18(b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

Prototypical answer:

Table of Contents

1 - Goal in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation
2 - Added value to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation
3 - Goals in terms of user experience
4 - Registration policies
4.1 - Eligibility of the registrants
4.2 - Domain names authorized at registration
4.3 - Launching of .AQUITAINE
4.3.1 - Domain names of the Aquitaine region
4.3.2 - Pioneer program
4.3.3 - Names mandate
4.3.4 - Sunrise Period
4.3.5 - Landrush
5 - Measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users
6 - Communication
6.1 - Website
6.2 - Actions to raise awareness
6.3 - .AQUITAINE domain names

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1 - Goal in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation

.AQUITAINE is a geographical NewgTLD corresponding to the name of a French administrative region. This region is located in the South-West of France. It includes five departments: Dordogne, Gironde, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Its capital, Bordeaux is the largest city. With its 41,309 km2, Aquitaine is the third largest region in mainland France in terms of surface area, representing 8% of Franceʹs national territory.

According to the last census in 2009, Aquitaine has 3,200,000 inhabitants.
In 2010, 238,248 companies were registered in the Aquitaine area, including 32,390 that are newly established. In 2009, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Aquitaine increased to 85.7 billion euro.
It represents 4.6 % of national GDP, placing Aquitaine 6th among mainland France regions.

According to the Association of French Regions (source : there were 60,000 active organizations in Aquitaine in 2011. Since 2001 around 3,500 new organizations are established every year.

As of 2012 Aquitaine has 2,295 municipalities within its boundaries.
Every institution, company or individual who wants to have exposure in Aquitaine can own a domain name .AQUITAINE.

The domain names with .AQUITAINE will be more easily recognized in search engines where the search contains the term “Aquitaine”; 77,300,000 results on Google France, 1,830,000 monthly searches worldwide according to Google Adwords.
The .AQUITAINE will make it easier to identify products, services, companies and institutions on the Web relating to Aquitaine.

To have a domain name using .AQUITAINE conveys a positive image of Aquitaine. According to an investigation by the magazine Strategies in February 2011 involving more than 3,000 people (source: Aquitaine is mainly associated with:
* gastronomy, 96%
* geographical location, 95%
* climate, 94%
* the beauty of the landscape, 94%
* leisure, 83%
* the attitude of the people, 63%
* opportunities in terms of employment, 33%

The .AQUITAINE TLD helps to consolidate the reputation for digital development in the region.

The .AQUITAINE TLD will support the creation of an Aquitaine territorial brand which aims to promote knowledge about Aquitaine and to coordinate communication efforts about the territories behind this Aquitaine brand.


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2 - Added value to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation

The .AQUITAINE TLD will bring an element of competition to the extensions most used in France: .COM (45.9%), .FR (32.2%), .NET (7.8%), .ORG (5.5%), .EU (4.6%), .INFO (2.4%), source: http:⁄⁄www.afnic.fr⁄medias⁄2011VF_observatoireWEB.pdf
There are fewer names available in .COM and .FR. These heavily used extensions involve the creation of increasingly long and complex domain names. According to the AFNIC, the most frequent length for a .FR domain name in 2011 was 10 characters. It has been increasing steadily over the years (8 in 2008, 9 in 2009 and 2010). The average length has also been increasing continuously, by approximately 0.3 to 0.4 characters per annum (11.3 in 2007, 11.6 in 2008, 12 in 2009, 12.4 in 2010 and 12.7 in 2011).
The NewgTLD .AQUITAINE provides a new and unused domain namespace with, by definition, the entirety of the domain names being available for internet users. The .AQUITAINE TLD offers a wider choice of available domain names.

.AQUITAINE is a geographical NewgTLD. It will bring a strong marketing differentiation to users, who will be able to find out immediately via NewgTLD .AQUITAINE if the site relates to Aquitaine.

