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

Prototypical answer:

Dot Vegas has developed and, working in conjunction with our technical back-end provider Afilias, will implement specific measures for the protection of geographic names at the second and other levels in the .VEGAS TLD. Locally, Dot Vegas has already worked with the City of Las Vegas to identify a full list of those second level domains that are of significance to the City (i.e. mayor.vegas, citycouncil.vegas, fremontstreet.vegas, etc). In accordance with its written agreement with the City, prior to the launch of any domain registrations, Dot Vegas will register at no cost those names identified for use solely by the City, its departments or designees. A similar process is underway in discussions with Clark County, the Nevada Development Authority, and the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Bureau for identifying and reserving (prior to the launch of Sunrise registration processes) those names of significance to them. As with names reserved for the City, all names reserved for Clark County, the Nevada Development Authority and other local governmental entities will be agreed upon between the applicable governmental entity and Dot Vegas as the registry operator, will be registered at no cost in the name of the applicable local governmental entity, and reserved for their sole use for a period of five (5) years, after which such entities will pay the then existing domain name fees to maintain said registration.

Dot Vegas is aware of the process for geographic name protection used by Afilias relative to country names in its launch of the .INFO TLD. As it relates to country names, working with Afilias, Dot Vegas intends to implement the same methodology for the reservation and release country names included in the ISO 3166-1 standardized list of names as observed by Afilias in its launch of the .INFO TLD. This methodology is outlined in the GAC Circular dated 9 September, 2003. Dot Vegas intends to enter a temporary registration on behalf of each listed country. Temporary registrations will remain in effect for a period of twelve (12) months, during which time countries may request that the registrations be made available for registration by the relevant government. At the end of the temporary registration period, the temporary registrations will expire and all names for which permanent registration requests have not been received will be released and available for registration on a first come, first serve basis.

Dot Vegas has studied and is aware of the GAC Principles Regarding New TLDs published March 28, 2007 and will implement specific mechanisms and procedures to address the GAC’s instructions. These mechanisms and procedures include establishing a site wherein governmental authorities can communicate directly to Dot Vegas as the registry for the purpose of identifying names of national or geographic significance and making requests that such names be blocked. This site and mechanism will be reserved exclusively for use by governmental organizations and will also include a mechanism to lodge challenges to abuses of names of national or geographic significance. All requests for blocking names prior to registration or registering challenges of abuse will be handled within the Dot Vegas registry by General Counsel, or in the absence of a General Counsel, Dot Vegas’ Chief Operating Officer after consultation with the governmental authority registering a request or complaint. Dot Vegas, as the registry operator, will exercise its discretion regarding temporarily blocking a name from being registered, or suspending the resolution of a registered name which is subject to a governmental challenge of abuse while requesting governmental entity’s request or challenge, as the case may be, is resolved.

To avoid confusion with country code and other TLDs, all 2 character names identical to or confusingly similar to country code TLDs, and all character strings represented by ASCII character gTLDs (which have been approved by ICANN prior to the launch of registrations in the .VEGAS TLD) will be blocked from registration. Furthermore, Dot Vegas will comply with provisions of the ICANN-Registry Agreement, Specification 5 relating to the reservation of names.

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