gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.art	Dadotart, Inc.	deviantart.com	View

18.3.1 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)?

Dadotart believes the proposed operating rules that undertake to initially reserve key names including trademarks, as well as its proposed policies on eligibility, name selection and name use will provide clarity and predictability to name registration, thereby reducing social costs. In full operation the .ART gTLD will provide a trusted online environment for the arts community. There should be no need for other trademark and brand owners to defensively register in the gTLD. This verified eco-system also provides consumers with a single trusted source for arts information and communication. Dadotart also believes that the safeguards set forth in the Applicant Guidebook and the proposed business modeled outlined in Sections 18.1 and 18.1.2 and the policies planned and noted in 18.2.4 will minimize and potential negative social costs.


18.3.2 What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences⁄costs imposed upon consumers?
Dadotart believes that the proposed operation of the .ART gTLD as set forth in this application has no known negative consequences or cost implications for consumers. To the contrary, the proposed operation of this registry will likely lead to direct and quantifiable benefits to consumers. Dadotart believes that by following the core values as identified in Section 18.2 it will be able provide real value to the consumer and minimize any potential negative consequences⁄costs.

More particularly, the three phases of PAB creation, pre-launch, and launch and ongoing registration of the .ART gTLD are designed to minimize social costs and negative externalities. They protect potential registrants and potentially affected parties while maximizing the value of the name space to its registrants and users.

This approach is based on the premise that extensive screening efforts by the registry in the early stages will create a fair and orderly name space with lower compliance costs in the long term.

18.3.3 How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first-serve basis?
In phases and areas where the first-come-first-served principle tends to yield perverse results, alternative modes will be used.

(1) In the PAB creation phase community research will identify names to be entered into reserved lists and the rules by which they will be allocated;
(2) In the pre-launch phase key portal names of use to the entire community will be registered and used for communication and outreach; and
(3) A launch phase led by protection for and registration by trademark holders and those eligible to hold names on reserved lists.


It is anticipated that the pre-launch portal development program identified in (2) above will involve key participants in the Art Community. The portal development program will allocate domain names based on an open and transparent project selection process. This process is highly economical in terms of social costs and yields substantial external benefits.

The portal development program is an essential part of .ART outreach. It begins before delegation of the TLD. In terms of workload and it mainly affects proposers who themselves are required to demonstrate support for their projects. Support will be required to come from the segment of the community concerned with the respective portion of the name space. Given the high value of the resulting on-line resources for the community and the public interest, and given the economic benefits that can be derived from their operation, the administrative effort is largely justified. To further protect affected parties, all adjudications in name space mandates have a safety-valve clause, allowing for later adjustments based on community input. The principle of the safety-valve is that affected parties can obtain adjustments to a component of a mandate if they propose (and commit to) an improved use of the underlying domain names from a public interest perspective.

The launch programs referred to in (3) above combine the so-called “sunrise” and “landrush” processes simultaneously in one phase. The use of domain applications instead of domain registrations means that the registry accepts multiple applications the same domain name. (By contrast, only a single registration can exist for a given domain.) In this way, contention resolution can take place without time pressure in a transparent, fair and orderly manner.


At the time of ongoing registration the first-come rule will be followed. Registrations will be checked in a post-validation process and subject to an enforcement program based on statistically targeted random investigation and complaint follow-up. This program minimizes both costs to registrants and third parties. In particular, it strongly diminishes the attractiveness of rights violations, abuse or malignant behavior. Having been preceded by a controlled launch phase, the validation and enforcement workload faces no resource bottleneck and thus achieves a high degree of credibility, further dissuading abuse from the start. This mode of operation has a strong positive side effect in the interest of trademark holders.


18.3.3 How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first-serve basis?
As described below, during pre-launch and launch phase, the first-come-first-served principle is NOT applied. Adjudication by auction is one of the solutions available to the parties in the context of the contention resolution process. In the phase of ongoing registrations the first-come⁄first-served basis of name allocation will be followed, unless the name is one that is on a reserved list, in which case the allocation rules applicable to that list will be followed.

In phases and areas where the first-come-first-served principle tends to yield perverse results, alternative modes will be used.

