gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | .LEGAL | PRIMER NIVEL S.A. | mi.com.co | View |
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?
Social costs have been identified by us to be:
- Costs related to defensive registrations
- Costs related to processes of recovering a domain from an abusive registrant
- Time spent in the above processes
- Time wasted because of confusion
Costs related to defensive registrations and costs related to processes of recovering a domain from an abusive registrant: Our operating rules aimed at minimizing these social costs are:
- We will not incentivize defensive registrations.
- We will implement URS, UDRP and every other standard rights protection mechanism.
- We will use the means at our reach to promote and facilitate URS processes regarding potential infringement of trademarks.
These policies and procedures are the tools ICANN has put in place to reduce the costs when abusive registrations occur. A registry such as the one planned for .LEGAL will have open registry policies and therefore is not absent to this situation. Nevertheless we will focus a lot on that our marketing strategy communicates the processes available for trademarks to react to abusive registrations.
Furthermore, our allocation of domains will be done through an ordered plan that seeks to assign domains in a fair organized and consistent manner. The Gradual Offering Plan we have detailed in the policy section also aids in the reduction of social costs by providing an organized distribution structure.
We will hold Sunrise, Landrush, the Geographic protection program, and will open up for General Availability at pubic and well communicated moments in time. There will be enough time between them and enough communication and outreach activities to ensure information is available to all interested parties. The Sunrise period, intended to allow IP right holders to protect themselves. The Landrush period, to allow early registration of domain names before the General Availability time after which the First Come, First Served rule will apply. And the Geographic Protection Program to give priority to governments and local authorities. This will allow us as stated before to launch the extension through a consistent and fair process.
i. How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first-serve basis?
Multiple applications for a particular domain may only happen on the Gradual Offering plan of the extension. This plan includes Sunrise, Landrush, and Geographic protection program phases.
If two applications for the same domain were to be received the following rules apply:
- If two requests are received for the same domain under the Geographic Protection Program, the Registry will reserve that domain and at the cost of the Registry will create a landing page that redirects to sites as instructed by the contending applicants in a fair manner. Registration fees will be assumed by applicants and will be divided among the contending applicants. The Registry reserves full rights to modifying the landing page and exclude the presence of any applicant´s presence if the applicant were to cease payment or any other reason as determined by the Registry.
- If a request under the Geographic Protection Program were to match a Sunrise request, the Geographic request will prevail and the Sunrise request will not be entertained. Every valid request on the Geographic Protection Program phase will be temporarily reserved by the Registry until the outcome of the registration is defined.
- If any other two requests are made by any two applicants in the same phase (Sunrise or Landrush) the following rules also detailed in the policy section apply:
Auction rules:
When contention occurs in any initial phase of the launch of the domains under the extension an auction will apply between qualified applicants. All the auctions will take place at the same time. The Registry has considered both the possibility of running the auctions internally or outsourcing the auction process.
The following considerations have been initially drafted:
Timeframes:
- Auctions will be held for a period of 60 days with every auction lasting 5 days or 120 hours.
- Batching of the auctions will be done by alphabetical order.
System:
- The auctions will be conducted through an online bidding system.
- Applicants must agree to the terms and conditions of the online bidding system. If the applicant does not agree to the terms and conditions the auction will still take place and the winner of the auction will be assigned the domain name. The Registry, the auction provider if any, the registrar and any other related party will not be liable in the case an applicant fails to use the auction system.
Bidding:
- Bidding will start at 1 dollar and will have increments as implemented in the auction system.
- Proxy bidding will by allowed in the auction system.
- Extensions will also be done in case bidding is active at the final periods of the auction.
Payment:
Applicants will be required to pay within 30 days of the end of the auction. Notices of the payment will be sent every 5 days to the applicant. If payment is not received by the term provided, the domain will be reauctioned between the other applicants 45 days after the initial auction ended.
This process will repeat until a successful payment is received. If only 2 applicants are participating in the auction and one defaults in payment, the domain will be awarded to the other applicant free of fees.
Allocation:
The winner of the auction will have the name registered at the registrar through which the application was submitted.
After the domain is available for public registration domains will be awarded by a first com⁄first serve basis.
ii. Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).
