18(b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

Prototypical answer:

The .онлайн gTLD will enable a large audience of registrants, Internet users and others to gain access to a wider spectrum of Internet resources in their native language. It will further permit the user base to create localized content that is better accepted and comprehended inside the Cyrillic-alphabet Internet users across the globe.

b) i.What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

The goal of the .онлайн TLD in terms of specialty relies on its focus to provide a natural platform for enabling and promoting widespread adoption of online activities and local content in the large and linguistically diverse region where the Cyrillic script is used to express local languages.

Although gTLDs are more or less designed to serve segmented areas of the Internet, we believe that the proposed a string (онлайн) will spawn large amounts of interest amongst Cyrillic-based languages’ speakers and has the potential to become widely preferred.

CORE Internet Council Of Registrars Association has a solid background and expertise in the setting-up and managing of TLDs, including implementation of IDNs (at the second level). As a membership-based Association, with most services provided by its own members, and its culture of cooperation, it has a unique capacity to grow and adapt its resources to the changing environment, in all relevant areas (technical, operational, customer support, policy, legal, marketing).

Regarding Service levels, the. онлайн Registry will match or exceed the high end of currently existing TLDs. The .онлайн Registry will vigorously build and defend the reputation of the .онлайн TLD as an orderly and progressive TLD.

b) ii.What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

The goal of the proposed domain is to expand and serve almost every Cyrillic speaking community in the Internet. CORE Internet Council Of Registrars believes in the potential of the proposed gTLD as it has a universal trait to its character that builds to it a capacity and virtually encompasses countless areas of specialty, service levels and reputations from the basic individual to the sophisticated corporate levels.

CORE Internet Council Of Registrars anticipates that the .онлайн TLD will increase the levels of awareness and access to information of Cyrillic alphabet users by providing them an easier and memorable domain in their native language. A domain in Cyrillic has a serious advantage inside local communities as it is faster to remember and easier to recognize thus giving the potential owners a privilege and also targeting precision.

a. In terms of competition: As mentioned earlier the .онлайн TLD has a very general and universal character and its capacity (the potential levels of specialty) is virtually limitless so naturally its appeal is anticipated to be very broad as well. Because of the domain name potential CORE Internet Council Of Registrars believes that it will create lively competition amongst local registrants and online service vendors who will want to distribute it and become significant players in the Cyrillic alphabet-based linguistic online markets positioning themselves in a newly created market segment with rich and promising margins.

b. As for differentiation, the proposed string is widely accepted and it is deeply embedded in the communication habits and a part of the online culture of Cyrillic speaking populations. It will present new opportunities for an easy, unique, recognizable and potentially trendy stylization of the local online contents of both personal and professional nature.

c. Concerning innovation, CORE Internet Council Of Registrars believes that the introduction of a domain such as .онлайн is an innovative approach in itself and it will present further innovation opportunities to second-level registrants. CORE Internet Council of Registrars has always been a company that is open for innovation and facilitation of various development projects. The company will cooperate fully with all interested partners and will continue to do its best to nurture all proposed projects for the common positive development of the World Wide Web.

b) iii.What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

The projected goals of the .онлайн TLD that benefit the target users fall under four broad categories:

- General benefits of an IDN gTLD
- Cross-language nature of the .онлайн TLD
- Semantic content of the .онлайн TLD
- Planned registry practices to enhance the use of this TLD.

The proposed gTLD will be managed by CORE Internet Council Of Registrars’ experts in accordance with the best practices for first level domains and will provide best quality experience for the users regardless of their current level of experience with the web. It is expected that the audience interested in the .онлайн domain will further segment itself in two general categories:

– registrants (old and newly emerging registrants from the Cyrillic users outside the territories where is normally used).
- individual Internet users (private persons familiar with Cyrillic language from across the globe). As the competition will be lively CORE Internet Council Of Registrars is aware that positive experience is a crucial factor for the success of the proposed gTLD and the company is ready to deliver it to full capacity.

Compared to most existing TLDs, the .онлайн TLD user experience will greatly enhance predictability and memorability of domain names, specifically in those areas where the Cyrillic script is predominant. Its cross-language Cyrillic script characteristics, the orderly development process and strong intellectual property support ensure that users will generally find the services they are looking for under the names they intuitively tend to use for them.

User experience is improved by the specificity of an IDN gTLD, that will provide to the the users that naturally lean towards their non-ASCII script, and to those willing to address commercial online communications specifically targeted to Cyrillic script specific users, the means to identify such communications under a TLD explicitly designed to this purpose.


b) iv.Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

The registration policy will be open as to the areas or kinds of use, but always subject to the legitimacy of the request, content and use according to the rules explained below. This will hopefully stimulate registrants and reach high popularity of the proposed TLD in the areas of Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Registrations under the .онлайн TLD are available for registration in Cyrillic string only, according to the rules and IDN Table provided in Q44 below, and subject to bona-fide use of the .онлайн TLD, and subject to the further requirement that the registrant’s use of the registered domain name, must be:

- generally accepted as legitimate; and,
- commensurate with the role and importance of the registered domain name.

