Uniregistry placed a statement on its site last night about Pre-Registrations clarifying that Uniregistry doesn’t offer them:

“””Over the next year, Uniregistry will be rolling out new top-level domains at a steady pace. We are truly excited by the interest in our domain names, and we know that many of our current and future customers share this excitement.

Many times, however, the excitement over new domains leads to disappointment, as registrants who have “pre-registered” their favorite new domain names fail to get the names they had requested.

To address this, we wanted to provide clarity around what “pre-registrations” can and cannot do for you as you look to acquire your new Uniregistry domain name.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or “ICANN”, the non-profit company that has authorized Uniregistry to offer domain names for registration, also has issued a caution on “pre-registrations” that you can read here: http://blog.icann.org/2013/11/pre-reserve-a-domain-name-or-not-icann-answers-the-question/

First, the “pre-registration” of a new domain name is not a registry service offered by Uniregistry.

Instead, “pre-registrations” are offered by third-party registrars, under a variety of business models.

None of these “pre-registration” services can guarantee that you will receive the right to register your domain name of choice.

Typically, a “pre-registration” is simply an offer to place you into the registration queue the moment a new registry opens for new registrations.

If you have a pre-registration, you may be competing against other registrants who also have pre-registrations. The first registration to reach our registry system after the registration period opens will be given the domain name.

Second, some of the domain names that registrants seek at the opening of a new gTLD are reserved from registration.

ICANN prohibits us from releasing certain domain names for sale.

This prohibition includes some common words and all two-character domain names. We also are temporarily prohibited from releasing some popular domain names that are on ICANN’s so-called “names collision” list.

In some of our TLDs, the number of domains on the “names collision” list is in the tens of thousands.

Likewise, under the ICANN required “Sunrise Period”, certain rights holders are eligible to register names prior to the opening of general registration. After the sunrise period concludes, we also reserve from registration certain premium names that we will make available for registration in the future.

We have provided lists of reserved domain names, in all three of these categories, to our registrars.

While we have encouraged registrars to check availability against these reserved lists prior to accepting a “pre-registration,” not all registrars have chosen to conduct these availability checks. As a consequence, some registrars are taking “pre-registrations” for domain names that were never eligible for release.

We also are aware that some registrars that are not accredited with Uniregistry nevertheless have offered “pre-registration” for domain names in Uniregistry TLDs.

If you use a non-accredited registrar to pre-register Uniregistry names, you will NOT have a chance at registering your chosen domain name. Non-accredited registrars do not have access to the Uniregistry system and cannot register a domain name on your behalf. An up-to-date list of all Uniregistry accredited registrars is available on our website, at http://uniregistry.link/registry/where-to-buy

Thank you for following the launch of the Uniregistry top-level domains.”””