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Two-Character Letter/Letter Label Comments and Mitigation Measures

As of 13 December 2016, this page is no longer active. Please visit here for more information.

For comments submitted before 6 October 2015, view the archive of comments received.

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TLD  Two
Characters  		Comments from GovernmentLast
updated  		RO Mitigation PlanRO NameBRAND TLD
nissayptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22Yes
officeptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22Yes
pidptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22No
playstationptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22Yes
racingptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22View Mitigation

racing Mitigation

By Famous Four Media Limited

By Famous Four media Limited.

Registry Operator understands the concern that confusion may arise, and in order to avoid such confusion is willing to offer the following:

1. Registry Operator will commit to:

a. investigate any reports of misuse, including misleading or deceptive conduct, including those from any relevant governments, and provide a written report in response; and

b. where, in Registry Operator’s sole opinion, misuse has occurred, cause the domain name’s records to be removed from the DNS.

2. Registry Operator will enforce the terms of its Acceptable Use and Take down Policy against Registrants.

3. Should a Registrant fail to comply with the Acceptable Use and Take down Policy, the domain names may be cancelled, locked, placed on hold, transferred or deleted. Thus, all Registrants in the TLDs, including ourselves, have an obligation to avoid confusion with two letter country codes and we have clear penalties for any failure to do so.


2016-04-25

Famous Four Media LimitedNo
realtorptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22No
realtyptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22No
rioptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22No
schaefflerptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22Yes
sharpptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22Yes
skinptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22No
storageptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22No
streamptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22View Mitigation

stream Mitigation

By Famous Four Media Limited

By Famous Four media Limited.

Registry Operator understands the concern that confusion may arise, and in order to avoid such confusion is willing to offer the following:

1. Registry Operator will commit to:

a. investigate any reports of misuse, including misleading or deceptive conduct, including those from any relevant governments, and provide a written report in response; and

b. where, in Registry Operator’s sole opinion, misuse has occurred, cause the domain name’s records to be removed from the DNS.

2. Registry Operator will enforce the terms of its Acceptable Use and Take down Policy against Registrants.

3. Should a Registrant fail to comply with the Acceptable Use and Take down Policy, the domain names may be cancelled, locked, placed on hold, transferred or deleted. Thus, all Registrants in the TLDs, including ourselves, have an obligation to avoid confusion with two letter country codes and we have clear penalties for any failure to do so.


2016-06-20

Famous Four Media LimitedNo
tdkptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22Yes
tiffanyptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22Yes
toyotaptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22Yes
xn--estv75gptView Comments
2016-05-13
2016-07-22Yes
abbvieptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
abcptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
artptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
beautyptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
bestbuyptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
blancoptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
contactptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
dhlptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
epostptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
feedbackptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
fordptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
forumptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
godaddyptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
guardianptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
hairptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
intelptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
jetztptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
lexusptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
lincolnptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
lipsyptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
lundbeckptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
makeupptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
manptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22View Mitigation

man Mitigation

By MAN SE

.man is a closed Brand TLD for the sole and exclusive use of MAN SE.

Protections
MAN SE (Registry Operator) for the .man TLD has executed Specification 13 to the Registry Agreement. Specification 13 already contractually requires that the Registry Operator will apply measures which, by their very nature, avoid confusion with the corresponding country code, namely the following:

.man is identical to a qualifying registered trademark;
.man is not a Generic String, as this is defined in Specification 11;
Registry Operator has developed and implemented a closed registration policy for .man that requires that all domain names in the .man TLD be registered only by MAN SE, its Affiliates, and its Trademark Licensees.

As required under the Registry Agreement, the Registry Operator published this registration policy on its website.

Registry Operator will conduct internal reviews at least once per calendar year to ensure continued compliance with Specification 13.

Compliance with Specification 13 prohibits the Registry Operator from registering domain names to unaffiliated third parties and thus clearly designate to the public that .man TLD is a proprietary space in which all second-level domains in the TLD are being operated by the Registry Operator, its Affiliates and Trademark Licensees and not the governments or the corresponding country code operators.

By this text MAN SE confirms that all registrations of two letter domain names shall comply with the requirements of Specification 13.


2016-04-21

MAN SEYes
medptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
nadexptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
nextptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
nextdirectptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
nissayptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
officeptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
pidptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
playstationptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
realtyptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
rioptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
schaefflerptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
sharpptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
shoppingptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
skinptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
softbankptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
storageptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
streamptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22View Mitigation

stream Mitigation

By Famous Four Media Limited

By Famous Four media Limited.

Registry Operator understands the concern that confusion may arise, and in order to avoid such confusion is willing to offer the following:

1. Registry Operator will commit to:

a. investigate any reports of misuse, including misleading or deceptive conduct, including those from any relevant governments, and provide a written report in response; and

b. where, in Registry Operator’s sole opinion, misuse has occurred, cause the domain name’s records to be removed from the DNS.

2. Registry Operator will enforce the terms of its Acceptable Use and Take down Policy against Registrants.

3. Should a Registrant fail to comply with the Acceptable Use and Take down Policy, the domain names may be cancelled, locked, placed on hold, transferred or deleted. Thus, all Registrants in the TLDs, including ourselves, have an obligation to avoid confusion with two letter country codes and we have clear penalties for any failure to do so.


