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20(d) Explain the relationship between the applied-for gTLD string and the community identified in 20(a)

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.spaAsia Spa and Wellness Promotion Council Limitedtld.asiaView
Following from #20b “Relationship and Appropriateness of the Selected TLD string with the Community”, the selected TLD string “spa” perfectly matches with the name as well as the philosophy of the spa and wellness community.

1. Name

“Spa” is the name for which the community is commonly known by others. Almost all the associations in the community uses the word “spa” as a distinctive element in its name. The activity or its facilities are sometimes known as “bath” or “springs” (more common in the past), but in the present day, the predominant trend is to use the name “spa”.

The community often identifies itself as the “spa and wellness” community. The Registry has studied the different possibilities for representing the community with a TLD string, including for example, .spa, .well, .wellness, .saw, etc. None of the alternatives come close to the choice of “.spa” as a short, representative and meaningful representation of a key distinctive spirit and cohesion describing the community.

2. Identify

The applied for string: “spa” closely describes the community and the community members. Almost all the associations in the community uses the word “spa” as a distinctive element in its name. Many members of the community, i.e. spa operators and providers include or integrate the word “spa” in its own company name, and almost all of them include the word “spa” in the description of their business.

Based on research conducted by the Registry, we are aware that the string “spa” is also used in three other contexts:
- the municipality of Spa in Belgium
- the short form of ʺSocietà Per Azioniʺ means “stock corporation” in Italy and is often denoted in the short form: ʺS.p.A.ʺ
- the short form of ʺSpondyloarthropathyʺ, a medical term for any joint disease of the vertebral column

While the municipality of Spa in Belgium was likely the inspiration of the use of the term “spa” in its present day meaning as a generic description, the .spa TLD is not intended to serve the town of Spa in Belgium. The registry is also aware of the use of the term “S.p.A.” to mean ʺSocietà Per Azioniʺ (i.e. stock corporation) in Italy, as well as a short form of the medical term “Spondyloarthropathy”. Neither of which is associated with the use of the term “spa” in its most accepted meaning and the meaning for which the .spa TLD intends. Furthermore their usage is significantly less prevalent than the use of the term “spa” in its present day generic descriptive meaning. As such, the registry does not believe that the use of the term over-reaches substantially beyond the community.

Further explanation is provided in 4. Uniqueness below and further policies to mitigate its use for other possible designations are further discussed in #20e, #22 and #29.

3. Nexus

Most people inside and outside the spa community refer to spas and the spa community with the word “spa” as a distinctive descriptor. The location for which a member of the community operates is called a spa; a member of the community is often called simply a spa or in a more industrial descriptor a spa operator; and, products and services of members of the community are described as spa products and spa services. All of which utilizes the word “spa” as a distinctive element.

The word “spa” is the noun that the typical community member would naturally be called in the context. The term “spa” is not excessively broad and relates to the primary community of about 40,000 spas around the world, along with the community organizations, whose members are generally these operational spas.

4. Uniqueness

According to historians, the word spa has been a generic description since at least 1596 or perhaps as early as in the 1300s. The global public in general would refer to the word “spa” in its meaning as offered by the Dictionary.com:
1. a mineral spring, or a locality in which such springs exist.
2. a luxurious resort or resort hotel.
3. health spa.
4. a hot tub or similar warm-water hydromassage facility, usually for more than one person.
5. New England . soda fountain.

And Wikipedia (http:⁄⁄en.wikipedia.org⁄wiki⁄Spa):
“The term spa is associated with water treatment which is also known as balneotherapy. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments.”

Understanding that the string “spa” is being used in other contexts, the Registry has done further research to assert that the word is predominantly used in a general point of view with the meaning as associated with the spa community.

