gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.chat	dot Chat Limited	famousfourmedia.com	View

Q18C
What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences⁄costs imposed upon consumers?

The Applicant fully appreciates the concerns of ICANN, the GAC and other consumer protection authorities about the need to operate new gTLDs in ways that minimize social costs, consumer vulnerabilities as well as other time and financial resource costs. To achieve these goals this gTLD will not only employ the ICANN mandated minimum protections, but will also deploy the following innovative protection measures that will put the gTLD at the forefront of addressing these critical issues:

1) Abuse Prevention and Mitigation Policies and Procedures

The Applicant’s core mission and purpose is to create an environment where individuals and companies can interact and express themselves in ways never before seen on the Internet, in a more targeted, secure and stable environment. To achieve this goal the Applicant will be implementing a range of Abuse Prevention and Mitigation (ʺAPMʺ) policies and procedures.

These Policies and Procedures will include: 1) gTLD APM Plan, 2) Policies and Procedures to Minimize Abusive Registrations ,3) Abuse Point of Contact, 4) Policies for Handling Complaints Regarding the Abuse Policies, 5) Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), 6) Proposed Measures for Removal of Orphan Glue Records, 7) Resourcing plans for the initial implementation of, and ongoing maintenance of, the APM initiatives, 8) Registry semi-annual WHOIS verification, 9) Regular monitoring of WHOIS registration data for accuracy and completeness, 10) Registrar WHOIS self-certification, 11) WHOIS data reminder process, 12) Establishing policies and procedures to ensure Registrar compliance, which may include audits, financial incentives, penalties, or other means, 13) Registrar verification of WHOIS, 14) Abuse Response Process, 15) Policies and procedures that define malicious or abusive behaviour, 16) Service Level Requirements for resolution regarding APM issues, 17) Service Level Requirements for Law enforcement requests regarding APM issues, 18) Coordination of APM efforts with sector Groups and Law Enforcement, 19) Rapid takedown and suspension, 20) Controls to Ensure Proper Access to Domain Functions, 21) Enabling two-factor authentication from Registrants to process update, transfers, and deletion requests, 22) Enabling multiple, unique points of contact to request and⁄or approve update, transfer, and deletion requests, 23) Enabling the notification of multiple, unique points of contact when a domain has been updated, transferred, or deleted, 24) Additional Mechanism for Protection of Capital City Names, 25) Additional Mechanisms to Protect and Reserve IGO Names, 26) Governance Council Structure, 27) Efforts to increase Registrant Security Awareness, 28) Registrant Disqualification, 29) Restrictions on Proxy Registration Services, 30) Registry Lock. (Q28 for detail)

2) Rights Protection Mechanisms

The Applicant is firmly committed to the protection of Intellectual Property rights and to implementing all the mandatory Rights Protection Mechanisms (“RPMs”) contained in the Applicant Guidebook and detailed in Specification 7 of the Registry Agreement. Use of domain names that infringe upon the legal rights of others in the gTLD will not be tolerated and preventing abusive registrations is a core objective of the Applicant. The nature of such uses creates security and stability issues for the Registry, Registrars, and Registrants, as well as for users of the Internet in general. The Applicant will minimize time or financial resources costs by preventing abusive registrations and reduce opportunities for behaviours such as phishing or pharming. This will be achieved by implementing comprehensive registration, anti-abuse, and rights protection guidelines as defined in its AUP, as well as innovative additional RPMs such as the Mechanism to Protect IGO Names by blocking second level labels currently present in the .int zone file and the Mechanism for Further Protection of Capital City Names, as described below. In order to identify and address the abusive use of registered names on an ongoing basis, the Applicant will also incorporate and abide by the following RPMs and all other RPMs as specified in Specification 7 of the Registry Agreement and as adopted by the ICANN Board of Directors as ICANN Consensus Policies.

