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Release of Country and Territory Names within the .SONY, .ARCHI, .BIO and .SAARLAND TLDs

13 May 2015

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Forum Announcement: Comment Period Opens on Date: 13 May 2015
Categories/Tags:
  • Top-Level Domains
  • Second-Level Domains
  • Contracted Party Agreements
  • Security/Stability
Purpose (Brief):

Four (4) Registry Services Evaluation Policy (RSEP) requests were submitted by the registry operators listed below to allow the release of country and territory names for the below TLDs. In total, the requests concern 4 New gTLDs.

Proposal TLD Registry Name Documents
2014089 saarland dotSaarland GmbH dotSaarland GmbH Request 16 April 2015
2014086 bio STARTING DOT LIMITED STARTING DOT LIMITED Request 6 April 2015
2014085 archi STARTING DOT LIMITED STARTING DOT LIMITED Request 6 April 2015
2014081 sony Sony Corporation Sony Corporation Request 16 March 2015

Currently, .SONY, .ARCHI, .BIO and .SAARLAND Registry Agreements require country and territory names contained in specific internationally recognized lists to be withheld from registration or allocated to the registry operator at all levels.

As required by the RSEP, ICANN has undertaken a preliminary determination on whether these RSEP proposals might raise significant competition, security or stability issues. ICANN's preliminary review (based on the information provided) did not identify any such issues.

Following ICANN's preliminary determination that the proposals do not raise significant competition, security or stability issues, it was further determined that the change would require a material change to the respective Registry Agreements and that an amendment is needed in order to effect the change.

The proposed amendments, which are being posted for comment, would allow the registration of country and territory names at all levels in .SONY, .ARCHI, .BIO and .SAARLAND TLDs. It should be noted that Specification 13 has been granted for .SONY. Additionally, .SAARLAND is a Geo TLD.

Public Comment Box Link: https://www.icann.org/public-comments/ctn-release-tlds-2015-05-13-en