We are planning the following pricing strategies along with our Marketing campaign:
First year registration price reduction. To incentivize registrations and reduce barriers to registrants we may have temporary campaigns where we will reduce the price for the 1st year of registration. This will allow us to structure marketing campaigns with our Registrar partners to promote the extension.
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.
Commitment of price escalation: We are committed to serve our registrants in the best way possible. We understand the importance of having a consistent price structure and policy. Therefore our commitment to registrants will be the following.
- For the first five years of operation of the .LEGAL registry there will be no price increases. No one year term of registration or renewal will be higher than 15 USD as per our pricing strategy.
- After the 5th year the highest increment in the domain registration prices will be 5% yearly, or as low as commercially practicable.
These policies will be implemented at the wholesale level. Registrars may or may not transmit this structure to their registrants.
gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | .公司 | Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences (China Internet Network Information Center) | cnnic.cn | View |
18 c Operating Rules to Eliminate or Minimize Social Costs
18.c.1 Definition and Category of Social Costs
It is predicted that most of ʺ.公司ʺ domain names will be used within the Chinese language community, where a majority of the registrants is expected as emerging small and medium-sized commercial organizations in developing countries. Therefore, it would be difficult to achieve the targets of ʺ.公司ʺ if the social costs are too high. To achieve the goals of ʺ.公司ʺ, CNNIC will minimize the following time or financial resource costs of registrants, registrars and end-users via policies and operations of ʺ.公司ʺ as far as possible. As predicted by CNNIC, the operation of ʺ.公司ʺ will mainly produce the following costs:
18c.1.1 For Registrants:
(1)costs for registration of ʺ.公司ʺ domain names
(2)costs for renewal of ʺ.公司ʺ domain names
(3)costs for trademark infringement dispute and defensive registration under ʺ.公司ʺ domain
(4)additional advertising costs incurred from the promotion of the ʺ.公司ʺ domain name
18c.1.2 For Registrars:
(1) service costs to be paid to the CNNIC
(2) costs for the promotion and marketing of ʺ.公司ʺ
(3) costs for the operation and maintenance of ʺ.公司ʺ registration services
18c.1.3 For End-users:
(1) time costs for searching, inputting and memorizing the ʺ.公司ʺ domain name
(2) losses incurred to the consumer as a result of ʺ.公司ʺ domain name abuse
18c.2 Rules on ʺ.公司ʺ to minimize social costs
18c.2.1 For Registrants:
18c.2.1.1Reasonable Pricing Model of Registration
(1). A unified pricing model including the price of registration and that of renewal will be formulated for ʺ.公司ʺ based on its market demand and operating costs (see Question 46 for details), and the prices will be maintained reasonable and stable to compete fairly with other IDN gTLD, so as to ensure that registrants, especially those with relatively weak economic capability are able to register the ʺ.公司ʺ domain name.
(2). As the registration of ʺ.公司ʺ increases, the unit operating cost for every domain will keep decreasing, and CNNIC will, based on the decrease in its operating costs, adjust the prices accordingly, and provide each ICANN accredited registrar that has executed registry-registrar agreement for ʺ.公司ʺ advance notice of any price change according to the regulations of ICANN.
(3). CNNIC will handle multiple applications for the same domain name on the basis of uniform price and first-come⁄first-serve to effectively reduce the bidding costs spent by registrants and enable more small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain high value domain names with relatively low prices.
(4). CNNIC forbids registrars to register domain names with false information, occupy domain name resources in a disguised form or drive up domain name prices.
(5)Because Chinese variants have the same pronunciation and the same meaning as its official form, Chinese users regard them as interchangeable. Thus a variant IDN, derived from an IDN by replacing some characters with their variants, should match the original IDN. It is a consensus within the Chinese language community that the Chinese internationalized domain label(IDL) and itʹs variants labels should be belong to the same registrant⁄applicant, and the Simplified and Traditional Chinese forms of the applied-for should be resolvable simultaneously or non-resolvable at all in ʺ.公司ʺ domain. Our policy will mandate that when an IDL is registered, all variant IDLs in the IDL package are unavailable to other name holders. In addition to the registered IDL, the registry will activate Simplified whole string and Traditional whole string IDLs to the same registrant⁄applicant for free.
