20(e) Provide a description of the applicant's intended registration policies in support of the community-based purpose of the applied-for gTLD

Prototypical answer:

Starting Dot will manage the .ski gTLD for the benefit of the entire ski community.

Benefits attainment of a restricted TLD will require equitable and substantive evaluation of domain name requests to weed-out non-eligible applicants while ensuing the availability of the TLD for its intended registrants.

Thanks to the expertise of its founding directors and to their relationship to the ski community Starting Dot is perfectly suited to endorse this responsibility.
Two main mechanisms will ensure stakeholders that the .ski gTLD will be managed in the community’s best interests:
- The establishment of a Policy Advisory Committee including members of the ski community;
- Restrictive eligibility policies defined in collaboration with the ski community.

The Policy Advisory Committee will serve as a channel for the community to provide Starting Dot input into how policies have been implemented, the experience of registrants with these policies, the effectiveness of procedures (both technical and non technical) and opportunities to improve support and services.

For transparency’s sake, minutes of the committee’s bi-annual meetings will be posted on the .ski gTLD’s main website.
Furthermore, Starting Dot intends to enforce the community-based purpose of the .ski gTLD through following registration policies.
In the operation of its proposed .ski gTLD, Starting Dot intends to implement all current and future ICANN policies.

Accordingly, Starting Dot will follow ICANN’s policies with respect to dispute resolution, including the adoption of the Uniform Dispute resolution Policy, as the same may be amended from time to time.

In addition, Starting Dot will design a specific dispute resolution procedure to address situations in which there is objectively clear abuse of:
- A company name;
- A personal name;
- A professional name;
- A name with national or geographic significance

ELIGIBILITY

Applicants of a .ski domain name will have to be verifiable members of the ski community and each name applied for will have to be a name to which there is a right that has been established through rights registration or use. Such rights can consist of, but are not necessarily limited to, registered or unregistered trademarks, trade names, company names, business identifiers, etc. insofar and to the extent protected by the laws of the country in which the applicant for the .ski domain name resides, has been established or conducts business activities.

Participation in the ski community will have to be certified at the time the registrant applies for or registers the domain name, which implies the acceptance of the domain name registration policies.

Verifiable members of the ski community must meet at least one of the following criteria:
- Having a business activity or a profession that is related to the sport of skiing in its broadest sense;
- Having a real interest for the sport of skiing and devote the domain name registered under the .ski gTLD to the sport of skiing in its broadest sense.

Starting Dot believes that these eligibility requirements will be a key impediment for registrants who are seeking to engage in abusive registrations and cyber-squatting.

Starting Dot has also defined a list of reserved and prohibited domain names under the .ski gTLD. Reserved names are domain names reserved for special use or for special organizations. Prohibited names are names that may not be registered under the .ski gTLD.

RESERVED NAMES

Unless agreed upon otherwise in writing with ICANN, Starting Dot will comply with the restrictions on registration of character strings set forth at Specification 5 of the Registry Operator Agreement.
Starting Dot also intends to define and control a list of domain names that have a value for the entire ski community, in order to delegate them to those registrants who are committing to use these in order to support the community for which the .ski gTLD is initially intended.
Hence, one character labels and a list of generic names will be reserved by Starting Dot and only released at its sole discretion.

PROHIBITED NAMES

The list of prohibited names under the .ski gTLD includes, in particular:
- Abusive terms;
- Racist terms;
- Obscene terms;
- Terms relating to crime or offenses.

THIRD-LEVEL NAMES

Starting Dot does not intend to allow third-level name registrations under the .ski gTLD.

ILLEGAL USE AND COMPLIANCE

Use of a domain name that is barred or prohibited by law or legal proceeding in any jurisdiction, or is considered to be defamatory will permit Starting Dot to revoke the domain name. Policies to this end will be developed by the registry and published in due time following ICANN’s delegation of the .ski gTLD to Starting Dot.

ENFORCEMENT

The .ski domain name registration policies will contain the following enforcement procedures and processes, in addition to those procedures that have been established in accordance with Consensus Policies such as the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy:
- Verification of entitlement of the registrant at the time of registration of a domain name, and this on a sample basis; and
- Ongoing verification throughout the term of the domain name registration.
In principle, Starting Dot will conduct quarterly random controls on a sample basis of .ski domain name registrants. Starting Dot will verify whether a registrant meets the eligibility requirements and⁄or domain name restrictions on the basis of public information, such as the information displayed on the registrant’s website, as well as other sources (on the Internet or otherwise). When in doubt, the registry will put the domain name on hold, and contact the registrant and the registrar with the request to provide proof that the registrant is meeting such requirements within a reasonable timeframe (e.g copy of ski sports instructor certificate, copy of membership in a ski association).
If no or insufficient proof is provided by the registrant, Starting Dot shall be entitled to revoke the domain name and inform the public that the domain name has been previously used contrary to its registration policies.

Furthermore, Starting Dot’s Complaints Point of Contact will handle any complaints in relation to a .ski domain name registration, including where the complainant alleges that a particular registrant does not meet the eligibility requirements or domain name restrictions.

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