With the government of Colombia releasing its country code top level domain (ccTLD) for use as a global top level domain space, it is expected that more than million .CO domains will be registered in 2010, according to industry reports.

The .CO domain, which is expected to become a popular online abbreviation for words including company, corporation and commerce, will be handled by registry operator .CO Internet SAS, which will work with Colombian and US companies to develop and operate the domain space.

“The .CO domain extension is set to become the next big opportunity in the domain space, given the scarcity of truly global and credible domain names,” said lawyers at Blake Dawson, writing in their Online TMT News newsletter. The firm also warned clients that “the potential for internet users to misspell .com URLs (for example, Microsoft.com and Microsoft.co) will also mean that there will be greater chance for trade marks to be abused.”

The launch of the sunrise process for registration of second level domain names using the .CO domain name extension was announced on May 4, 2010 and will close on June 10, 2010. The process will allow trademark owners first option to secure their .CO domain name.

The sunrise process will be followed by a “landrush” registration stage during which registrants can secure domain names at a premium price before the launch to the general public on July 20, 2010.