18c.2.1.2 Effectively Reduced Costs for the Renewal of Domain Names
(1). Registrants are free to choose, at their own discretion, a registration period of 1-10 years (to a maximum of 10 years) and free to renew their registration based on their own will, and CNNIC will provide in its agreement with registrars that to buy or sell under coercion, sale with treats or selling bundled services on the part of registrars are prohibited.
(2). At the initial operating period of ʺ.公司ʺ, incentive measures will be taken to encourage new registrants to register ʺ.公司ʺ for a longer term of registration. Consumers of newly registered domain names will be exempted for paying certain term of registration period depending on the length of registration period, so as to expedite the popularization and lower the costs of domain names.
(3). To ensure reasonable price of renewal for consumers, CNNIC will take efforts to stabilize the price and propose to undertake in the registration agreement that the registration and renewal price will be kept as stabilized during an effective term of the Registry Contract. Certain price adjustment may take place at the contract renewal point with respect to the Consumer Price Index, labor cost and tax rate change in China and the market condition change. Therefore consumers do not need to worry about low price trap.
(4). CNNIC customer service group will conduct monitoring over consumers’ renewal of domain names, investigate cases where renewal fails to take place, and make improvement in services to the point in cooperation with registrars to make it more convenient for consumers to renew their domain names or change registrar and reduce costs for registrants.
18c.2.1.3 Guaranteed Trademark Rights and Reduced Costs for Domain Name Dispute
(1).A Sunrise Period of 30 days will be launched in accordance with relevant policies of ICANN on Trademark Clearing House Mechanism to allow qualified right holders of validated national recognized trademarks to register ʺ.公司ʺ domain names with priority. Trademark Claim Service will also be provided in the first 60 days of general registration period, for the registration of domain names that match with corresponding trademarks included in the Trademark Clearing House, so as to allow trademark holders to protect their trademark rights through registration and reduce costs resulting from domain name disputes.
(2). The UDRP, PDDRP and RRDRP provided by ICANN and relevant URS policies will be abided by in respect of ʺ.公司ʺ and accessibility of 99% information in Whois will be assured to ensure that domain name abuse. Dispute under ʺ.公司ʺ can be resolved in a timely manner and that losses incurred to domain name holders as a result of domain name abuse and trademark infringement can be reduced to the greatest extent possible.
(3) Efforts will be made to introduce the Chinese domain names to the software vendors in order to expedite applications Chinese ʺ.公司ʺ domain name. This will enable consumers to get to know the use value of Chinese domain names, increase the level of activity of domain names, reduce investments in domain name registration purely for defensive purposes, and upgrade the practical value of domain names.
(4) CNNIC will undertake to treat all registrants equally, and except for domain names reserved or restricted from registration as prescribed by national laws and relevant provisions of ICANN, all holders of trademark rights will be entitled to the same registration right; CNNIC will not set any priorities in the protection of specific trademarks and guarantees to treat each registrant in a fair manner.
18c.2.1.4 Reduced Costs for The Promotion of Domain Names
(1) ʺ.公司ʺ supports various combinations of Chinese characters, and a ʺ.公司ʺ domain name can be made exactly match the Chinese name of a corresponding organization, which makes it convenient for consumers to read and memorize, improves effectiveness in the publicity of the name of the organization, and makes it easy for itself to be accepted by most of the Chinese language end-users without too much costs for publicity.
(2) CNNIC will reinforce in its publicity plans the promotion of typical cases of the application of ʺ.公司ʺ domain names and boost publicity among registrants from sideways, and concurrently increase acceptance of Chinese domain names by consumers to save publicity costs.
18c.2.2 For Registrars:
18c.2.2.1 Reasonable Registry Fee
(1) CNNIC will provide all registrars accredited by ICANN with uniform policies on prices, preferential treatments and discounts to ensure that registrars can engage in fair competition.
(2) The pricing of ʺ.公司ʺ domain names in registrars is relatively low as compared to other IDN GTLDs of the same category, therefore there is a room with competitive advantage for surrendering part of the profits on the part of the registrars.