In order to establish that the term “spa” is used on the Internet predominantly with the meaning for which is associated with spas as in places offering water treatment and holistic body, mind and spirit revitalization sessions, the following basic search exercise was conducted at the Google search engine:

Searching the keyword: “spa” minus “-belgium” in Google returned about 4,020,000,000 results;
Searching the keyword: “spa” minus “-italy” in Google returned about 3,880,000,000 results;
Searching the keywords: “spa” and “health” in Google returned about 537,000,000 results;
Searching the keywords: “spa” and “Belgium” in Google returned about 108,000,000 results;
Searching the keywords: “spa” and specifying “Italian” as the language in Google returned about 263,000,000 results;
Searching the keywords: “spa” and “Spondyloarthropathy” in Google returned about 168,000 results
Searching the keywords: “spa” and “soda fountain” in Google returned about 2,340,000 results

Based on the results, it can be seen that by taking away either “belgium” or “italy” as part of the search term, the total number of results returned (about 4 Billion) is significantly over the number if they were included as part of the search (about 100 Million). On further analysis of the results, for those even including the terms “belgium” or “italy” the results are predominantly related to spas as understood in general and as a designator identifying the community. Given that the town of Spa is relatively small with a total population of only around 10,000, and that the origins of the use of the word “spa” in its present day meaning relates to the town’s own spas, the Registry believes that it should not take away from the fact the only significant meaning of the term “spa” is the one for which the Registry intends to promote.

The use of “S.p.A.” as a short form for the Italian form of stock corporation: ʺSocietà Per Azioniʺ is also relatively much less prevalent than the word as intended for the spa community. Furthermore, a more proper and popular way of denoting the form of corporation is “S.p.A.” with the periods included. While this is an important usage of the string “SpA”, the Registry believes that it should not take away from the significant meaning of the word “spa” in its intended use for the spa community as a TLD. Furthermore, additional preventive measures can be put in place to mitigate against any concerns for abusive utilization of the TLD in this manner.

The use of “SpA” as a short form for the medical term “Spondyloarthropathy” is not popular among the general public (with only 168,000 results returned). As this is a very specialized use of the term for the medical profession, the Registry does not believe that it represents a significant over-reach.

Finally, the use of “spa” for soda fountains can be understood as an adaptation, from its popular meaning as intended by the Registry, i.e. the element of a water spring. Therefore again, the Registry believes that this meaning does not form a substantive usage of the word and therefore should not be considered a significant over-reach beyond the community.

In summary, none of the other uses of the string “spa” carries another significant meaning in the common language used in the community and in the global general public as a whole.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.русRusnames Limitedgmail.comView
The .РУС gTLD is the English language translation of the Russian Cyrillic word for both Kievan Rus people and their Russian Cyrillic Language. Every member of the community can trace its heritage linguistically to the Rus people, and millions of residents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus--among others worldwide--are descendents of Rus. There will be an instant connection to anyone in the community as to the meaning of .РУС, and the fact that any second-level domain with the .РУС gTLD will be a site providing them with information and access critical to them as a community member.

• relationship to the identification of community members.

As stated above, community members will feel an affinity and self-identification with the .РУС gTLD. As adoption of .РУС grows, use of domains using this community gTLD will grow, helping to cement the obvious connection between the string and the community.

• any connotations the string may have beyond the community.

RusNames knows of no other connotations the .РУС string might have outside of this community.
e) Provide a complete description of the Applicant’s intended registration policies in
support of the community-based purpose of the applied-for gTLD. Policies and
enforcement mechanisms are expected to constitute a coherent set.
Descriptions should include proposed policies, if any, on the following:


• Eligibility: who is eligible to register a second-level name in the gTLD, and how will eligibility be determined.

The .РУС TLD will be open to anyone complying with RusNames Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and with ICANN guidelines. In that sense it will be treated as a gTLD such as .COM, while clearly intended for and focused on the community described above.

However, as mentioned above, the primary goal of the .РУС gTLD is the protection and promulgation of Russian Cyrillic culture, language and heritage. To this end, whilst registrations within the .РУС namespace will be theoretically open to anyone, RusNames will require that websites seeking to do so have;
1) The majority of their content in the Russian Cyrillic Language
2) This content must respect the Russian Cyrillic Language, Culture and History


The .РУС TLD is intended for people who wish to promote, participate or learn about the Rus heritage, Rus language and Rus culture and who use it in any way for their daily use.


• Name selection: what types of second-level names may be registered in the gTLD.

RusNames will follow ICANN guidelines regarding potential restrictions of second-level domains. Such second-level domains will be in the Cyrillic alphabet which already includes the Unicode points for the Roman numbers 0-9.

