22 Describe proposed measures for protection of geographic names at the second and other levels in the applied-for gTLD

Prototypical answer:

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.koelnNetCologne Gesellschaft für Telekommunikation mbHnetcologne.deView

1. Reserved List

In accordance with Specification 5, NetCologne GmbH (in the following “NetCologne”) will not allow reservation of the following country and territory names at the second- and other sub-level:

- The short form in English of all country and territory names contained in the ISO 3166-1list, including all updates made to it
- The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries in the World
- The list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names

The names of countries and territories specified in the lists above will be reserved at the second and all other levels of the .koeln TLD and thus, will not be available for domain name registration.

Moreover, NetCologne will grant governments, IGOs and public authorities the possibility to report and challenge abuses of geographical names and names with geographical significance. Reporting will be directed either towards the responsible registrar or towards NetCologne itself. If NetCologne or a registered registrar receives such a complaint by any institution mentioned above, the complaint will be inspected and a decision will be made. More information regarding the reporting process as well as the domain status during this process can be found in the answer to question 28 “Abuse Prevention and Mitigation”. In addition to the country and territory names as specified above, NetCologne will reserve and especially block several domain names in order to protect the geographic name “.koeln” itself. In this respect, the city council has compiled a list of 770 names and terms which will be reserved for the city’s sole use in order to protect the geographic name. These names and terms include:

- Names of relevant authorities
- Generic terms with relevance for the city
- Names of municipal organisations and holdings
- Urban districts
- Fractions of the city council
- Chambers

Moreover, in accordance with the “GAC Principles regarding new gTLDs” NetCologne has given the city the opportunity to compile a list of names and terms which will be blocked from registration. The compilation of blocked names was conducted by the city council itself, the respective list was bound to the provision of the letter of support. More information on these matters can be found in the answers to questions 28 “Abuse Prevention and Mitigation” and 29 “Rights Protection Mechanisms”.

Technically, this is achieved by utilising the advanced domain name rule engine that is part of the TANGO Registration System and described in detail in the answer to Question 28. As laid out there, the underlying set of checks can be tuned to block registrations of .koeln names based on various syntactic rules, multiple reserved names lists, and patterns. Prior to the launch of the .koeln TLD, the rule engine will be configured in accordance with the reserved lists mandated by Specification 5 and the city of Cologne, which means that the listed names are not available for registration by registrars.

2. Exceptions

A release of such a domain name as laid out in Specification 5 will merely take place following an agreement with the respective government as well as after official approval by ICANN. This release process will follow the guidelines that have been set out by the GAC. Thus, the relevant authority wishing to reserve its specific name will need to inform the GAC Secretariat. After authentication the GAC Secretariat will transfer the request to ICANN and NetCologne. NetCologne will verify the availability of the name and issue an authorisation number which will be transmitted to the beneficiary, i.e. the registrant. This beneficiary then can register the name with a registrar by providing the authorisation number. In order to ensure that relevant governments and authorities are aware of the process, information regarding the registration of geographic domains will be displayed on NetCologne’s website. Moreover, the process will be documented in the registration policies.

3. Additional monitoring

The .koeln registry does not plan to monitor use of geographic names below the second level (i.e. subdomains used by a .koeln domain name registrant), as those procedures are both difficult and ineffective. Available dispute resolution mechanisms are a more adequate resolution procedure in cases where third or higher level domains unduly use country or territory names.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixzDetail
.cologneNetCologne Gesellschaft für Telekommunikation mbHnetcologne.de-2.67Compare