18c.2.2.2 Reduced Costs for the Promotion and Marketing of ʺ.公司ʺ
(1) CNNIC will be engaged in active cooperation with registrars in carrying out diversified marketing activities, including advertising and news release, and designate staffs to attend sales conferences organized by registrars and promote their sale.
(2) CNNIC will institute a rebate program during each year of operation. Through this rebate program, ICANN-accredited registrars that have registered domain names in the new TLD will be eligible to receive a rebate based on the registration increase and renewal rate. This policy will be provided to each registrar equally. CNNIC will conduct annual appraisal of its licensed registrars. If an increase in new registration and renewal rate is found compared to the benchmark value of the last year’s performance, CNNIC will grant a certain amount of rebates with respect to the newly registered domain names, which shall be used as marketing funds for ʺ.公司ʺ to encourage registrars to develop markets especially in areas with a relatively low Internet penetration rate.
18c.2.2.3 Reduced Costs for the Operation of ʺ.公司ʺ
(1). Registrars will not be charged with any certification cost, and any registrar that qualifies for the provision of ʺ.公司ʺ registration services may apply to become a ʺ.公司ʺ registrar.
(2) The registry architecture will automate several functions. These include the ability to track, in real-time, status updates of customer registrars, custom reports for registrars, near real-time zone file updates, and over the medium term, real-time updates of the DNS zone files. By automating these processes, registrars can expect meaningful operational cost savings. As such, CNNIC, through its technological solutions, will provide indirect business opportunities to its customer registrars through lower operational costs.
(3). There are relatively mature registrar support staffs and secure and reliable registration service platform and client which are ready to help registrars to establish ʺ.公司ʺ domain name registration services with the lowest costs.
18c.2.3 For End-Users:
18c.2.3.1 Reduced Costs for Searching, Inputting and Memorizing the ʺ.公司ʺ Domain Name
(1) With the efforts of CNNIC and the Chinese language community, currently most of the browsers support the input of Chinese domain names, which has reduced costs resulting from incompatibility.
(2) CNNIC is also actively cooperating with such Chinese language search engines and software vendors for promoting applications of Chinese domain names to make it convenient for consumers to accept Chinese domain names.
(3)The form of the ʺ.公司ʺ domain name also fit neatly with the reading and memory habits of Chinese language users and reduces additional time costs incurred from domain name confusion.
18c.2.3.2 Reduced Losses Resulting Domain Name Abuse
(1). CNNIC’s experience in domain name management will be utilized to impose punishment with respect to such acts of domain name abuse as phishing websites and virus transmission in a timely manner to reduce consumers’ costs, and CNNIC undertakes that the percentage of ʺ.公司ʺ domain name abuse will not exceed 5%.
(2). Accredited registrars will be required to verify the accuracy of information in Whois, so as to ensure that law enforcement agencies can find the person who has committed act of domain name abuse and relieves can be obtained in time with respect to the rights of consumers.
(3) Chinese variants have the same pronunciation and the same meaning as its official form, Chinese users regard them as interchangeable. The Chinese internationalized domain label(IDL) and itʹs variants labels will be mandated by CNNIC’s policy following the rules as the Simplified and Traditional Chinese forms of the applied-for should be resolvable simultaneously for the same registrant⁄applicant or non-resolvable at all in ʺ.公司ʺ domain. This will reduce the chance of string confusion caused by Chinese variant domain names.
18c.3 Specific Measures to Minimize Social Costs
18c.3.1 Domain Name String Contention Resolution
CNNIC will, based on the right protection mechanism of ICANN, make Sunrise registration services available for holders of valid trademark rights during the 30-day Sunrise Period prior to the official launch of the public registration of the ʺ.公司ʺ domain name. All trademark right holders will be entitled to equal priority in registration, the principle of first-come⁄first serve shall apply in case of domain name string contention, and uniform prices will be used. This measure will reduce the costs of domain name registration to the greatest extent possible comparing with the method of auction.
