.pa Regulations

Requirements & Information

CountryPanama
CodePA
CurrencyUSD
Why register .pa?
Panama is a transcontinental country in Central and South America. It's known as a 'transit' country because of the Panama Canal--for which it is famous. Panama is famous for many things--Geisha coffee, which is simply divine and has won international acclaim, Panama hats, and for being the first Latin American country to adopt the US dollar as its official currency. And it's sunrises/sunsets are truly breath-taking--in fact, Panama is one of the only places on earth where you can se both in the same spot! You'll find more plants than you can count--more than 10,000 species native to Panama--and the world's oldest functioning railroad. History and culture rich, Panama is a magical destination for tourists and locals alike.

If you conduct business from within Panama, it is time to register a .pa domain extension. Registering a dot 'PA' country code extension (top level domain name) will increase credibility for your business across the globe. Why? Country-code domains are meant specifically for businesses that do business within a particular country--in this case, Panama. The .com domain (and other generic TLDs) are not targeted and that online space is saturated--and you likely already have the .com for your business.

Extend your brand presence with a more relevant, shorter domain--a ccTLD that differentiates you from competitors. Identify yourself as an official Panamanian business owner and give your clients and constituents more confidence as they interact with you online. Country code domains also help you rank higher in local search results.
Available TLDsRequirements
paNR
com.paNR
net.paCF
org.paCF

Additional Information

Available to holders of com.pa domains that were registered before January 31 2012.

The minimum requirements to present a Request of Registry of Domain Name before the NIC-Panama are the following ones:
To have, at least, two (2) servers (DNS) of primary and secondary names separated geographically one from the other (without a common fault). See RFC 920 for more details.

To designate the Administrative, Technical and Billing contacts that are required to carry out the service.

Note:

Would your organization not count with the support of servers, it would be advisable to ask for another organization that offers you access to a secondary server in operation.

The primary server, which will take the Zone of delegated Authority, must be reached by PING and TRACE from the root server ns.pa.

The server can be located in any country of the world; with the exception of the domains .gob (Governmental) that will be reserved solely for governmental organizations of the Republic of Panama, in which case the corresponding server has to be located in Panama.

The administrative and Billing contact can be the same person of the organization. The Technical Contact must be a person different from the Administrative and Billing Contacts.


The request of inscription of a domain name under .pa done by an applicant, implies that the same one:

Has knowledge of the technical aspects of INTERNET operations and knows the meaning of the terms and words that are used in their management.

Accept specifically and promises to accept and to abide by all the norms contained in the policies and procedures of the NIC-PANAMA without reserves of any type.

Discharge of any responsibility the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, NIC-PANAMA, PANNet and its civil employees and advisers, from the obligations, liabilities and other acts or facts that generate liabilities to the applicant, renouncing in advance to any legal action.

Admits that when registering a domain name he does not acquire rights of registered tradenames and accepts that it is the exclusive responsibility of the applicant to make sure that he is not violating the rights of any registered tradename, reserved right, reserve of names or any reference to intellectual property.

The minimum requirements to present a Request of Registry of Domain Name before the NIC-Panama are the following ones:
To have, at least, two (2) servers (DNS) of primary and secondary names separated geographically one from the other (without a common fault). See RFC 920 for more details.

To designate the Administrative, Technical and Billing contacts that are required to carry out the service.

Note:

Would your organization not count with the support of servers, it would be advisable to ask for another organization that offers you access to a secondary server in operation.

The primary server, which will take the Zone of delegated Authority, must be reached by PING and TRACE from the root server ns.pa.

The server can be located in any country of the world; with the exception of the domains .gob (Governmental) that will be reserved solely for governmental organizations of the Republic of Panama, in which case the corresponding server has to be located in Panama.

The administrative and Billing contact can be the same person of the organization. The Technical Contact must be a person different from the Administrative and Billing Contacts.


The request of inscription of a domain name under .pa done by an applicant, implies that the same one:

Has knowledge of the technical aspects of INTERNET operations and knows the meaning of the terms and words that are used in their management.

Accept specifically and promises to accept and to abide by all the norms contained in the policies and procedures of the NIC-PANAMA without reserves of any type.

Discharge of any responsibility the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, NIC-PANAMA, PANNet and its civil employees and advisers, from the obligations, liabilities and other acts or facts that generate liabilities to the applicant, renouncing in advance to any legal action.