The .AQUITAINE NewgTLD is innovative in that it will provide a local communication closest to the users. International and national brands will be able to use the .AQUITAINE for marketing directed at Aquitaine inhabitants.
Local legal entities will be able to display their area of operation with .AQUITAINE.
The NewgTLD .AQUITAINE will provide access to generic and⁄or descriptive expressions already registered in other extensions. For example, a plaster works company operating in Aquitaine will be able to be innovative by applying for and using platrerie.aquitaine whereas now it cannot register platrerie.com or platrerie.fr, which have already been filed by third parties and are often put up for sale on the secondary market; platrerie.fr is listed for sale for 15,000 EURO on Sedo.
The .AQUITAINE register is innovative with its name mandate program upstream of the opening of the extension.

Bid applications for innovative and value-creating uses for domain names in Aquitaine will be adopted for allocation via a naming mandate. The governing committee of the register will adopt the most noteworthy projects by means of a vote.


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3 - Goals in terms of user experience

The NewgTLD .AQUITAINE will provide end-users with :
* a better way of identifying internet sites relating to Aquitaine.
* a simplified search on search engines to find results relevant to Aquitaine matters.
* a means of displaying their interests in Aquitaine.
* email and Web addresses which communicate their involvement with Aquitaine; it does not matter who the internet provider is, it does not matter if they move and it does not matter where they are located in the world.
* it will allow the expression of a regional identity which is supported by the general public, and local companies and organizations.
* harmonization and unification of sites of public institutions in the Aquitaine region for their official communications.


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4 - Registration policies

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4.1 - Eligibility of the registrants

Domain names in .AQUITAINE will be accessible to all legal entities and ⁄ or adult individuals without any conditions requiring a local presence.
These deliberately open registration conditions will make it possible for the greatest number of people to display their links to and their interest in Aquitaine. A Dutch tourist will be able to use a .AQUITAINE domain name for his holiday website (Dutch tourists are second only to the United Kingdom in terms of numbers visiting Aquitaine).
An Aquitaine expatriate abroad will also be able to register a domain name in .AQUITAINE.
After the priority phases for registrations described below, the domain names in .AQUITAINE will be open to all on the basis of “first come, first served” for registrations from between 1 to 10 years.

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4.2 - Domain names authorized at registration

All domain names can be submitted in .AQUITAINE.

The registration period for will be minimum 1 year and maximum 10 years.

Domain names in .AQUITAINE will be made up of between 3 and 63 characters.

Registrations of domain names with accentuated characters (IDN) will be authorized in .AQUITAINE. Non-ASCII characters will have to appear in the standard Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1). This standard includes:
* 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
* a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z
* à, á, â, ã, ä, å, æ
* ç
* è, é, ê, ë,
* ì, í, î, ï,
* ò, ó, ô, õ, ö,
* ñ,
* ù, ú, û, ü,
* ý, ÿ
* ß
The following character will be also accepted “oe” as it is used in the French language. On the other hand the following symbols and three characters will be removed: “þ, Ð, Ø”.
The .AQUITAINE register reserves the right to suspend any domain name likely to undermine public order, morality or rights guaranteed by the French Constitution or the law; rights of intellectual property or individual rights or which is identical or related to the name of the French Republic or of a local authority or a grouping of local authorities or an institution or national public utility or service except where the applicant can justify this due to a legitimate interest and is acting in good faith.

Some domain names corresponding to the names reserved by the NewgTLD program (ex whois.aquitaine, icann.aquitaine…) or geographical names (france.aquitaine) will not be available for registration.


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4.3 - Launching of .AQUITAINE

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4.3.1 - Domain names of the Aquitaine region

At the time of delegation of the extension, domain names will be reserved by the Region for its use. These domain names correspond primarily to the change of URL addresses currently in use.
The official website aquitaine.fr will become region.aquitaine. The numerous sub domains used by the Regional Council of Aquitaine (CRA) will become domain names. Ex: jeunes.aquitaine.fr will be accessible via the new domain name jeunes.aquitaine.