After the Sunrise Period, CNNIC will continue to resolve domain name string contention on the first-come⁄first serve basis. Where any domain name dispute occurs, UDRP shall apply. Besides, either party may resort to arbitration or judicial decision, or consumers may file complaints with URS in view of domain name use with bad faith.
18c.3.2 Cost Benefits Measures
To drive the stable development of ʺ.公司ʺ, CNNIC plans to adopt a two-stage promotion scheme based on the principle of providing fair and consistent preferential policies for all registrants and registries. The first stage will be consumer incentives, during which domain name registrants will be stimulated to enhance the popularity and acceptability of domain names; and the second stage will be channel incentives, during which further support will be provided for registrars to conduct marketing on the basis of consumers’ recognition in the first stage.
18c.3.2.1 First Stage
18c.3.2.1.1 Period
The period of the first stage will be the first calendar year after the initial launch of ʺ.公司ʺ for registration.
18c.3.2.1.2 Targets
(1) Enhance the popularity and acceptability of domain names among consumers, and increase market attention.
(2) Increase the average term of registration of newly registered domain names and ensure the stability of domain name users.
18c.3.2.1.3 Measures
CNNIC will take incentive measures directly targeted at consumers to encourage them to register ʺ.公司ʺ for a longer term of registration. Specifically, CNNIC will grant price concession for one-time domain name new registration with a certain length of period , so as to expedite the popularization and increase the average new registration of domain names:
(1)An one-year exemption will be granted to the users who register one time for four to six years ;
(2)A two-year exemption will be granted to the users who register one time for seven to nine years;
(3)A three-year exemption will be granted to the users who register one time for ten years.
18c.3.2.2 Second Stage
18c.3.2.2.1 Period
The period of the second stage shall be 12 natural months since the end of the first stage, and appraisement will be conducted on a yearly basis.
18c.3.2.2.2 Targets
(1) Encourage registrars to increase the new registration of the ʺ.公司ʺ domain name.
(2) Encourage registrars to increase renewals of historical ʺ.公司ʺ domain names.
(3) Encourage registrars to increase the proportion of their ʺ.公司ʺ domain name business.
18c.3.2.2.3 Measures
If during the appraisal of the first year, a certain percentage of growth is seen in the newly registered domain names in any registrar as compared to the benchmark value and a certain rate of renewal is achieved, CNNIC will grant a certain amount of rebates with respect to the newly registered domain names as a marketing fund for the domain name promotion in the lower market penetration area, as is shown in the attached table in 48(a)_attachement_1_schedule_2.
18c.3.3 Provisions on Price Increase
18.3.3.1 Limit on price increase
Based on the expected increasing amount of the registration of ʺ.公司ʺ, the single unit service cost for each registration is expected to be reduced. CNNIC will take efforts to stabilize the price and propose to undertake in the registration agreement that the registration and renewal price will be kept as stabilized during an effective term of the Registry Contract. Some price adjustment may take place at the contract renewal point with respect to the following conditions:
(1)economic environment change with higher inflation rate in China
(2)tax increase
(3)labor cost increase
(4)other market variation and technical evolution that may lead to cost change
Due to uncertainty of the market environment at the time of delegation, the actual contractual terms of annual price increase magnitude within the registry agreement shall be further discussed based on the above conditions at the time of delegation.
18.3.3.2 Notice of Price Increase
With respect to initial domain name registrations, CNNIC will provide ICANN and each ICANN accredited registrar that has executed the RRA for the TLD 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) of no less than thirty (30) calendar days. CNNIC will offer registrars 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.
With respect to renewal of domain name registrations, CNNIC will provide ICANN and each ICANN accredited registrar that has executed the registry-registrar agreement for the TLD advance written notice of any price increase (including as a result of the elimination of any refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying, Qualified Marketing Programs or other programs which had the effect of reducing the price charged to registrars) of no less than one hundred eighty (180) calendar days.
In addition, CNNIC will have uniform pricing for renewals of domain name registrations (ʺRenewal Pricingʺ). For the purposes of determining Renewal Pricing, the price for each domain registration renewal will be identical to the price of all other domain name registration renewals in place at the time of such renewal, and such price must take into account universal application of any refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying or other programs in place at the time of renewal.