(1) In the PAB creation phase community research will identify names to be entered into reserved lists and the rules by which they will be allocated;
(2) In the pre-launch phase key portal names of use to the entire community will be registered and used for communication and outreach; and
A launch phase led by protection for and registration by trademark holders and those eligible to hold names on reserved lists.

It is anticipated that the pre-launch portal development program identified in (2) above will involve builders and users in the Art community. The portal development program will allocate domain names based on an open and transparent project selection process. This process is highly economical in terms of social costs and yields substantial external benefits.

The portal development program is an essential part of .Art outreach. It begins before delegation of the TLD. In terms of workload, it mainly affects proposers who themselves are required to demonstrate support for their projects. Support will be required to come from the segment of the community concerned with the respective portion of the name space. Given the high value of the resulting on-line resources for the community and the public interest, and given the economic benefits that can be derived from their operation, the administrative effort is largely justified. To further protect affected parties, all adjudications in name space mandates have a safety-valve clause, allowing for later adjustments based on community input. The principle of the safety-valve is that affected parties can obtain adjustments to a component of a mandate if they propose (and commit to) an improved use of the underlying domain names from a public interest perspective.

The launch programs referred to in (3) above combine the so-called “sunrise” and “landrush” processes simultaneously in one phase. The use of domain applications instead of domain registrations means that the registry accepts multiple applications the same domain name. (By contrast, only a single registration can exist for a given domain.) In this way, contention resolution can take place without time pressure in a transparent, fair and orderly manner.

At the time of ongoing registration the first-com rule will be followed. Registrations will be checked in a post-validation process and subject to an enforcement program based on statistically targeted random investigation and complaint follow-up. This program minimizes both costs to registrants and third parties. In particular, it strongly diminishes the attractiveness of rights violations, abuse or malignant behaviour. Having been preceded by a controlled launch phase, the validation and enforcement workload faces no resource bottleneck and thus achieves a high degree of credibility, further dissuading abuse from the start. This mode of operation has a strong positive side effect in the interest of trademark holders.

18.3.4 Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).
The focus of the .ART gTLD is a competitive cost to registrants and stakeholders that takes into account the limited community nature of the gTLD. This takes into account all burdens, including the effort needed to register or the potential alternative cost to obtain a name on the secondary market. The direct per-unit cost is merely a component of the bottom-line cost.

The cost is greatly reduced by avoiding contention between legitimate community-based applicants and speculators. Community-specific promotion code programs will be used from time to time to offer registrations at low cost. This is a way to avoid perverse effects of low prices, such as speculation with ultimately high costs to registrants, large-scale confusion and waste of the name space, or cybersquatting.

The portal development program will have special terms in order ensure that key portions of name space are used in the public interest.

18.3.5 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 .ART TLD will not be based on or otherwise involve contractual clauses regarding price escalation between the .ART Registry and its registrars.

The .ART business plan is designed to avoid any future necessity to increase registry price in real terms. The fundamental principle is prudence: starting from conservative price levels that allow self-sustainability at the registration levels projected and gradually lowering prices as registration volumes increase beyond the minimum necessary for self-sustained operation. This method ensures sufficient financial reserves, favors optimal allocation of domain names, helps prevent misuse and supports an orderly registration process.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.cymru	Nominet UK	nominet.org.uk	View

Nominet is committed to ensuring that dot CYMRU will be a high quality, safe and secure space which maximises benefits and minimises consumer harm. We will adopt a range of rules relating to registration, registrar management, expiry, intellectual property protection, prevention of abuse and malicious behaviour to ensure that the dot CYMRU TLD meets its objective as a trusted, safe, and credible space. We will ensure registration procedures are simple and quick to use, operating on a first-come, first-served basis subject to the registration policy previously outlined, while at the same time mitigating potential harms, such as:

- Excessively high end-user prices which impose unnecessary cost on users wishing to purchase domains and⁄or deter take-up and use of the new domain;
- Use of the TLD for illegal purposes such as phishing, pharming, distribution of malware, online fraud and identity theft;
- Harm caused to third parties through infringement of their intellectual property rights.

We will mitigate these potential harms through the following actions:

Pricing and route to market

It is not in registrants’ interests for dot CYMRU domains to be available at excessively high, uncompetitive prices. Indeed registrants are likely to be put off from registering if prices are too high. Consumers could also be negatively impacted if high domain prices feed through into higher price of (for example) e-commerce services.