These Rights Protection Mechanisms will among other things include: 1) Trademark Clearinghouse, 2) Applicant’s Sunrise Period, 3) Trademark Claims Service , 4) Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, 5) Uniform Rapid Suspension System, 6) Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure, 7) Mechanism to protect IGO Names, 8) Mechanism for Further Protection of Capital City Names, 9) Efforts to promote WHOIS Accuracy, 10) Thick Searchable WHOIS, 11) Semi Annual Audits to Ensure Accurate WHOIS, 12) Policies Handling Complaints Regarding Abuse and Rights Issues, 13) Registry Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), 14) Monitoring for Malicious Activity. (Q29 for detail)

3) Governance Council Structure

The Applicant believes that sector stakeholders should be afforded the opportunity to influence the manner in which the gTLD is governed. Accordingly, the Applicant will establish a Governance Council (the “GC”) comprised of key sector stakeholders that will serve as an advisory body tasked with defining best practice recommendations for the gTLD space. The Applicant believes that the success of the gTLD will be determined largely by the sector’s key stakeholders. Not only will these stakeholders have the primary interest in registering domains in the gTLD, but they will also be motivated to protect the sector from practices that would negatively impact the sector overall. The GC exists to provide guidance on matters related to best practices, intellectual property, authentication, certification, and other matters of importance to the sector and it will elect its own Board of Directors, which will be responsible for self-governance, the recommendation of sector-specific policies, and other best practices related to the gTLD.

4) BITS and Coalition for Online Accountability (“COA”) Recommendations

The Applicant will further structure its policies around the BITS and COA Recommendations where relevant to this gTLD. The Applicant’s goal is to provide a safe and secure experience for consumers. A domain within this gTLD that is owned, operated by or compromised by a malicious party could cause harm to consumers, to the gTLDʹs reputation and to the reputation of the Internet itself. As such, additional controls are in place relating to the validity of registrations, as well as measures to ensure the correct identity of both Registrants and Registrars relating to changes made within the SRS, and to protecting the integrity of the DNS service as a whole.

The Security Standards Working Group (SSWG) formed by BITS drafted a set of policy recommendations that should be applied to financial TLDs. The policy comprises of a set of 31 recommendations that should be adopted by ICANN in evaluating any applicant of a financial gTLD. The recommendations were posted by BITS in the form of a letter to ICANN at [http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄correspondence⁄aba-bits-to-beckstrom-crocker-20dec11-en.pdf].

The Coalition for Online Accountability have drafted a set of policy recommendations, also endorsed by many other international organizations representing the creative industries, that should be applied to entertainment gTLDs - especially those dependent on copyright protection. The policy comprises of a set of 7 recommendations that should be adopted by ICANN in evaluating any applicant for an entertainment-based gTLD. The recommendations were posted by COA in the form of a letter to ICANN at http:⁄⁄bit.ly⁄HuHtmq.

We welcome the recommendations from BITS and the COA and will strongly consider the recommendations relating to the implementation of this gTLD where considered relevant.

5) Registry Operators Startup Plan

The Applicant proposes to implement the following start-up plan so that the new gTLD is introduced in an orderly, transparent and stable manner. This will safeguard competition, fairness, trust and reliability for Registrants, the User Community, ICANN Accredited Registrars, and other Stakeholders.
The Applicant’s startup plan is designed to minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resources costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities) by instilling a number of RPMs as well as APMs.
The plan consists of the following multi-phase process that will be executed by the Registry Operator. The timeline for the gTLDs start-up process and associated RPMs in the Applicants gTLD is as follows:

Phase 1 – Sunrise Process:

- Day 1: Sunrise round opens
- Day 60: Sunrise round Closes
- Day 61: Sunrise Allocation Including contention resolution mechanisms opens
- Day 71: Sunrise Allocation contention resolution mechanisms closes

