The ZA Central Registry Non-Profit Company (ZACR NPC) has issued a statement to the media confirming that as of 4 April 2-017, trademark owners can secure dotAfrica domain names matching their registered trademarks before the new dotAfrica generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) is launched in July.

According to ZACR NPC, the dotAfrica Sunrise Period will run for the next sixty days.

"During Sunrise, brand owners across Africa will be encouraged to apply for dotAfrica domain names that match their registered or validated intellectual property," says Lucky Masilela, CEO of ZACR NPC.

According to Masilela, dotAfrica is the new gTLD for the African continent. "It is an African initiative created by Africans for Africans and the International Internet community. In order to ensure responsible growth, the dotAfrica registry will place special emphasis on securing the rights of intellectual property owners, Internet users and the broader African community during the Sunrise Period and beyond," he explained.

He advised brand owners to extend their presence into the dotAfrica gTLD from this week "to ensure that they secure their chosen brand as a workable domain name."

This week's Sunrise Period follows last week's news that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) approved the launch plan and dates for dotAfrica.

ICANN's approval of the dotAfrica Launch Plan has triggered a final countdown process starting on 4 April 2017 leading to General Availability on 4 July 2017 when the public can apply for dotAfrica domain names.

Confirmation of the dotAfrica launch dates follows the delegation by ICANN of the rights to administer the new, pan-African dotAfrica gTLD to ZACR on 15 February 2017. Delegation means dotAfrica names can be published on the web.

At the end of March, ITWeb reported the news and added that the confirmation of dotAfrica launch dates was the culmination of a near four-year legal battle with ZACR's rival and Mauritius-based DotConnectAfrica (DCA) Trust.