I'm thinking of expanding to Canada

Has anyone else invested in a .CA domain for their US business?

[maximillianos]

Hello everyone.

I have been considering expanding my site to Canada. Currently we have a small percentage of traffic from them, but we sometimes get comments that we should have a site geared more towards just Canada stuff.

We looked at registering our domain as .CA, but apparently you need to have a business presence in Canada to get a .CA domain.

We found one service that would provide us with a registered agent (lawyer) in Canada for like $300/year. That seemed reasonable.

Any one have thoughts on this topic? Are these registered agent services a scam?

Thanks!

[encyclo]

Do you have a registered trademark for your company name or domain? If so, check out the Canadian Presence Requirements For Registrants [cira.ca] (Warning: PDF file) at CIRA [cira.ca], specifically paragraphs 2q and 2r.

Otherwise, any agent that obtains a .ca domain for you will be the effective registrant for the domain, meaning that you will not have any direct claim over the domain if there is any dispute either with the agent or another party. If you choose that route, make sure you have an iron-clad contract with the agent.

[maximillianos]

Thanks for the advice. Didn't think about the domain ownership issue. That would be a risk/problem.

We are in the process of getting a registered trademark here in the US. I was reading if you register your trademark in Canada it will qualify you for a .CA domain. But that process is about as expensive as it is here in the US.

Thanks again.