• The following Rights Protection Mechanisms apply:
a. Trademark Clearinghouse (“TMCH”)
b. Sunrise Eligibility Requirements (“SER”)
c. Sunrise Dispute Resolution Policy (“SDRP”)
d. Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“UDRP”)
e. Uniform Rapid Suspension System (ʺURSʺ)
f. Mechanism for the Protection of IGO Names (“PIN”)
g. Trademark Claims Service (“TCS”) *

Phase 2 – Landrush process:

- Day 72: Landrush opens
- Day 102: Landrush closes
- Day 103: Landrush contention resolution mechanisms opens
- Day 113: Landrush contention resolution mechanisms closes

- The following Rights Protection Mechanisms apply:

a. UDRP
b. URS
c. PIN
d. Mechanism for Further Protection of Capital City Names (“CCC”)
e. TCS *

Phase 3 – General Availability⁄Registrations:

- Day 114: General availability begins

- The following Rights Protection Mechanisms apply:

a. UDRP
b. URS
c. PIN
d. Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (“PDDRP”)
e. TCS for the 90 days after day 114 *

* To ease the concerns of trademark owners and mitigate the impact of infringing registrations, the Applicant will be implementing the TCS in all three phases of launch. It is important to note that during the General Availability Phase, the TCS will be used for 90 days, 30 days longer than the ICANN mandated minimum.

18(C)(i) How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first-serve basis?

Sunrise and Landrush periods:

During the gTLDs launch period, multiple applications for a particular domain name will be resolved through a Contention Resolution Mechanism (“CRM”) involving auctions. These CRMs will apply to the Sunrise and Landrush application phases. The CRMs will be conducted by Sedo GMBH, an experienced provider of domain auction services. The mechanisms offered will involve closed auctions where only specific bidders can participate.

During the Applicants Sunrise process, if there are two or more eligible applicants for one domain name string, then the contention will be resolved by auction. Auctions held during the Sunrise phase (“Sunrise Auctions”) will be closed and the only bidders will be eligible applicants according to the gTLDs Sunrise eligibility requirements including the TMCH.

During the Applicants Landrush process, if there are two or more eligible applicants for one domain name string, then the contention will be resolved by auction. Auctions held during the Landrush phase (“Landrush Auctions”) will be closed and the only bidders will be eligible applicants according to the gTLDs Landrush eligibility requirements.

General Availability:

After the two initial startup phases of the Registry the allocation of domain names will occur on a first-come first-serve basis, taking into account the registries APM and RPM mechanisms.

18(c)(ii) Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).

Incentive, Marketing and Outreach Programs

The Applicant will implement a number of incentive, marketing assistance, awareness and PR programs to assist the Registrar channel in providing a sector leading experience to end-users and to provide cost benefits for registrants. The Applicant will work with the global Registrar channel to ensure that the new gTLD offer is clearly visible on registrar sites resulting in an increase in the awareness and in the number of new gTLD registrations. Achieving this visibility requires (1) a clear business case and incentives for registrars to motivate them and (2) mechanisms and assets to make it easy for them to do so.

The Applicant will at the time of launch depending upon market conditions consider incentive programs that will deliver cost benefits to registrants through either the use of advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts or other similar methods. The Applicant is aware of Specification 9 – Registry Operator Code of Conduct, and will not directly or indirectly show any preference or provide any special consideration to any Registrar in its marketing efforts.

Example incentive mechanisms the Applicant will provide to the registrars may include:

Marketing Incentives

The Applicant intends to provide expertise, tools and creative assets to the registrars as part of general marketing and co-marketing programs. There is a significant cost saving if the expertise, tools and assets are developed centrally and the costs amortized across the registrar base. Significant cost savings can occur relating to Market Research, Social Customer Relationship Management (“SCRM”), Content Management Systems (“CMS”), Direct Marketing Tools, Marketing Collateral and Analytics Solutions.

