gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.booking	Booking.com B.V.	markmonitor.com	View

In line with Booking.com’s mission and purpose for the .booking gTLD, it is first and foremost important for Booking.com to safeguard and protect the key element out of its BOOKING.COM trademark at the top level of the DNS’ hierarchy. Such protection does not only extend to the actual registration, delegation and use of the TLD, but also to the domain names that are registered therein, and how these domain names are used.

Considering the fact that the actual award and delegation of the .booking gTLD to Booking.com is subject to the successful evaluation of our application, we have not yet defined in detail:

* the types of domain names that will be registered;
* who will be entitled to select which domain names will be registered
* who will be entitled to register such domain names;
* who will be entitled to use such domain names, and
* which types of use will be allowed or recommended.

As we believe that the development and implementation of one or more business cases could likely take a couple of months or even years, we have only focused on a number of high-level characteristics of our plans in relation to the operation of the .booking gTLD.

By all means, it is in Booking.com’s self-interest to, on the one hand, make the most of this initiative, promote its own business interests, and mitigate risks for its brand and brand reputation, whilst also reducing the (social) costs for others.

In this context, we intend to devise policies that encompass and comprise the following features:

At least during the initial months or even years following the delegation of the .booking gTLD to Booking.com, this extension is likely going to be a so-called “single registrant TLD” as contemplated by ICANN in Article 4.5 of the template Registry Operator Agreement (“Transition of Registry upon Termination of Agreement”). For the avoidance of doubt, a “single registrant TLD” is a TLD where “(i) all domain name registrations in the TLD are registered to, and maintained by, Registry Operator for its own exclusive use, and (ii) Registry Operator does not sell, distribute or transfer control or use of any registrations in the TLD to any third party that is not an Affiliate of Registry Operator.”

Therefore, parties who are not Booking.com will not be entitled to register domain names in the .booking gTLD.

Booking.com believes this to be in line with two of the main elements in its vision and mission statement, namely:

* Protecting and safeguarding the BOOKING.COM brand and its reputation, by keeping full control over the entire operation of the .booking registry and every domain name registered therein; and

* Guaranteeing to Booking.com’s key stakeholders who are interacting with Booking.com, by using domain names registered in .booking that they are in fact interacting with the brand owner.

Consequently, there will be no (social) costs for non-eligible (third) parties, given the fact that they will be unable to register domain names in the .booking gTLD in the first place.

However, even if only Booking.com will be entitled to register domain names, this does not exclude the hypothesis that disputes may arise with one or more third parties as regards domain names that are registered in the .booking gTLD.

In order to avoid these risks, Booking.com intends to implement the following policies and processes:

First, the domain names to be registered by Booking.com will likely relate to the following:

* registered trademarks of Booking.com;
* names of affiliates or hotel partners of Booking.com;
* names of departments within Booking.com
* names of subsidiaries.

Furthermore, Booking.com envisages registering a fair number of generic words that are directly or indirectly related to the day-to-day business activities and operations of Booking.com and its Affiliates.

Prior to effectively registering such domain names in the .booking gTLD, Booking.com will require its legal department to review the list of these domain names on a regular basis in order to satisfy itself that they will not infringe the rights of third parties.

In any case, Booking.com shall claim to have a legitimate interest in these domain names, as they are merely descriptive of the activities, products or services of Booking.com. So even if one or more of these domain names would be protected by a registered trademark, held by a third party, it is likely that a claim under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy or Uniform Rapid Suspension policy will fail.

As regards the names referred to in Specification 5 to the template Registry Operator Agreement, Booking.com will follow the processes and procedures established by ICANN and the Governmental Advisory Committee.

If Booking.com would determine, at its sole discretion, that it will gradually allow certain categories of stakeholders to register domain names in the .booking gTLD in their own name, Booking.com will devise policies to that effect.

However, Booking.com will at all times be entitled to restrict, limit or expand, among others:

* the category or categories of stakeholders who will be entitled to register one or more domain names in the .booking gTLD, including their criteria for qualification;
* the choice of domain name(s) registered in the .booking gTLD by and per such eligible stakeholder (category);
* the use made by an and per eligible stakeholder of a domain name registered in the .booking gTLD;
* the transfer of domain names registered in .booking..

Booking.com shall reserve the right to subject the registration or use of a domain name to internal approval processes and procedures, at each and every step of the domain name life cycle.

Given the fact that Booking.com may release such available domain names post launch in a highly controlled manner, this also reduces the likelihood that two or more applicants qualify for the registration of the same domain name in the .booking top-level domain;

As a method of last resort, and subject to the actual domain name registration policy adopted by the Registry Operator and in force at the time of registration, domain names will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

In any event, Booking.com reserves the right to change or restrict any policies, procedures and practices at any point in time, especially if it is of the opinion that there would be a risk that, e.g. the reputation of the BOOKING.COM brand would be damaged.

The Applicant intends to make the .booking top-level domain available to qualifying domain name registrants at no cost to them; if the Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator would be required to charge a fee for the registration of domain names under the .booking TLD, the fee will be set at a cost-recovery or arm’s length basis, to be determined at that time by the Registry.

If Booking.com will be required to or would decide to increase the fees for the registration of domain names, such increases will keep pace with the comparable market rates at that point in time.

So, in brief:

1. The Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator may reserve, delegate and use a potentially large number of domain names that are directly or indirectly relevant to Applicant’s business in its own name. Since some of these domain names could be of a descriptive nature, the chances for qualifying ⁄ eligible applicants ⁄ registrants to register such domain names after the launch will be limited;

2. The Registry Operator shall be entitled at all times to release available domain names post launch in a highly controlled manner, which also reduces the likelihood that two or more applicants qualify for the registration of the same domain name in the .booking top-level domain;

3. As a method of last resort, and subject to the actual domain name registration policy adopted by the Registry Operator and in force at the time of registration, domain names will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis;

4. If the Applicant decides to allow third parties to register a domain name under the .booking TLD, the Applicant intends to make.booking top-level domains available to qualifying domain name registrants at no cost to them; if the Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator would be required to charge a fee for the registration of domain names under the .booking TLD, the fee will be set at a cost-recovery or arm’s length basis, to be determined at that time by the Registry;

5. If the Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator will be required to increase the fees for the registration of domain names, such increases are intended to keep pace with comparable market rates. However, the Registry Operator shall at all times be entitled to bundle the registration of domain names with other products or services offered by or on behalf of Booking.com at a fee to be set by the Registry Operator.

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

Nominet is committed to ensuring that dot WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES. As well as working through all ICANN-accredited registrars who wish to sell the dot WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES.

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 WALES-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 WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES 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 WALES 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 a dot WALES 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 WALES is a safer and more secure internet space. We will seek to minimise any harm to consumers resulting from the use of dot WALES 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 WALES 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.