Here's some notes from the recent Nomimet AGM in the UK:

>Nominet has over 375 members (about 60 were present), each of which can act as
>an "agent" for registrants, to register domain names under .uk with Nominet.
>Nominet is like the gTLD CORE database, and the members like the gTLD registrars, except
>that the members act as agents of the applicants, not of Nominet, and applicants
>can register directly with Nominet if they choose.  Cost has been recently
>reduced:  L40 for two years through an agent, L80 directly with Nominet.  It
>will eventually go down to L20 for registrations through the agents.
>
>Nominet handles about 5000 registrations per month, 45,000 since last August,
>60,000 total on the registry.  Most members handle less than 10 registrations
>per month, a few (10-12) as many as 200-300 per month.
>
>Nominet is now issuing written certificates of registration, which contain the
>legal terms and conditions of the registration agreement (see
>www.nic.uk/terms.htm).  The certificate also contains a transfer agreement that
>can be used.
>
>Nominet lost its insurance.  Its insurer refused to renew because of the risk of
>Nominet being brought into trademark suits (they have been named in one so far
>-- the Pitman case).  They are in the process of negotiating an agreement for 
> L10M insurance, at an annual premium of over L100,000

The last para I found particularly interesting.

regards,

   Geoff