com.my
abc.my

Second-level domain

These are the second-level domains available for registration:

com.my For commercial organisations/activities
net.my For network-related organisations/activities
org.my For organisations/activities which do not qualify for other categories
edu.my For Malaysian educational organisations only
gov.my For Malaysian government organisations only
mil.my For Malaysian military organisations only
name.my For Malaysian individual's personal use only

Except for the .gov.my, .edu.my and .mil.my domain names which have special requirements, it is your responsibility to select the most appropriate second level domain name.

For organisations considering .com.my/.net.my/.org.my domain names, your choice of second-level domain name should closely match or best reflect your organisation’s area of interest/activities. This is an attempt to avoid confusion in cyberspace, as Internet users often assume some implied correlation with the second level domain name used.

MYNIC does not check for the suitability or appropriateness of the domain name chosen by the Registrant.

Third-level domain

It is this third level domain name that you register with MYNIC. These are examples of third level domain names:

abc.com.my

abc.org.my

a-b-c.net.my

It is up to you to choose the third level domain name.

For organisations, you may use your name, brand name, product name, trademarked name, licensed name or other types of name.

For individuals, the .name.my personal domain name should reflect and/or represent your name/identity which includes your full or legal name (as per identity card), variations of your name, nickname, stage name, pseudonym and others. For details, please refer to Rules on Registration of Personal Domain Name.

MYNIC does not check for the suitability or appropriateness of the domain name chosen by the Registrant.

In choosing the 3rd level domain name, the following criteria must be complied:

Registration is on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Therefore, domain names must not.

already have been registered to another applicant or
be the subject of an application currently under consideration by MYNIC.

Doing a search using the MYNIC Whois Service will reveal if your chosen domain name is available.

Your domain name must conform to certain alphanumeric conventions:
- it must contain at least 1 character, but no more than 40 characters. For example:
  
  a.com.my
  
  abcabcabcabc.org.my

The characters may comprise the 26 letters [a-z] of the Roman alphabet, the 10 digits [0-9] and the character "-" (hyphen or dash). For example:

companyname.net.my

organisationname123.gov.my
organisationname-123.edu.my

However, the character "-" (hyphen or dash) can only be used as a separating element. It cannot be used as an initial or final character in a label.
You are not allowed to use other separating elements such as "_" (underscore), "&" (ampersand), "/" (oblique or slash), "." (dot or period), and " " (white space).
Your domain name must contain only lower case characters because the domain name system is case insensitive.

Note the following prohibitions. Domain names must not:

By themselves contain country or state names or well-known names such as “Malaysia”, “Malacca”, “Johore”, etc, or the Bahasa Malaysia equivalents such as “Melaka”, “Johor”, etc.

These domain names may only be applied by the relevant State authority, or persons who have been duly authorised by the relevant State authority. All applications and/or letters of authorisation must originate from the State Secretary's (Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri) Office of the relevant State.

By themselves contain words in either English or Bahasa Malaysia, that are sensitive to the main religions in Malaysia such as "Islam", "Buddha", "Hindu", "Christianity", etc.

By themselves or as part of a label, be obscene, scandalous, indecent, offensive or contrary to Malaysian public norms.
By themselves or as part of a label, contain the words "bank" or "finance company" (or any derivative of the words in any language). Only parties who have the written consent of the Minister of Finance (MOF) pursuant to Section 15 of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 (BAFIA) may apply for these domain names.

MYNIC is the sole arbiter of domain names choice violations. However, as far as third party rights are concerned, it is not MYNIC’s duty nor responsibility to screen requested domain names to determine whether the use of a domain name by a Registrant may infringe upon the right(s) of a third party.

By applying for the domain name, the applicant certifies that certifies that, to his or her knowledge, the use of this name does not violate Malaysian trademarks, intellectual property, or other laws, and that the domain name is not being registered for any activities not permitted under any law of Malaysia.

Any disputes between parties over the rights to use a particular name are to be settled between the contending parties using normal legal methods. MYNIC does not act as arbiter of disputes.

For trademark related domain name disputes, these are governed by MYNIC's Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (MYDRP). Please click here for the FAQ on MYDRP.

This document is subject to change by MYNIC from time to time without any prior written notice.