Nominet is committed to a pricing model in which wholesale charges for dot CYMRU domains are set at a level which is competitive with comparable charges for existing mass market gTLDs. Given that this is crucial to the success of dot CYMRU we do not think it is necessary to make binding contractual commitments on future pricing but we will, as required by the Registry Agreement, offer registrants advance notice of price changes.

Retail prices paid by registrants are, of course determined by the registrar market, to which the wholesale charges set by the registry are only an input. We are committed to ensuring the broadest and most competitive registrar channel for dot CYMRU. As well as working through all ICANN-accredited registrars who wish to sell the dot CYMRU product, Nominet also intends, via a subsidiary, to become an ICANN accredited registrar itself for the purpose of offering an alternative mechanism to purchase dot CYMRU domains for non-ICANN accredited registrars. (Nominet has around 3,000 registrars for the sale of .uk domains and these registrars will be able to choose whether to register through any of ICANN’s accredited registrars that wish to offer dot CYMRU domains including Nominet’s registrar subsidiary. This subsidiary will sell registrations on competitive terms only through resellers; Nominet does not intend to become active itself in the retail market.)

We will offer 1-10 year variable registration periods in line with standard practice. In addition, we have set aside in our model appropriate funds to provide additional marketing effort to promote the new domain. This may take the form of assistance with the development and delivery of specific marketing campaigns by the channel, or it could take the form of a quantity discounting arrangement as an introductory incentive to registrants.


Effective sunrise processes

The dot CYMRU registry will deploy a staged sunrise process before making the domain names available for general registration on a first-come, first-served basis. The trademark claims service mandated by ICANN to provide notice to potential registrants of existing trademark rights, as well as notice to rights holders of relevant names registered will operate throughout all phases and for the first 60 days of general registration.

The sequential order of availability for dot CYMRU domains will be as follows:
(1) Sunrise period for both trademarks in the ICANN Trademark Clearinghouse and other registered trademarks enforceable in the UK;
(2) Sunrise period for unregistered rights (also known as “passing off” rights) enforceable in the UK;
(3) Landrush for premium domain names open to all applicants; and
(4) Landrush open to all other applicants.

Participation in each stage will be contingent on meeting the eligibility requirements for dot CYMRU.

Phase (1) will be open to those parties with registered trademark rights. Parties who wish to take part in this phase will have the option of either registering their rights at the ICANN Trademark Clearinghouse, or going through a dot CYMRU-specific trade mark validation process. Phase (2) will be open to parties with legally enforceable unregistered rights; we will require an affidavit from a qualified intellectual property lawyer confirming that they believe such unregistered rights exist. The landrush at phase (3) will be for previously identified “premium” domain names and will be open to anyone who can fulfil the registrant requirements for dot CYMRU explained earlier in this answer, regardless of whether they have any prior rights in a name. Phase (4) will be open only to parties based in Wales. The premium names will have been identified at an early point and reserved for registration until this stage.

In the event that more than one valid application for the same domain name is received in a given phase, an auction will be used to determine who will be entitled to the domain name. In order to prevent unnecessary delay in moving to subsequent phases, auctions for a given phase will be held in parallel with subsequent phases, given that there is no detriment in doing so. Surpluses generated by the auction will be returned to communities in Wales in line with our not-for-profit business model.

Once these four phases have been completed, dot CYMRU domains will be made available on a first come, first served basis (subject to eligibility requirements).

Aside from the internal costs to the participants, and any costs charged by a supplier, for the first two phases, the registry will charge only an administrative fee to cover the verification of rights claims by independent experts. This fee will be calculated on a cost-recovery basis. For the landrush phase, participants will pay a minimal application fee, the purpose of which is to ensure that only genuine participants take part in any auction.

A marketing and communications programme to inform stakeholders and rights-owners will be deployed in advance of the launch of the dot CYMRU registry. This programme will be conducted in partnership with relevant community organisations to inform and promote the rules and mechanisms by which registrants will be permitted to register rights and dot CYMRU domains. This will encourage engagement from rights owners to either take up their rights at low cost by registering a domain or to ensure that their trademark is registered in the Clearinghouse. We understand the needs, concerns and priorities of stakeholders due to our considerable experience of stakeholder engagement and management from our dot UK operations. These stakeholders include government, businesses, registrants, registrars, law enforcement authorities, the internet community, and regulatory bodies. Nominet has developed tried and tested multi-stakeholder processes for consulting and engaging with stakeholders, using those processes to inform the way in which policies and rules are developed and reviewed in order that costs are minimised and benefits maximised.

