Transfer of membership and resources
APNIC memberships and Internet resources are not automatically transferable.
In particular, any transfer of IP Addresses and AS Numbers must be approved by APNIC, before it can be registered, and without registration IP address blocks cannot be fully recognised within the Internet infrastructure.
Therefore, if your organisation plans to alter its corporate structure (such as by merger, acquisition, takeover, or sale) please contact APNIC to discuss the status of your membership and address holdings, before finalising any agreements.
APNIC's policies in this regard are summarised below. APNIC recommends that any third parties involved in transfer of company assets (such as administrators, liquidators, receivers, or lawyers) should also be referred to this important information.
Summary of APNIC policy on transfers of membership and resources
Internet addresses are allocated by APNIC to members in accordance with a membership agreement and a set of resource management policies which together govern the distribution, registration, and ongoing use of those addresses. Entitlement to use Internet resources allocated by APNIC is subject to:
- ongoing compliance with address management policies in relation to those resources; and
- maintenance of the APNIC membership account under which those resources were allocated or registered.
APNIC membership is governed by a membership agreement which must be current in order to maintain registration of allocated resources. If the agreement is terminated, a member will lose all rights under the agreement, including the right to use the resources. The membership agreement may be transferable to another organisation if APNIC is satisfied that the other organisation fulfils the membership criteria. However, transfer and ongoing use of associated resources is subject to compliance with all applicable APNIC resource management policies.
Internet resources are distributed and registered by APNIC in accordance with the demonstrated requirements of the requestor, subject to the ongoing use of the resources for the originally declared purpose. If that usage of the resources changes substantially then the resources may be subject to revocation by APNIC. An example of a substantial change of the usage of the resources would be if the network infrastructure for which they were allocated was redesigned, subdivided, or dismantled.
Under no circumstances should Internet addresses or other Internet resources be sold or transferred to any party without prior approval by APNIC. APNIC will not recognise any sale or transfer of resources which occurs independently from the network infrastructure for which those addresses were originally allocated. Any such addresses will be subject to revocation by APNIC under the terms of the original agreement and in accordance with resource management policies.
If you have any questions about these issues, the membership status of your company, or the status of any resources allocated by APNIC, please contact APNIC by phone on +61 (7) 3858 3188, by fax on +61 (7) 3858 3199, or email to helpdesk@apnic.net.
