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

Prototypical answer:

Given the fact that the Applicant is a member of a multinational company active in the field of telecommunications services, it has a vested interest in providing its visitors, clients and business partners a clear and predictable naming scheme in the .SFR gTLD. Since visitors and clients are mainly looking for offers and activities organized by local SFR branches and subsidiaries on the basis of their geographic location, the Applicant may indeed develop plans in order to register domain names that exclusively contain geographic names (country names, city names, names of regions, etc.).
However, if such domain names will be registered, the Applicant will do so considering the following confines:
(i) these domain names will be exclusively registered in the name of the Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator or its Affiliates, and not in the name of a third party that is not controlled by the Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator, unless agreed upon otherwise with the authority competent for giving its consent in accordance with Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement;
(ii) where consents are required prior to the registration and use of a domain name referred to and in accordance with Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, the Applicant will obtain such consents before actually registering, delegating and using these domain names.
In any case the registration, delegation and use of domain names corresponding to geographic names will at all times be done in the best interest of:
- the Applicant; and
- in order to directly and indirectly promote local commercial activity in or relating to the geographic locations of which the name has been registered in accordance with (i) above.

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