Admits that when registering a domain name he does not acquire rights of registered tradenames and accepts that it is the exclusive responsibility of the applicant to make sure that he is not violating the rights of any registered tradename, reserved right, reserve of names or any reference to intellectual property.


The Generic Subdomains (Domains of Second Level) defined for Panama are the following ones:

ac.pa
Institutions of superior education or investigation.

gob.pa
Governmental Instances of the Republic of Panama.

com.pa
Commercial Entities.

org.pa
Non-profit organizations.

sld.pa
Health Organizations.

edu.pa
Educational Institutions in general, nonformal, primary and secondary education.

net.pa
Internet Services Providers (ISP).Web hosting, design and construction of web sites, developers of applications for internet, access providers to internet.

ing.pa
Engineers (only for natural persons).

abo.pa
Lawyers (only for natural persons).

med.pa
Doctors (only for natural persons).

nom.pa
Only for natural persons.


1. Process of request approval

The inscription form is received and the information contained in the same one is checked.

A file of the organization is opened and the generals and technical as well as personal information about administrative, technical and Billing contacts are filed.

Once you receive the Statement of account (via email) indicating the amount to cancel for the requested domain, can make the payment.

No request of domain will be processed before payment of the domain registration fee is received.

Note: The applicant commits itself to the truthfulness of the information provided. Each time a controversy or he disputes with third parties arises, the applicant will be able to defend the requested domain through the legal representative (who could be the Administrative Contact) of the company. Should the information offered by the applicant be proven false, the same one immediately loses the assignation of the disputed domain.

2. Process of domain delegation

Once the payment of the requested domain is completed, its process is carried out and soon notified to the applicant (by email) of that his domain has been delegated.

Note: The time of delegation of the domain will be taken as of the date in which the payment has become effective of the same one, plus a workable day.

Definition of terms:

1. A domain name is understood as a sequence of alphanumeric characters that identifies a host in the network INTERNET.

2. A registry agreement is understood as:

The acceptance of the policies and procedures for the registration of a domain name established by the NIC-PANAMÁ, which becomes effective when the NIC-PANAMÁ receives the request form of the domain name properly completed.

3. Direct users of NIC-PANAMA:

Applicant:
The person or group of person requesting the registration of a domain name to the NIC-Panama, who can be an individual holder or a service agent.
Registrant (name holder):
Whom has been assigned a domain name that has been introduced in the registry (natural or juridical person).

4. Registry shall be understood as the activation of the domain name in a database that contains the archives of zone of one or several domain names of Internet, including the domain names of inferior levels, the corresponding addresses of Internet Protocol and compatible data.

5. There are (3) three types of contacts:
Administrative Contact: The person in charge of representing the organization,
Competent to answer nontechnical questions and acquainted with the procedures and norms of
the institution.

Technical Contact: The person in charge of the technical aspects of maintenance of
the DNS, of maintaining the name of the server and interacting with technical and administrative staff to solve problems that affect the operation of the domain name of the organization.

Billing Contact: The person in charge of managing all the financial aspects,
payment of registry and renewal fees, and to attend the problems that can result from the statements of accounts produced by the offering of the Domain name Service.


6. Registry fee is understood as the annual fee established by NIC-Panama to offer
the Domain Name Registration service.

7. Renewal fee is understood as the rate specified in the price list annexed to this website
to be paid in concept of renewal of a domain name registration.

8. A new registrant is understood as the person or group who receives a domain name that
is already operational.

9. Policy of Solution of Controversies: the collection of norms and principles adopted by
the Registration service (registrar) for the solution of controversies related to the domain names registered and published properly.

10. The means of official communication between Nic-Panama and the Applicant/Holder is the electronic mail. All the communications of the Nic-Panama to the Applicant/Holder and to the Contacts, it will be made through electronic mail to the address of electronic mail that these have indicated in their registration application, being of their exclusive responsibility that the same ones operate in a correct way, as well as to notify of any change in those addresses. To these addresses the registration warnings will be sent, renovations, payments, etc.. The communications sent to not updated addresses will be considered as having received.

General Policies and Norms:

1. The present clauses and conditions will be applied to any request of registry of an
Internet domain name to NIC-PANAMÁ and subsequent registry and use of the domain name.

