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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
.berlindotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KGdotberlin.deView
* RELATIONSHIP TO THE COMMUNITY *

The proposed top-level domain name, “BERLIN”, has been the name of the capital of the Germany for several hundred years. It is thus a string which is known worldwide to identify the .BERLIN Community and its members. Therefore there is a very strong relationship between the applied-for string and the name of the community.


* RELATIONSHIP TO THE COMMUNITY MEMBERS *

The .BERLIN Community consists of about 3.5 million inhabitants, about 164,000 registered companies and all institutional organizations such as the relevant local authorities of Berlin. There cannot be a stronger relationship between the members of the .BERLIN Community and the applied-for string, since the string “BERLIN” is the word that is uniting them all.

dotBERLIN has attached in #20f a few of its many endorsement letters of institutions, community representatives and members. These include:

- Berlin Partner - Berlin Partner GmbH is the official business development agency and marketing office for the state of Berlin. Its services are free of charge. It advises and assists investors in establishing operations in Berlin, and it focuses on business retention once they’re here. For local companies, it answers questions on foreign trade and expanding in international markets. Berlin’s government has commissioned Berlin Partner to market the city, and as a public-private partnership, more than 200 companies and institutions support Berlin Partner in its work. Berlin Partner offers customized packages, and follows a simple motto: “We enable growth.”

- Medianet Berlin-Brandenburg - media.net berlinbrandenburg is the cross-sectoral business association of the creative industries in the City of BERLIN – ranging from music, film, TV and multimedia to advertising and design. media.net cooperates with institutions, associations and opinion leaders from business, research and culture to improve regional economic conditions. media.net keeps on growing: With about 350 members the network includes major global companies.

- Medienboard - Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg is the first stop for creative professionals active in the film and media industries in Berlin-Brandenburg. It was founded in 2004 as the central agency for all matters relating to the media in the City of BERLIN. The company unites the responsibilities of film funding and location development⁄marketing of both federal states under on roof. It acts as a gateway between the media industry, politics and business. The companyʹs goal is to stengthen an further develop the Berlin-Brandenburg film and media industry by focusing on durable creative, business-oriented and technological development.

- Handelsverband Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. (HBB) - The Association represents the interests of more than 2.000 members, which are local retailers in Berlin and Brandenburg. Among other activities, the association is resposible for shopping street marketing like AG City, and Friedrichstraße.

- BITKOM – The Berlin-based BITKOM is the voice of the information technology, telecommunications and new media industry in Germany. BITKOM represents more than 1,700 companies and associations, of which 1,100 are direct members. They include nearly all global players active in Germany as well as more than 1,000 powerful small and medium-sized enterprises and a lot of founder-managed creative companies. BITKOM’s members generate an annual turnover of 135 billion Euros in total, exporting high-tech goods and services worth 50 billion Euros per year.

- BVWM - The Berlin-based BVMW is a politically independent association which caters for all commercial branches and professions, and represents the interests of small and medium-sized businesses in politics, with administrative authorities, with trade unions and with major companies. Medium-sized businesses – around 3.3 million individual enterprises in all – are the backbone and impulse of the German economy.

- Innung des Kraftfahrzeuggewerbes Berlin AöR - As guild of the companies of the auto industry in Berlin the guild represents all auto mechanic and automobile trade enterprises in Berlin.

- DEHOGA Berlin - Dehoga Berlin is not only the economic and employersʹ association but also a up-to-date service provider. As association of the hotels and restaurants of Berlin he acts as spokesman with politics, administration, press, and the public.


* FURTHER CONNOTATIONS *

The name BERLIN is worldwide known and associated with Germany’s capital Berlin without any doubt. However, there are around 70 cities, towns and villages with the name Berlin located in various countries of the world, any one of them reaches at a maximum 1% of the size of the capital Berlin in terms of inhabitants. Most of these have been founded by individuals who emigrated from Berlin, Germany, or had another connection to it. Berlin is also a less common surname and may be used to signify entities.