The CRA estimates that 500 domain names will be reserved for the activities of the regional council.


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4.3.2 - Pioneer program

The domain names of the pioneer program will be available to private companies or public organizations upstream of the Sunrise period to promote and enhance the .AQUITAINE.
Allocations will be done by the registry, as will the choice of domain names and the selected companies and organizations.

The .AQUITAINE TLD will call upon those entities which are acting as ambassadors for the extension who wish to communicate the values of .AQUITAINE to others.
These pioneer domain names could be brand names or trademarks (ex: france3.aquitaine, leboncoin.aquitaine…) or descriptive terms (ex: banque.aquitaine, thalasso.aquitaine…) used by the holder upstream of the opening of the NewgTLD.
They will be marketed at a price which is higher than the registration of the domain name in the first year (for example, 1,000 EUR).
A few dozen domain names will be involved in the pioneer program.


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4.3.3 - Names mandate

Domain names will be awarded via a names mandate following a bid. Names which can be associated with the characteristic sectors of the region (foie gras, laser, pine…) will be assessed following submission of an application.
Allocation of a domain name will be done by the registry with a view to supporting projects representing the best interests of the territories of the Aquitaine.
A few dozen domain names will be involved in obtaining these name mandates.


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4.3.4 - Sunrise Period

Before its overall opening, the .AQUITAINE TLD allows rights holders to file their names in respect of prior existing rights, during a period of priority registration (ʺsunrise periodʺ).

The .AQUITAINE registry will implement a Sunrise process for registration under .AQUITAINE for a period of 90 days.
The Sunrise will have five Categories:
* Local Authorities and regional public services established in the administrative region of Aquitaine;
* Quality designation including AOC (“Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée” - Certified designation of origin), AOP (“Appellation d’Origine Protégée” - Protected designation of origin) and IGP (“Indication Géographique Protégée” ⁄ Protected Designation of Origin) of the Aquitaine region;
* Trademarks, (with full compliance with the Trademark Clearinghouse process) giving priority to Trademarks registered in France at INPI (“Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle”), European Trademarks registered with OHIM (“Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market”), and International Trademarks in force in France according to the Madrid system;
* Company names having their headquarters or principal place of business within the territory of Aquitaine;
* Surname of individuals residing within the territory of Aquitaine.

Each application will be individually validated against both the general requirements of .AQUITAINE registration policies and the specific requirements of each Category. Priority will be differentiated by Category each one having absolute priority over the next one.

Within each Category all validated applications will be deemed to carry the same rights. Conflicts will be handled on a ʺfirst come, first servedʺ basis.

Domain names requested during the ʺSunrise Periodʺ must correspond to the invoked rights transcribed in a domain name. For example, the brand Vente Privée would allow venteprivee.aquitaine, vente-privee.aquitaine, venteprivée.aquitaine or vente-privée.aquitaine…
Supporting evidence must clearly describe the name for which a prior right is claimed.
The registration period for a ʺsunriseʺ application will be minimum 2 years and maximum 10 years.

Financial projections for .AQUITAINE (see Q. 46) estimate that the number of registrations during the “sunrise period” will be around 2,400.


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4.3.5 - Landrush

After the “sunrise period” and before the general opening to all, a so-called “landrush” period of 30 days duration will allow internet users to acquire domain names at higher tariffs than at the time of the general opening. This period will allow registrants to be in a better position to apply for “added-value” domain names, which have not been blocked or reserved.
In the event of multiple applications these will be dealt with on a “first come, first served” basis.
The registration period for a ʺlandrushʺ application will be minimum 2 years and maximum 10 years.