Additionally, the dot CYMRU registry will use mechanisms to raise awareness through proactive contact with business and industry stakeholders who are registered companies through the UK’s Companies House to advise and assist with their decision-making, limiting the unintended consequences of a lack of awareness.

We will implement an effective policy for the protection of geographic names as required by the Governmental Advisory Committee. The registry will reserve all country names set out in Specification 5 to the draft Registry Agreement with ICANN (the “Reserved Names”). The Reserved Names will not be available for general registration at any point, whether before or after the launch of the dot CYMRU registry, regardless of any claimed trade mark or other rights. See our response to Q22 for further details.


Registration

Once in the general availability phase, as noted, we will operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Where two applications are received for the same domain name and both meet the registration policy and data quality requirements the application received first will succeed.

All applicants for dot CYMRU domain names will be contractually required to provide complete and accurate WHOIS data. Verification will be undertaken by the registrar in the first instance and enforced through the registry⁄registrar agreement. The Registry Operator will also conduct proactive validation checks on the name and address of all registrants.

We believe this will deter criminals from registering under the new domain and will ensure a high accuracy of WHOIS data from the outset, thus helping law enforcement and rights holders to take action against abuses if these occur.

Registrars will be obliged to ensure that registrant data is verified and correct, and regularly reviewed at appropriate times. We will have the option to incentivise registrars and will also have the option to impose financial and technical restrictions on poorly performing registrars.


Abuse: Detection and policy approach

Strong abuse policies on domains associated with criminal or malicious activity will ensure dot CYMRU is a safer and more secure internet space. We will seek to minimise any harm to consumers resulting from the use of dot CYMRU for criminal purposes.

While our registration policies will be designed to deter abusive registrations, this is unlikely to be 100% infallible, we will therefore adopt the following additional measures:

- A strong abuse policy which allows us to suspend domains where we are presented with information that they are being used for criminal purposes. This will be reinforced through contractual provisions with registrars and resellers.
- Full operational roll-out of DNSSEC.
- Co-operation with law enforcement authorities to develop ‘early warning’ and reporting systems.
- Dispute resolution (mediation) to enable third parties to effectively deal with allegations of IP infringement.

These measures are set out in more detail in our response to question 28.


DNSSEC

Nominet recognises the importance of DNSSEC in order to run a secure and reliable TLD. As a result we will provide two services in relation to DNSSEC:

- A fully DNSSEC enabled TLD that supports all DNSSEC RFCs; and
- An RFC compliant DNSSEC signing service. This will allow all dot CYMRU registrars to take advantage of Nominet’s DNSSEC signing infrastructure if they do not already have provision themselves. We believe that this will significantly increase DNSSEC take up.


IP rights protection

We are committed to providing a high level of protection for existing IP rights and this is a core objective of the registry. Our approach will go beyond the basic requirements laid out by ICANN in three key areas:

- We will extend the sunrise window to two months to ensure the maximum possibility is afforded to rights-owners to secure existing rights.
- We will afford protection not just to trademarks, but to other enforceable brand protection rights linked to Wales and established in UK intellectual property law.
- We will keep the costs of securing rights to a reasonable minimum. Any fees payable to secure rights under this process will be set on a cost-recovery basis. We will also offer a low-cost mediation process as an optional pre-cursor to the obligatory UDRP.

The key to successful rights protection will be extensive outreach amongst rights holders to raise awareness and explain the processes. Nominet is committed to an extensive programme of engagement and consultation ahead of the commencement of the rights protection window.

In addition to meeting our obligations to offer the UDRP, the registry will also provide registrants and complainants with a free mediation service administered by qualified mediators, giving users access to low-cost mechanisms to enforce their intellectual property rights.

Our proposals are set out in more detail in our response to question 29.


Data protection and privacy

We will ensure that data supplied by registrants is protected in accordance with all applicable laws (specifically the UK Data Protection Act 1998 and the EU Data Protection Directive which informed it), including through an appropriately designed WHOIS implementation.