The Applicant will employ some or all of the following marketing techniques jointly with registrars globally: (1) Direct Response Print, (2) General Web Marketing, (3) Email campaigns without Incentive, (4) Email with Incentive, (5) Email Marketing - Prospect List, (6) Email Marketing - Sponsored Newsletter, (7) Direct Marketing with Incentive, (8) Web Marketing with Incentive, (9) Viral Marketing (Social, Video, Micro-sites), (10) Develop User Interface Improvement best practices, (11) Develop Search Engine Optimization best practices, (12) Email Marketing - Registrar List
As an example of a marketing initiative, the Applicant will forward leads to the Registrars “buy” pages as an incentive via the means of Pay-Per-Click (“PPC”) search marketing. The Applicant will run multiple PPC campaigns targeting gTLD Registrants and point these to landing pages on the Registrar’s websites. Conversions are directly trackable from all PPC campaigns and keywords with a high Click-Through-Rate (“CTR”) or conversions will also be leveraged for SEO best practice purposes.

PR and Awareness Incentives:

In addition to the core outreach to the Registrar Channel, the Applicant will engage in a wider outreach to build awareness of the new gTLD with customers, end-users and other stakeholders. The Applicant will engage with a number of high profile individuals associated with the gTLD and will seek to reach end consumers through webcasts, podcasts, traditional broadcast TV as well as radio.

Provision of customer retention toolkits to Registrars:

The Applicant will use propensity modelling to build retention marketing programs to minimize churn whilst building renewal sustainability. The Applicant will develop econometric models designed to measure the likelihood of a customer segment to purchase a product or offer bundle, at a certain point in the relationship lifecycle. They are used to predict the best time, and the best combination of products, to offer to customers who match a certain profile. They are especially effective where there are large numbers of customers and reliable data can be gathered. The Applicant expects that registration volume in the gTLD will provide sufficient data for this modelling.

Measure, benchmark and improve the customer experience:

The Applicant will engage in a program to develop best practice policies related to the customer experience at differing levels of the channel. This will include the entire ecosystem from Registry through Registrar to Resellers and finally end-users. One key metric might be, for example, to reduce the number of clicks to make a purchase equivalent to the most customer friendly e-commerce sites in the world.
The Applicant might, for example, provide website performance tracking tools to registrars, which would benchmark current performance and provide insights into customers’ needs and behaviour at the point of purchase.
The Applicant will engage in a Social Customer Relationship Management Program to monitor social media feedback to questions, concerns or other issues. The Applicant will further seek to measure marketing communication expenditure and activity.

Other initiatives that will be considered by the Applicant in its outreach efforts:

(a) Customized Vertical Search App for major mobile platforms.
(b) Designated Twitter channel for the stakeholder community.
(c) Social Media outreach through Facebook and other social media solutions.

Translation into other languages:

At present, the Applicant plans to translate marketing collateral and other content that it considers to have geographically diverse appeal in to the 6 official UN languages, namely Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian and Spanish.

18(c)(iii) Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.

The Applicant will follow the lifecycle and business rules found in the majority of gTLDs today. Our back-end operator has in excess of ten years of experience managing numerous gTLDs that utilize standard and unique business rules and lifecycles.

Initial registrations of registered names may be made in the registry in one (1) year increments for up to a maximum of ten (10) years. For the avoidance of doubt, the registration term for registered names may not exceed ten (10) years. Further the renewal of registered names may be made in one (1) year increments for up to a maximum of ten (10) years. For the avoidance of doubt, renewal of registered names may not extend their registration period beyond ten (10) years from the time of the renewal.

The Applicant plans to review domain name registration rates on an annual basis and will make a determination at that time regarding adjustments, depending upon market factors. Thus, at this time, the Applicant does not plan to make specific guarantees regarding pricing increases.