2. When completing and presenting a request of domain name for consideration and
admission by the registering entity (registrar), the applicant and/or the registrant recognize that he has read and accepts the policies and procedures established by NIC-PANAMÁ.

3. The registrant accepts that even though an agent of the registrant, like an Internet
services supplier or an agent/contact/administrative, operates the present registration, he will
accepts the existing policies and procedures.

4. The acceptance of the present policies and conditions by any agent of applicant/registrant
(by electronic mail as well as by other means) will bind this agent as if he were the domain name registrant in the agreement of registry.

5. The registrar will not be allowed to process a domain name until the applicant provides with
the names of hosts and directions IP of at least two (2) servers of names that support the domain.

6. The present policies could be modified or be replaced as often as necessary, in sole opinion of NIC-PANAMÁ, compelling the applicant/registrant to accept immediately the new norms, without reserves of any nature.

7. The applicant and/or registrant agree upon that the registrar will not have any responsibility
in respect to the applicant and/or registrant by any type of damages or prejudices:

Related to the processing on the part of the registry of the request of domain name; or;
In relation to the processing on the part of the registry of any authorized modification of the registry of the name of dominion during the period of any registry; or
Resulting from the refusal of the registrar to accept any request of registry; or
As a result of the failure of the applicant or the registrant to pay the registration fee or the renewal fee; or
As a result of the application of the policy on controversies.

8. The applicant/registrant agrees upon that the registrar will not be responsible for any loss
of registry or loss of use of the domain name neither for the interruption of the commercial activity nor any type of indirect loss, special, unexpected or consequent (including the loss of benefits) that can be consequence of a contract, legal prejudice (including the negligence) or of any other type.

9. The Applicant/registrant admits that it is technically impossible to provide services free of errors and that the registrar does not commit itself to it.

10. The Applicant/registrant (directly or by means of an agent) will be able to modify the registry
of the domain name or to renounce to the same one in accordance with the procedures established by the registrar for these aims.

Of the information provided by the applicant::

11. When soliciting by means of the form of Request of Name of Domain, the registry of a
domain name, the applicant declares and guarantees that, to its loyal knowledge and understanding, any information provided in this form is correct and true.

12. To the aim of requesting the registry of the domain name, the applicant will be asked to
provide all the information that is needed in the request of domain name. The registrar will take reasonable precautions to protect this information against loss, erroneous use, access or nonauthorized spreading, alteration or destruction.

13. The applicant declares and guarantees that any future change of the information provided in the request of domain name necessary to maintain its exactitude, will be quickly provided to the registrar in accordance with the procedures of modification of the domain name that are applicable according to the case.

14. The registrar reserves the right to cancel the domain name if in the present agreement
of registry, or later modifications to the same one, there appear false or deceptive information or any hidden or omitted information that the registrar probably would have considered essential for his decision to accept the request of domain name and to assign the domain name to the applicant.

15. If the applicant knowingly provides inexact or untrustworthy information, or in a deliberate way he does not update quickly the information provided to the registrar or he does not respond for more than fifteen (15) days calendar to the questions relative to the exactitude of the provided information or request to take contact in relation to the domain name, a serious violation in the registry agreement will take place and will serve as base for the cancellation of the registry of the name of domain.

16. All request of modification of domain made by the applicant or registrant will be valid as long as they are within the established norms and if the due payments of this domain have been paid.

Of the acceptance of the Request:

17. In case that some person notifies the existence of an inaccuracy in the information provided by
the applicant, the registrar will take the reasonable measures to investigate this supposed inaccuracy. In case that the registrar determines that inexact information has been provided, appropriate measures will be taken to correct any inaccuracy.

18. The registrar will process the request and will study if he accepts it or he rejects it in accordance with the Agreement of Registry, as existing at the moment of the request, transfer or renewal of the corresponding registry.

19. The registrar will register the domain names according to their order of arrival. The
applicant and/or registrant agree upon not adopting any disposition making use of the foreseeable registry of a domain name before it appears as registered in the Registry of domain names of the NIC-PANAMÁ.

20. Admission of the request of domain name implies that the applicant and registrant
(if applicable) and the billing contact grants their consent by this act to the inclusion in the Registry of their names, information necessary to be in contact with them and other detailed information related to the registered domain name.

