22 Describe proposed measures for protection of geographic names at the second and other levels in the applied-for gTLD

Prototypical answer:

We will protect names with national or geographic significance by reserving and not publishing the country and territory names at the second level and at all other levels within the TLD, as per the requirements in the New TLD Registry Agreement (Specification 5, paragraph 5). Such geographic domains may be released only to the extent that Registry Operator reaches agreement with the applicable government(s).

The City of Helsinki will use geographic names at the second and other levels in the applied-for gTLD only in the following ways: The geographic name must belong to a place situated within the City of Helsinki, for example a city district, a street, a park, a lake or river or an island, for example “kaivopuisto.helsinki”. The purpose of these names is to give information about the City services in the area in question, for example recreation facilities in a park.

In joint services or projects provided together with the neighbouring cities, which reach outside the City limits (for example public library services), the geographical name can also point to an area outside Helsinki, but within the neighbouring cities in the metropolitan area. In this case, permission will be asked from the neighbouring city in whose area the geographical place is situated.

The geographical name must not be a registered trade mark or a company name belonging to an organization outside the City organization. This will be checked from the Joint Business Information system provided by the National Board of Patents and Registration Finland. The second and other level geographic names must not resemble already existing domain names in a misleading way. This will be checked from the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority FICORA.

The City of Helsinki Economic and Planning Centre, IT department, in collaboration with the City of Helsinki Administration Centre, Communications Office will check whether the second and other level geographic names suggested by the City departments
and units will follow these rules.

Companies and private persons can appeal against the decisions as is described in the 11th chapter of the Municipal Law.


Regarding GAC advice regarding second-level domains not specified via Specification 5, paragraph 5: All domains awarded are subject to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute
Resolution Policy (UDRP), and to any properly-situated court proceeding. We will ensure appropriate procedures to allow governments, public authorities or IGO’s to challenge abuses of names with national or geographic significance at the second level. In its registry-registrar agreement, and flowing down to registrar-registrant agreements, the registry operator will institute a provision to suspend domains names in the event of a dispute. We may exercise that right in the case of a dispute over a geographic name.

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