The Applicant will provide ICANN and each ICANN accredited registrar that has executed the registry-registrar agreement for the gTLD advance written notice of any price increase (including as a result of the elimination of any refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying or other programs which had the effect of reducing the price charged to registrars, unless such refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying or other programs are of a limited duration that is clearly and conspicuously disclosed to the registrar when offered) that complies with the requirements as outlined in the New gTLD Registry Agreement.
-end-

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.saarland	dotSaarland GmbH	thomsentrampedach.com	View

The DotSaarland GmbH will vigilantly pursue policies, procedures and technologies that facilitate and maintain a safe and positive user experience. Eliminating fraud, cyber-squatting and other activities that degrade the user’s trust are of paramount concern. Additionally, our procedures need to be simple for users to follow and understand and the TLD needs to be easy to find and register for.

Our technical answers will address the specifics in more detail. As noted before, we have partnered with KSregistry GmbH as a technical backend provider because of their established architecture, security measures and proven platform.


A. How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first-serve basis?

DotSaarland GmbH will offer a phased launch through its accredited registrars, consistent with many prior gTLD domain name launches. The goal will be to protect brand holders and other concerned parties from malicious practices and to ensure accuracy. The rights protection mechanisms implemented during the launch phases are described in detail in the answers to question 29.
First, a Founders initiative will make available premium domain names of general interest to registrants willing to commit to using the domain names in a way that benefits the regional community (“Founder”). The applications for domain names reserved for the Founders initiative will be evaluated by an independent panel established by the association dotSaarland e.V.
A Sunrise Period as required by ICANN for trademark holders and similar rights holders such as publicly registered companies and associations, as well as statutory corporations or institutions to register domain names that correspond to their marks and⁄or registered⁄statutory names will be offered at the same time as the Founders initiative. If there is more than one qualified Sunrise applicant, then all applicants will be invited to participate in a closed auction to select the registrant of the contested name. In case a premium domain name is applied for by a qualified Sunrise applicant as well as by a Founder, the Sunrise application will be given preference.
A Landrush Phase period will follow the Sunrise Phase to allow entities that may not have a brand to protect but desire early or preferred access to a specific domain. Within the Landrush phase, a special preference will be given to registrants based in the Saarland region to further promote the regional character and outlook of the TLD. The Landrush Phase will be structured as an application process and which will not be “first come, first served”. Applications for identical domains will follow an auction process; however local applications will have precedence over other Landrush applications.
After the Landrush Phase, we will make names generally available for open registration by any interested person or entity on a first come, first served basis. This General Availability Period will open shortly after the Landrush Period has closed, and will allow unrestricted registrations of all unreserved, unblocked, remaining and available names.

An overview of our phased approach is provided below, with dates notational based on registry agreement with ICANN. The start-up plan provides for the orderly introduction of the .SAARLAND TLD in a transparent and logical way, for the purpose of ensuring competition, fairness and reliability for ICANN-Accredited Registrars, registrants, and the .SAARLAND potential registrants. It is intended to create a stable and effective registration process for the benefit of the Internet community in general, and effected stakeholders in particular while minimizing the number of potential conflicts.

A.1 Launch Plan .SAARLAND

The launch plan for .SAARLAND sets the frame for processes, procedures and rules for the registration of .SAARLAND domain names. The introduction of the .SAARLAND top-level domain will be divided into four phases.

Launch Phases:

Phase 1: Founders Initiative

With this initiative, prospective Founders (companies, organizations and individuals) will be given the opportunity to apply for the registration of a certain domain name by submitting a proposal for utilization in a business plan ⁄ development plan.
Founders may also suggest a development plan for other generic domain names that are not included in the list of premium domain names, however no applications during the Founders Initiative will be reviewed in case of a conflicting Sunrise application for an identical term. All complete and applicable applications received will be reviewed by the dotSaarland e.V. (registered association) in a fair and independent process and the applied-for domain names shall be awarded in case the development plan promises to be beneficial to the local community, contractually binding the Founders to realize the development plan.
The application window for Founders Program proposals will be timed to run parallel to the Sunrise phase. The development plans for domain names allocated during the Founders Program must be realized within one year after delegation and we will conduct random validation checks of domain names allocated in the Founders initiative to ensure compliance. The validation of the use according to the proposal for utilization will occur approximately one year after delegation.
Domain names awarded in the Founders Program will be locked against transfer for the first two years after their registration date (Status: serverTransferProhibited) to prevent abuse of the program.
Minimum Registration Period: 2 years
Duration: 45 days

