gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail |
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.spa | Asia Spa and Wellness Promotion Council Limited | tld.asia | View |
Following from #20b “Relationship and Appropriateness of the Selected TLD string with the Community”, the selected TLD string “spa” perfectly matches with the name as well as the philosophy of the spa and wellness community.
1. Name
“Spa” is the name for which the community is commonly known by others. Almost all the associations in the community uses the word “spa” as a distinctive element in its name. The activity or its facilities are sometimes known as “bath” or “springs” (more common in the past), but in the present day, the predominant trend is to use the name “spa”.
The community often identifies itself as the “spa and wellness” community. The Registry has studied the different possibilities for representing the community with a TLD string, including for example, .spa, .well, .wellness, .saw, etc. None of the alternatives come close to the choice of “.spa” as a short, representative and meaningful representation of a key distinctive spirit and cohesion describing the community.
2. Identify
The applied for string: “spa” closely describes the community and the community members. Almost all the associations in the community uses the word “spa” as a distinctive element in its name. Many members of the community, i.e. spa operators and providers include or integrate the word “spa” in its own company name, and almost all of them include the word “spa” in the description of their business.
Based on research conducted by the Registry, we are aware that the string “spa” is also used in three other contexts:
- the municipality of Spa in Belgium
- the short form of ʺSocietà Per Azioniʺ means “stock corporation” in Italy and is often denoted in the short form: ʺS.p.A.ʺ
- the short form of ʺSpondyloarthropathyʺ, a medical term for any joint disease of the vertebral column
While the municipality of Spa in Belgium was likely the inspiration of the use of the term “spa” in its present day meaning as a generic description, the .spa TLD is not intended to serve the town of Spa in Belgium. The registry is also aware of the use of the term “S.p.A.” to mean ʺSocietà Per Azioniʺ (i.e. stock corporation) in Italy, as well as a short form of the medical term “Spondyloarthropathy”. Neither of which is associated with the use of the term “spa” in its most accepted meaning and the meaning for which the .spa TLD intends. Furthermore their usage is significantly less prevalent than the use of the term “spa” in its present day generic descriptive meaning. As such, the registry does not believe that the use of the term over-reaches substantially beyond the community.
Further explanation is provided in 4. Uniqueness below and further policies to mitigate its use for other possible designations are further discussed in #20e, #22 and #29.
3. Nexus
Most people inside and outside the spa community refer to spas and the spa community with the word “spa” as a distinctive descriptor. The location for which a member of the community operates is called a spa; a member of the community is often called simply a spa or in a more industrial descriptor a spa operator; and, products and services of members of the community are described as spa products and spa services. All of which utilizes the word “spa” as a distinctive element.
The word “spa” is the noun that the typical community member would naturally be called in the context. The term “spa” is not excessively broad and relates to the primary community of about 40,000 spas around the world, along with the community organizations, whose members are generally these operational spas.
4. Uniqueness
According to historians, the word spa has been a generic description since at least 1596 or perhaps as early as in the 1300s. The global public in general would refer to the word “spa” in its meaning as offered by the Dictionary.com:
1. a mineral spring, or a locality in which such springs exist.
2. a luxurious resort or resort hotel.
3. health spa.
4. a hot tub or similar warm-water hydromassage facility, usually for more than one person.
5. New England . soda fountain.
And Wikipedia (http:⁄⁄en.wikipedia.org⁄wiki⁄Spa):
“The term spa is associated with water treatment which is also known as balneotherapy. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments.”
Understanding that the string “spa” is being used in other contexts, the Registry has done further research to assert that the word is predominantly used in a general point of view with the meaning as associated with the spa community.
In order to establish that the term “spa” is used on the Internet predominantly with the meaning for which is associated with spas as in places offering water treatment and holistic body, mind and spirit revitalization sessions, the following basic search exercise was conducted at the Google search engine:
Searching the keyword: “spa” minus “-belgium” in Google returned about 4,020,000,000 results;
Searching the keyword: “spa” minus “-italy” in Google returned about 3,880,000,000 results;
Searching the keywords: “spa” and “health” in Google returned about 537,000,000 results;
Searching the keywords: “spa” and “Belgium” in Google returned about 108,000,000 results;
Searching the keywords: “spa” and specifying “Italian” as the language in Google returned about 263,000,000 results;
Searching the keywords: “spa” and “Spondyloarthropathy” in Google returned about 168,000 results
Searching the keywords: “spa” and “soda fountain” in Google returned about 2,340,000 results
Based on the results, it can be seen that by taking away either “belgium” or “italy” as part of the search term, the total number of results returned (about 4 Billion) is significantly over the number if they were included as part of the search (about 100 Million). On further analysis of the results, for those even including the terms “belgium” or “italy” the results are predominantly related to spas as understood in general and as a designator identifying the community. Given that the town of Spa is relatively small with a total population of only around 10,000, and that the origins of the use of the word “spa” in its present day meaning relates to the town’s own spas, the Registry believes that it should not take away from the fact the only significant meaning of the term “spa” is the one for which the Registry intends to promote.
The use of “S.p.A.” as a short form for the Italian form of stock corporation: ʺSocietà Per Azioniʺ is also relatively much less prevalent than the word as intended for the spa community. Furthermore, a more proper and popular way of denoting the form of corporation is “S.p.A.” with the periods included. While this is an important usage of the string “SpA”, the Registry believes that it should not take away from the significant meaning of the word “spa” in its intended use for the spa community as a TLD. Furthermore, additional preventive measures can be put in place to mitigate against any concerns for abusive utilization of the TLD in this manner.