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5 - Measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users

The protection of privacy and confidential information of registrants and users will comply with ICANN standards, European and French Law.
The candidate is a French institution, subject to national and European rules concerning the protection of privacy and confidential data.
In order to avoid the automatic recovery of emails appearing in the WHOIS, the register of the .AQUITAINE integrate the installation of a CAPTCHA “Completely Automated Public Turing test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart”. A CAPTCHA is a type of “Turing Test”, which allows human users to be differentiated from computers in an automated way.
In addition to the CAPTCHA, the registry of .AQUITAINE will have a website and free support for users to report abuse with possible infringements of privacy. The .AQUITAINE registry will implement anti-data mining measures by tools to prevent unauthorized recourse to repetitive automated access.


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6 - Communication

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6.1 - Website

The Regional Council of Aquitaine (CRA) will allocate 50,000 euro for the creation of an internet site dedicated to NewgTLD .AQUITAINE.
The website will convey information relating to this NewgTLD, its promotion (events, current events, developments…) and the program NewGTLD. The site will also be visible on the leading social networks such as Facebook or Twitter.


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6.2 - Actions to raise awareness

The Regional Council of Aquitaine (CRA) is setting up a governance committee relating to the .AQUITAINE extension. This Committee is made up of representatives of the Aquitaine region, historic members as well as members from local community colleges, businesses, associations and individuals, and consists of approximately ten people.
It will promote and monitor marketing relating to .AQUITAINE.

The Aquitaine regional territory has several public institutions and many private corporate networks which are in favor of developing the digital economy in the area.
Many are organized into groups such as trade groups, associations etc. The candidate will draw on these various networks to communicate information about the .AQUITAINE directly to internet users and companies (the target registrants).

In its financial projections (see Q46), the CRA is allocating 84,500 euros (“start up”) for marketing campaigns for .AQUITAINE domain names.
They will have a place within the Aquitaine digital alliance, which amongst other things is associated with the growth in SMEs and VSEs.

Information mornings will also take place in each Aquitaine CCI (Chamber of Commerce and Industry).

The regional arm of the National Institute for Intellectual Property (INPI) is a natural relay for the .AQUITAINE extension. In 2010, 91,928 brands were filed with the INPI, which is an increase of 13.3% compared to the previous year (source: http:⁄⁄www.inpi.fr⁄fileadmin⁄mediatheque⁄pdf⁄statistiques⁄Marques_CC_2010.pdf

Active registrars in France (OVH, 1&1, Gandi…) are the customers of the .AQUITAINE registry.
An event presenting the aims and objectives of the .AQUITAINE for representatives of the major active registrars in France will take place in the Maison de l’Aquitaine in Paris: http:⁄⁄paris.aquitaine.fr⁄
The .AQUITAINE registry also envisages a similar event with a European dimension at the Bureau Aquitaine Europe in Brussels (Belgium).

.AQUITAINE will ensure its visibility to the entire community of registrars through its participation in the three annual ICANN summits.

.AQUITAINE Registry will take part in France’s largest e-commerce convention which takes place each year in Paris: E-Commerce Paris.
In 2011 30,000 visitors attended the convention (source: http:⁄⁄www.ecommerceparis.com⁄Presse⁄Communiques-de-presse⁄Cp-Bilan-E-Commerce-Paris-2011

Every year, those responsible for marketing and communication of the Aquitaine region take part in some fifty regional or national events.
Members of .AQUITAINE Registry could attend these kinds of events to present the .AQUITAINE.


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6.3 - .AQUITAINE domain names

The Regional Council of Aquitaine (CRA) as well as all the public institutions will gradually use domain names in .AQUITAINE.
Upstream from the general opening to all of .AQUITAINE, the .AQUITAINE registry will implement a “pioneer” program as well as a bid application process for name mandates. These specific domain names (companies emphasizing their local presence, names corresponding to important sectors for the promotion of the region...) will help with the promotion of .AQUITAINE. They will be used as examples in press releases by the registry.
.AQUITAINE Registry will also rely on existing communication support from the CRA (printed newspapers and internet sites) such as the bimonthly regional magazine lʹAquitaine which has a circulation of 1.5 million copies; or through television co-productions which it finances with regional channels like France 3 Aquitaine and TV7.

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