Founders Quiet Phase
During the Founders Quiet Phase, the dotSaarland e.V. will decide, which of the foundersʹ applications comply with the goal of being beneficial to the Saarland community. All premium domain names without applications or with rejected applications during the Founders Program will go into auction.
Duration: 7 days (starting after the end of the Founders Program)

Premium Domain Auction
Premium domain names will not be available during the Landrush or General Availability phases. All premium names not awarded during the Founders Program (or applied for as a Sunrise domain name) will go into auction. While the Premium Domain Auction is running, the dotSaarland e.V. will decide about the multiple, beneficial applications for the same domain name in the Founders Program. DotSaarland GmbH reserves the right to exclude premium domain names without applications from the premium domain auction program prior to its launch for a release at a later date. All domains with successful applications in the Founders Program will be published and will be delegated after the end of the Premium Domain Auction. (66 days after the start of the Founders program).
Duration: 14 days (starting after the end of the Founders Quiet Phase)

Phase 2: Sunrise

For easier reference, the Sunrise phase will be split into two concurrent phases, Sunrise A and Sunrise B. Applications for either will be treated without preference over the other and be treated equally.
Sunrise A Applications
The Sunrise phase will run partly parallel to the Founders Initiative, launching on the 15th day of the application window for the Founders Initiative. During the Sunrise all entities with a registered trade or service mark will be able to register the corresponding domain name (Sunrise A application). The intellectual property and similar rights have to be registered before July 01, 2011. The dotSaarland GmbH will only accept trademark applications with the applicant capacity ʺOwnerʺ.
Required specifications for a trademark application during this phase will be: Registered Trademark, Registration Number, Registration Country, Registration Date and Applicant Capacity (must be ʺOwnerʺ).
The following trade or service marks are eligible for Applications in Sunrise A:
- Word marks that are nationally or internationally registered and for which proof of use (which can be a declaration and a single specimen of current use) was submitted to, and validated by, the Trademark Clearinghouse
- Trademarks not in the Clearinghouse but that are verified by a third party trademark validation contractor and conform to the following standards:
- the domain name is identical to the textual or word elements of the trademark or service mark registration on which the registration of the domain name is based
AND the trademark or service mark registration on which the registration of the domain name is based is of national effect
AND the trademark or service mark registration on which the registration of the domain name was based was issued (registered) prior to July 01, 2011.

Sunrise B Applications
Furthermore, during the Sunrise phase all companies enlisted in the commercial registers of Saarland will be allowed to register domain names corresponding to their registered name (Sunrise B application).
Required specifications for an application by a company enlisted in the commercial register of Saarland for the corresponding domain will be: Registered Company, Registration Number, Registration Date and Register Name. Registered companies will have to provide their excerpt from the commercial register (certificate of registration). The date of first registration must be prior to July 01, 2011.
All registered associations recorded in the Saarland registers of associations will also be allowed to register domain names corresponding to their registered name during Sunrise (Sunrise B application). The date of first registration must be prior to July 01, 2011.
Finally, the Sunrise B will also allow statutory corporations or institutions of the Saarland to register domain names corresponding to their registered or statutory names during Sunrise (Sunrise B application). The date of first registration or the statute must be prior to July 01, 2011.
Required specifications for an application by an association will be: Registered Association, Register Number, Registration Date and Register Name. Registered associations will have to provide their excerpt from the register of associations (certificate of registration). Statutory corporations or institutions will be required to provide the appropriate statutory reference to their statutory establishment.
All Sunrise B applications by companies registered in the commercial registers of Saarland and associations recorded in the Saarland registers of associations will be verified by an external validation service.
Minimum Registration Period: 2 years
Duration: 30 days (starting during the Founders Initiative to terminate at the same time as the Founders Initiative)