The registration policies are differentiated between Pre-launch phase, Launch phase and General Availability.

1, Pre-launch phase

During the Pre-launch phase, a Pioneer program aimed at maximizing the visibility and overall value of the .онлайн TLD will be launched by the онлайн Registry. The Pioneer program will have a twofold focus: to gather intelligence about the current state of development of the Cyrillic name space; and to foster the interest of the most relevant Internet actors in the areas where Cyrillic script is predominant. Commitments to projects specifically targeted at raising the profile of the Cyrillic name space and at the enhancement of usage of the Cyrillic script on the Internet will be actively sought and negotiated. All potential Pioneers will be subject to due screening and thorough pre-validation.


2. Launch phase

During the Launch phase, all registrations are thoroughly pre-validated; Launch phase pre-validation depends on priority status. The Launch phase includes 2 categories for registrants with prior rights, and a third one, which is in fact, a Landrush, running in parallel in time, but being the lowest in priority. The categories are the following according to hierarchy:

Public Authorities of the areas where Cyrillic script is used, including for all city, county and other administrative division of those countries.
Two tier trademark and other distinctive signs rights holders phase. This includes a first subcategory for trademarks registered in Cyrillic scripts, and figurative trademarks whose textual part is expressed in Cyrillic script, and a second subcategory for other distinctive rights, such as Designations of Origin.

No prior rights. Eligible registrants not able to claim any of the priorities listed above will be able to apply during the whole duration of the Launch phase, as a preparation for an orderly and transparent Landrush.

3. Post-launch: General Availability

At General Availability, First come First served registration is the only basis to allow registrations. The ongoing compliance program will monitor abusive and non-compliant uses (see answers to Q28 and Q29 below for more details). Strong protection of trademarks will help stamp out cyber-squatting and abusive registrations.

In order to prevent user confusion and maintain a stable registrant experience, only Cyrillic characters, listed in the TLD IDN table attached to the response to Question 44 below will be allowed for registration. Moreover, a special ad-hoc working group will be created by the Registry, in order to study the probable cases for user confusion and create a special policy to prevent them. If requested, the working group will also create and update regularly a list of names that are not allowed for registration because could create similarity issues.

The IDN implementation of the .онлайн tLD fully complies with RFCs 5809-5893 as well as the ICANN IDN Guidelines.

4. Reservations on second level

- For the protection of geographic names on the second level, please see response to Q22 below. For the reserved list contained in the Specification 5 of the proposed TLD Registry Agreement, please see response to Question 28 below (Rule Engine) for the mechanism used to exclude them from any possible registration or use. it is nevertheless necessary to state that, due to the IDN nature in Cyrillic script of the TLD, none of these names can be registered or used neither by the Registry nor by any third-party registrant, as they are expressed in Latin script, with ASCII characters only. Notwithstanding that, the .онлайн Registry, in an effort to actively seek the development of a secure and trusted namespace, will offer ICANN its cooperation to block the equivalents in all languages using Cyrillic script of the names included in aforementioned Specification 5, according to the translation list provided by ICANN

b) v. Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

CORE Internet Council of Registrars recognizes first-hand that this is a relevant issue and an evolving area of law in which there is no international standard. The protection of privacy and confidential information of registrants and users will comply with applicable Law, including European Union and Swiss Data Protection Legislation. Within the bounds of applicable regulations, the Registry will implement anti-data mining measures by way of rate limitation, authenticated access or white-listing⁄black-listing, as well as tools to prevent unauthorized recourse to repetitive automated access.

CORE Internet Council of Registrars also intends to incorporate contractual language in its Registry Registrar Agreement (RRA) modeled after language which has been included in the template Registry Agreement and which has been successfully utilized by existing ICANN gTLD Registry operators. Specifically, Registry Operator shall notify Registrar of the purposes for which Personal Data submitted to Registry Operation by Registrar is collected, the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data, and the mechanism for access to and correction of such Personal Data. Registry Operator shall take reasonable steps to protect Personal Data from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. Registry Operator shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars. Registry Operator may from time to time use the demographic data collected for statistical analysis, provided that this analysis will not disclose individual Personal Data and provided that such use is compatible with the notice provided to registrars regarding the purpose and procedures for such use.

Finally, CORE Internet Council of Registrars will propose to ICANN, through the Registry Agreement negotiations, a Whois service that allows individual registrants to opt-out from publishing their personal contact data, as other existing gTLD Registries have done. If this option is not available during the contractual negotiations, CORE Internet Council of Registrars would submit such proposal after delegation, through the New Registry Services procedure.

b) vi. Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

Use of outreach programs to achieve TLD goals: the .онлайн TLD has outreach programs adapted to each phase of its introduction.

The Pre-launch negotiations involving calls for projects by innovators and pioneer users. They foster the intuitive usability of the .онлайн TLD with a focus on the goals pursued by the .онлайн TLD. Once these domain names are active, they become an outreach mechanism in their own right because they establish the touch-and-feel of the .онлайн TLD in the minds of the users.

The Launch phase will involve outreach mechanisms that specifically leverage participation by the local public services, locally relevant trademarks and local actors.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)