• Content⁄Use: what restrictions, if any, the registry operator will impose on how a registrant may use its registered name.
RusNames will have a Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) that will govern how a registrant may use its registered name. A DRAFT version of the policy follows:
All .РУС domains will serve the needs of the community. By registering a name in the .РУС TLD, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). In using your .РУС domain, you may not:
1. Use your .РУС domain for any purposes which are prohibited by the laws of the jurisdiction(s) in which you do business or any other applicable law including lists of names prohibited for registration by national authorities.
2. Use your .РУС domain for any purposes or in any manner which violate a statute, rule or law governing use of the Internet and⁄or electronic commerce in your jurisdiction (specifically including “phishing,” ʺpharming,ʺ and⁄or distributing Internet viruses and other destructive activities).
3. Use your .РУС domain for the following types of activity:
• Violates the privacy or publicity rights of another member of the .РУС community or any other person or entity, or breaches any duty of confidentiality that you owe to another member of the .РУС community or any other person or entity;
• Promoting or engaging in child pornography or the exploitation of children;
• Promoting or engaging in any spam or other unsolicited bulk email, or computer or network hacking or cracking;
• Interferes with the operation of .РУС TLD or services offered by RusNames;
• Contains or installs any viruses, worms, bugs, Trojan horses or other code, files or programs designed to, or capable of, disrupting, damaging or limiting the functionality of any software or hardware; or Contains false or deceptive language, or unsubstantiated or comparative claims, regarding RusNames
• Denigrates the Russian Language, the Russian Culture or Russian Heritage.
4. Use your .РУС domain to promote or engage in (i) unlawful activities, or activities designed to or which encourage unlawful behavior by others, such as terrorism; (ii) activities designed to impersonate any third party or create a likelihood of confusion in sponsorship, origin of products or services or identity of any party; and (iii) activities designed to harm minors in any way.
You are responsible for the usage of your .РУС domain at all times during the period of your registration, including instances wherein you have licensed usage to a third party or otherwise allowed third party usage of your .РУС domain. Third party usage will be dealt with as if it was your usage.
We have complete enforcement rights over your use of your .РУС domain name. If you violate this AUP, you will be in material breach of his Agreement, and along with all other rights and remedies we have under this Agreement with respect to such a breach, we reserve the right to revoke, suspend, terminate, cancel or otherwise modify your rights to your domain name.
By “use,” “usage” or “using” your domain name we mean any use involving the Internet, including but not limited to website(s) and⁄or any pages thereof resolving at your domain, either directly or indirectly (including redirection, framing, pop-up windows⁄browsers, linking, etc.) and email distribution and⁄or reception.
Our requirements for registering a name in the .РУС gTLD are as follows
1) Like any other community, we will adopt an AUP. Registrants must agree to abide by the AUP.
2) We ask all members to honor the Russian Culture, Heritage and language and not use the .РУС gTLD in any way that might undermine or degrade it.
3) We also would ask our registrants to ensure that websites hosted within the .РУС gTLD post the majority of their content in Russian Cyrillic or the other Cyrillic scripts.
4) Registrants must adhere to the laws and practices of the country from which they operate.

Requirements for enforcement - Through AUP.

• Enforcement: what investigation practices and mechanisms exist to enforce the policies above, what resources are allocated for enforcement, and what appeal mechanisms are available to registrants?

As part of the AUP, RusNames will have complete enforcement rights over registrants use of .РУС domain names:

We have complete enforcement rights over your use of your .РУС domain name. If you violate this AUP, you will be in material breach of his Agreement, and along with all other rights and remedies we have under this Agreement with respect to such a breach, we reserve the right to revoke, suspend, terminate, cancel or otherwise modify your rights to your domain name.

RusNames will randomly audit domain names registered in the .РУС gTLD to ensure compliance with all eligibility and use criteria. If a violation is discovered, an investigation will begin immediately to rectify said violation.

If an applicant chooses to appeal, RusNames will review the appeal to determine if there have been any material changes to the action or activity of the appellant. RusNames will retain the right to assign the dispute to an ombudsman if necessary.