Sunrise Quiet Phase
During the Sunrise Quiet Phase, which will run in parallel to the Founders Quiet Phase, the dotSaarland GmbH will complete the Sunrise validation together with the validation provider(s). If multiple valid Sunrise applications are received for the same name, the domain name will go into a closed auction. All domains with one valid Sunrise application will resolve after the end of the Sunrise Quiet Phase.
Duration: 7 days (starting after the end of the Sunrise)

Sunrise Auction
The Sunrise domain names will not be available for Landrush or General Availability. All names with multiple, valid Sunrise applications will go into a closed auction between the respective Sunrise applicants.
Duration: 14 days (starting after the end of the Sunrise Quiet Phase)

Phase 3: Landrush

Landrush A Applications
During Landrush, the so-called Landrush A applications by companies, organizations and natural persons having a domicile within the state of Saarland are favored. Landrush A applications from persons⁄entities not having their domicile in Saarland will be rejected without refunds. These applicants are only qualified for Landrush B applications. Required specifications for a Landrush A application by Saarland applicants will be: Valid address in Saarland.
The validation of the address will be executed by zip code comparison. Furthermore, a post-registration validation will be executed in case of an abuse notification and based on random sampling.

Landrush B Applications
With the Landrush B applications anyone interested will be able to apply for domain names.
During the Landrush phase, the price for domain registrations will be somewhat higher than in the subsequent General Availability due to the time preference.
Minimum Registration Period: 2 years

Duration: 30 days (starting after the end of the Sunrise Quiet Phase)

Landrush Quiet Phase
During the Landrush Quiet Phase, the dotSaarland GmbH will separate all multiple, valid Landrush A⁄B applications from all single, valid applications. If multiple, valid Landrush A applications are received for the same name, the domain name will go into a closed auction. If multiple, valid Landrush B applications are received for the same name, the domain name will also go into a closed auction. In case of a Landrush A and Landrush B application for the same domain name, the Landrush A application will be preferred. All domains with only one valid Landrush application will be delegated to the applicant after the end of the Landrush Quiet Phase.
Duration: 7 days (starting after the end of the Landrush)

Landrush Auction
The domain names applied for during the Landrush Phases will not initially become available for General Availability. All multiple, valid Landrush A⁄B applications will be resolved through a closed auction between the applicants for the domain name. In case there is no bidder, the Landrush applications will be resolved on a first-come, first-served basis.
Duration: 14 days (starting after the end of the Landrush Quiet Phase)

Phase 4: General Availability

After completion of the Landrush Quiet Phase, the registration of domain names will proceed on a “first-come, first-served” basis in accordance with the registration rules.
Registration Period: 1 – 10 year(s)
Start: after the end of the Landrush Quiet Phase


B. Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts)

dotSaarland GmbH does not intend to promote early adoption of the .SAARLAND TLD by offering discounts for initial multi-year registrations or for purchase of multiple domain registrations.

We intend to incentivize the registration of domain names contained in the list of domain names reserved for the state government by the appropriate authorities by offering volume discounts for the registration of such domain names.

From time to time promotional campaigns and special offers may be provided to all accredited registrars. Market conditions, market research and the level of public acceptance of the TLD in its target audience will drive many of the promotions and marketing messages.


C. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation?

We also intend to make clear contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation upon renewal. We will contractually commit to not raising the base price (exclusive of any discounts, taxes, etc.) of .SAARLAND domain name renewals by more than ten percent in any calendar year. This commitment will be included in Registry-Registrar Agreements, requiring registrars to include this commitment in all .SAARLAND Domain Name Registration Agreements. We are also committed by our agreement with the state government of the Saarland to maintain a registry pricing level similar to that of other TLDs of comparable size and outreach.