The use of “SpA” as a short form for the medical term “Spondyloarthropathy” is not popular among the general public (with only 168,000 results returned). As this is a very specialized use of the term for the medical profession, the Registry does not believe that it represents a significant over-reach.
Finally, the use of “spa” for soda fountains can be understood as an adaptation, from its popular meaning as intended by the Registry, i.e. the element of a water spring. Therefore again, the Registry believes that this meaning does not form a substantive usage of the word and therefore should not be considered a significant over-reach beyond the community.
In summary, none of the other uses of the string “spa” carries another significant meaning in the common language used in the community and in the global general public as a whole.
gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail |
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.sport | SportAccord | sportaccord.com | View |
Q20d String Relationship to Community
20.d.1. Relationship to the established name of the community
The TLD string “.sport” matches the name of the community, Sport, in the generally accepted sense of the word, in French, English and many other internationally used languages.
As stated above, Sport is usually defined as a physical or athletic activity, with often an element of competition. Sport can be primarily physical, primarily mind, primarily motorized, primarily coordination, primarily animal-supported The sport proposed should in no way be harmful to any living creatures. The sport should not rely on any “luck” element specifically designed into the sport. The activities of the Sport community related to Learning⁄teaching,
Performing, Organizing, Viewing, Developing, Improving (fortius, altius, citius). All these aspects are part of the generally accepted connotations of the word “sport” and also match the spirit and the letter of the community definition.
20.d.2. Relationship to the identification of community members
The identification of community members is based on the Community delineation described in the response to Question 20(a)
Note: Community membership is a necessary condition for the right to hold a .sport domain name, but is not in itself a sufficient qualification, as is also described in the response to Question 20(a).
The activities inside the Sport the sport community demonstrate the same constancy throughout millennia, relating to
- learning, practice and teaching of sport,
- organizing sport activities and events,
- viewing or otherwise witnessing sport,
- developing equipment, tools, criteria and procedures in support of sport.
20.d.3. Other connotations of the word sport
The word sport has no frequently-used connotations that are unrelated of the Sport community.
20.d.4. Express support from Sport community organizations
The following Organizations have formally expressed their official support for to date for SportAccord’s Application for the .sport TLD:
IOC INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
ASOIF ASSOCIATION OF SUMMER OLYMPIC INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS
AIOWF ASSOCIATION OF WINTER OLYMPIC INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS
ARISF ASSOCIATION OF IOC RECOGNISED INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS
BWF BADMINTON WORLD FEDERATION
CGF COMMONWEALTH GAMES FEDERATION
CIPS CONFEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE LA PECHE SPORTIVE
CMAS CONFEDERATION MONDIALE DES ACTIVITES SUBAQUATIQUES
CSIT CONFEDERATION SPORTIVE INTERNATIONALE DU TRAVAIL
FAI FEDERATION AERONAUTIQUE INTERNATIONALE
FEI FEDERATION EQUESTRE INTERNATIONALE
FIAS FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE AMATEUR DE SAMBO
FIBA FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE BASKETBALL
FIDE FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DES ECHECS
FIE FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE D’ESCRIME
FIFA FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION
FIG FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE GYMNASTIQUE
FIH FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE HOCKEY
FIM FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE MOTOCYCLISME
FIQ FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DES QUILLEURS
FIS FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE SKI
FISA FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DES SOCIETES DʹAVIRON
FISU FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DU SPORT UNIVERSITAIRE
FIVB FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE VOLLEYBALL
FMJD FEDERATION MONDIALE DU JEU DE DAMES
IAAF INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ATHLETICS FEDERATIONS
IAF INTERNATIONAL AIKIDO FEDERATION
IAKS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR SPORTS AND LEISURE FACILITIES
ICF INTERNATIONAL CANOE FEDERATION
IDBF INTERNATIONAL DRAGON BOAT FEDERATION
IFA INTERNATIONAL FISTBALL ASSOCIATION
IFBB INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF BODYBUILDING & FITNESS
IFF INTERNATIONAL FLOORBALL FEDERATION
IFMA INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF MUAYTHAI AMATEUR
IFSS INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF SLEDDOG SPORTS
IGF INTERNATIONAL GOLF FEDERATION
IJF INTERNATIONAL JUDO FEDERATION
IKF INTERNATIONAL KORFBALL FEDERATION
ILS INTERNATIONAL LIFE SAVING FEDERATION
IOF INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION
IPC INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE
IPF INTERNATIONAL POWERLIFTING FEDERATION
IRB INTERNATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE
IRF INTERNATIONAL RACQUETBALL FEDERATION
ISA INTERNATIONAL SURFING ASSOCIATION
ISAF INTERNATIONAL SAILING FEDERATION
ISSF INTERNATIONAL SHOOTING SPORT FEDERATION
ITTF THE INTERNATIONAL TABLE TENNIS FEDERATION
IWGA INTERNATIONAL WORLD GAMES ASSOCIATION
IWUF INTERNATIONAL WUSHU FEDERATION
JJIF JU-JITSU INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION
TWIF TUG OF WAR INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION
UCI UNION CYCLISTE INTERNATIONALE
WA WORLD ARCHERY FEDERATION
WAKO WORLD ASSOCIATION OF KICKBOXING ORGANIZATIONS
WDF WORLD DART FEDERATION
WKF WORLD KARATE FEDERATION
WMF WORLD MINIGOLFSPORT FEDERATION
WSF WORLD SQUASH FEDERATION
WTF WORLD TAEKWONDO FEDERATION