21. The registrar reserves the right to refuse to register a domain name, making use of
his exclusive faculties.

22. The applicant agrees upon that receiving a request of registry of a domain name
does not engage in any way the registrar to process the request without previously checking its regularity.

23. In case the registrant of the Domain has rented a webspace on a server of an ISP, the proceeding of domain request can be made as well by the supplier as by the registrant and anyone of the two that asks for being denominated applicant, as long as they fulfill the necessary requirements.

Of payments and tariffs:

24. As payment for the registry of the domain name to the registrar, the applicant will accept
to pay the registry fee and, when applicable, the renewal fee.

25. The registrar will not be forced to activate a domain name unless he has received the payment of the registry fee or the renewal fee, according to the case.

26. The payments made in relation to the registry of domain name or the renewal of the registry
of the domain name will not be refundable once the registrar has processed the request.

27. The registration fee will include a period of two (2) years for each new registry and of (1) a
year for each renewal, including any modification allowed for the inscription of the domain name during the included period. When finalizing this period or periods of registry, according to the case, if the registrant, or who represents him, does not pay the rate of renewal within the term specified in a second warning or reminder, the registry of the domain name will be canceled.

28. If the applicant is represented by an agent to the aims of carrying out any requested payment, the registrar will request the payment to the agent in the first place. If the agent does not carry out this payment for whatever reason, the registrar will be allowed to request it directly to the applicant.

Of the Violations of the rights of third parties:

29. The applicant declares and guarantees that he has tried as far as possible to determine
that the registry of the domain name and the way it is used direct or indirectly does not infringe or violate in any way the rights of third parties.

Direct Use: The own organization of the applicant.
Indirect Use: Does not belong to the applicant organization.

30. The applicant declares and guarantees that to its loyal knowledge and understanding, the registry and use, direct and indirect, of the domain name does not violate any legislation or existing regulation.

31. The applicant agrees upon that the registrar will not be hold responsible for the damages
or damages that may result from accepting a request of registry of a name of domain presented by the applicant.

32. The registrar does not accept any responsibility for the use of the domain name or the information maintained generally in the Registry and, in particular, for any conflict with tradenames, registered or not registered, or with any other type of rights of intellectual property

33. The domain does not have to clash with any of the already existing domains under the same type of organization. For the registry of a domain it corresponds to the applicant organization to verify that its request is not violating any registered tradename. See 1591 available in: ftp://rs.internic.net/policy/rfc1591.txt. The domain name has to be free of any obscene word or other type of word that causes damages to third parties.

Of the Cancellation, Renewal, Modification or transfer:

34. In case that the applicant or registrant carries out a serious violation of any disposition in the registry agreement, the registrar, doing use of his exclusive faculties, will have right to cancel the registry of the dominion name, without that the applicant/registrant has right to any refund and without prejudice of any other legal means that the registrar may decide to use.

35. Also, the recorder reserves the right to cancel, to yield or on the other hand to carry out changes in the registry of the name of dominion in accordance with legal requirements that are effective or in accordance with the following situations.

36. The registrar will be able to vary the clauses and conditions of the agreement of registry in the renovation or cession of the registry of the dominion name. All the tranfers and renewal will have to be in conformity with the clauses and conditions existing at the moment of the transfer or renewal and, in the case of transfer, must be accepted by the transferor.

37. The registrar reserves the right to cancel, to transfer or on the other hand to carry out changes in the registries of domain names in the following circumstances:

When the registrar receives instructions in writing or by suitable electronic means coming from the applicant or of his agent requesting him to do so.
When the registrar receives a judicial decision or of a by arbitration court, having juridic competence, requiring him to adopt this measure.
When the registrar receives a decision of an administrative group of experts in whom he demands himself to him to adopt this measure in any administrative procedure in which the appliquant or registrant in accordance with the policy on controversies. In order to fulfill the resolution of a controversy relative to a domain name registered by the applicant or registrant by virtue of the policy of solution of controversies of domain names of another registrar that would be identical in all their fundamental aspects to the policy on controversies.

In http://www.thelist.com/, you will be able to find the list of several Internet Service Providers (ISP) and their respective services.

Of domain reservation:

38. All request for the registry of a domain name that has been accepted by the NIC-PANAMÁ and which payment is outstanding, will remain valid during a period of 30 days calendar after the date of acceptance. Ifat the end of the the term of 30 days the applicant has not paid the respective fee, the request will be left without effect and therefore, the domain name at issue will be available again.

The governmental organizations of the Republic of Panama are excluded from this clause.

Of the domain names.net.pa:

39. In order to register dominions under net.pa, it is necessary for the applicant to be an Internet Service Provider (ISP), thus the presentation of documents that qualifies him as ISP is required.

A domain net.pa can be assigned temporarily and reserved for a period of 35 days calendar as of the date of payment, in order to allow that the applicant presents/displays the required documentation. After the term of thirty five days if the applicant has not submitted this documentation, the domain name assignation will be left without effect, and the domain at issue will be available again. The payment made for the registry of the domain will not be refundable, except in case of proved double payment.

In case of being a national applicant registrant, you must give to copy of the concession Type " B " for the No.211 service, denominated INTERNET SERVICE FOR PUBLIC USE, emitted by the Regulating Entity of the Services Public of the Republic of Panama.

In case of being a foreign applicant, you must send by postal mailing copy of the concession that certifies you as an Internet Service Provider (ISP), emitted by the organization in charge in your respective country. In order to fasten the process, this document can be sent via FAX without dispens of postal mailing.


Of the Structure of a domain name:

40. A Name of Domain under .pa should have the following ones characteristic:

The total longitude of the domain name won´t exceed the 63 characters including the characters used to indentify the Top Level Domain country root (.pa) as well as those of the organization type (com, ac, sld, gob, edu, org, net, abo, ing, med, nom).
The name of the domain will be constituted by letters of the English alphabet in minuscule (a-z) and/or numbers (0-9) and the only acceptable special character is the script (-) which should not appear neither as first, neither as last character in the name of the selected domain. The domain names won´t begin or to finish with the script (-) neither to have two scripts (--) followed.
A domain name won´t be accepted when it is composed exclusively of a toponimic that makes unique reference and exclusively to places in Panama. NIC-Panama is reserved the right of granting a toponimic, of those that makes reference the present artticle, provided the use of the same one is made for a project of direct social benefit to the comunity to which refers this term.

41. The minimum number of acceptable characters for the name of a domain is of 2 characters although 5 characters are recommend (to avoid conflict with some already existing one).

42. “Names that are equal or similar to the country will not be accepted in the case where the applicant does not have the right or legitimate interest in the requested name. This way, users of the Internet will not mistakenly believe that there exists a link between the mentioned name and the constitutional authorities of the country.
This condition applies for the six (6) official names of the United Nations, according to the Agreement of the Standing Committee of Brand Names, Drawings, and Industrial Models of the “World Organization of Industrial Property” (WOIP), held in Geneva from November 11-15, 2002.”


Of Privacy of Data

43. The NIC-PANAMÁ, in completion of the policies recognized as standard for the handling of domain names, will maintain protected the information that the applicants have provided. Nevertheless, for the correct operation of the systems of resolution of name and of the systems of WHOIS, the following information will be put to disposition of the public in general: domain name, names of the organization or person that asked for it, and the names and electronic mails of the Administrative, Technical and Billing contacts.

43. The only exception to this policy will take place if a request from a recognized and relevant authority is received, in relation to illicit activities that are being carried out in a registered site. In this case, the NIC-PANAMÁ will provide the required information relative to the administrator of that domain name.

Of the Solution of Controversies or Disputes:

44. If some type from controversy around a registry or the exploitation of a domain name arises, by presenting his request, the appliquant implies that he acceps to be placed under the administrative procedure established by the NIC-Panama according to the regulations for this specialized scope.

45. For such effects the NIC-PANAMÁ, in its quality of registrar of Internet domain name under pa has adopted Political the Uniform of Solution of Controversies approved by the Corporation for the allocation of Names and Numbers of Internet (ICANN).

The ICANN has a list of Centers of Arbitration and authorized Mediation to manage the conflicts related to the registries of Internet Domain Names. Of these, by its aptitude to work in the Spanish language, the NIC-PANAMÁ has made an arrangement with the OMPI so that its Center of Arbitration and Mediation handles the controversies arisen in the NIC-PANAMÁ, in relation to the registries of Domain Names under .pa.

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