2016-06-20

Famous Four Media LimitedNo
tdkptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
tiffanyptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
toyotaptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
wedptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
xn--3pxu8kptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
xn--estv75gptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22Yes
xn--mk1bu44cptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
xn--pssy2uptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
xn--t60b56aptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
xn--tckweptView Comments
2016-05-27
2016-07-22No
abcptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22Yes
artptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
babyptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
blancoptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22Yes
blogptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
camptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
doctorptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
fujixeroxptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22Yes
gamesptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
guardianptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22Yes
intelptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22Yes
jetztptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
jnjptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22Yes
quebecptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
shopptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
shoppingptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
softbankptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22Yes
totalptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22Yes
wedptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
xn--3pxu8kptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
xn--mk1bu44cptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
xn--pssy2uptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
xn--t60b56aptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
xn--tckweptView Comments
2016-07-22
2016-07-22No
insuranceesView Comments
2016-01-26
2016-07-06View Mitigation

insurance Mitigation

By fTLD Registry Services, LLC

Please see the attached file that details fTLD Registry Services' implementation plan for .BANK and .INSURANCE to avoid confusion with corresponding country codes.


View Documents
2016-04-20

fTLD Registry Services, LLCNo
doctoresView Comments
2016-07-06
2016-07-06No
gameseuView Comments
2016-06-30
2016-06-30No
shoppingeuView Comments
2016-06-30
2016-06-30No
insuranceeuView Comments
2016-01-28
2016-05-24View Mitigation

insurance Mitigation

By fTLD Registry Services, LLC

Please see the attached file that details fTLD Registry Services' implementation plan for .BANK and .INSURANCE to avoid confusion with corresponding country codes.


View Documents
2016-04-20

fTLD Registry Services, LLCNo
suckseuView Comments
2016-01-28
2016-05-24View Mitigation

sucks Mitigation

By Vox Populi Registry Ltd.

Proposed Measure to Avoid Confusion—Phased Allocation

dotSucks is designed to help consumers find their voices and allow companies to find the value in criticism. Each dotSucks domain has the potential to become an essential part of every organization’s customer relationship management program.

Phased Allocation - Upon the release of the letter/letter combination corresponding to the following objected to country codes (ai, bh, bm, ci, cn, eg, gb, il, in, io, it, kr, ky, me, ms, pt, ru, sg, sh, su, tc, tw, uk), Registry Operator will provide an exclusive thirty (30) day period in which registration of such letter/letter combination will be made only available to the applicable country code manager as listed at: http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/

This type of phased allocation has been previously approved by ICANN as an acceptable and complete measure to avoid confusion with applicable country codes.

For example, .TRAVEL included the following in its RSEP on 18 May 2009:
“In seeking to minimize any confusion with county codes, Tralliance will initially place all two-letter country code names, as listed in the ISO 31-66 list, in the RFP allocation round and will seek expressions of interest from all country code managers for their respective two-character names. Tralliance will allocate two letter country codes to any corresponding country code managers (as listed at: http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/) that desire to register their name, with no restriction other that payment of normal registration fees and a commitment to use the registered name.”

The Board approved the change via a resolution on 5 August 2010: https://www.icann.org/resources/board- material/resolutions-2010-08-05-en.

At that time, the amendment to the .TRAVEL Registry Agreement permitted release of 2 characters through a Phased Allocation Program https://www.icann.org/resources/unthemed-pages/travel-appendix-7-2010-08-23-en).

.TRAVEL has subsequently entered into a new gTLD Registry Agreement with ICANN and carried over the previous Board- approved release of two-characters through its phased allocation program. Current .TRAVEL Specification 5 language:
“All single-character and two-character labels that were previously reserved by the Registry Operator prior to the Effective Date of this Registry Agreement may be allocated through ICANN-accredited registrars according to a phased allocation program (“Phased Allocation Program”). The domain names included within the scope of the Phased Allocation Program shall be limited to a single and two-character labels. Registry Operator reserves the right to not allocate all single and two-character labels. Pursuant to the Phased Allocation Program, Registry Operator may elect to allocate labels by applying one or more of the following processes: 1) request for proposals and allocation based on evaluation criteria; 2) auction; or 3) first come, first serve registration.”

Similar Phased Allocation Programs have been approved by ICANN as an implementation of measures to avoid confusion with corresponding country codes in .BIZ, .INFO, .ORG, and .JOBS.


2016-04-22

Vox Populi Registry Ltd.No
shoppingeuView Comments
2016-05-24
2016-05-24No
abbviesnView Comments
2016-04-29
2016-04-29Yes
amicasnView Comments
2016-04-29
2016-04-29Yes

pt Comments

By Ana Cristina Ferreira Amoroso das Neves, Director, Department Information Society, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education

I request previous comments to objections to the release of the ".pt" as the SLD signaling 1) consumer protection concerns and confusion; 2) some gTLD correspond to a regulated market in EU countries, so their release might generate possible abuses and confusion at the end-users level and therefore must be subject to authorization by the Portuguese Government; 3) others should remain reserved so that can only be assigned to a person, entity or corporation proposed or accepted by the Portuguese Government, which demands consultations with the Portuguese Government. These comments are due to the ICANN's new process launched on the 6th October 2015 on the use of the 2-letter CC and CN at the SLD, taken into account nonetheless GAC's advice from Dublin Communiqué (October 2015). Confusability exists in all instances since the PT code is widely recognized both on and off the Internet as an identifier for Portugal. In this regard, we are concerned that consumers assume that persons or undertakings operating under "pt.string" not only offer their services in Portugal or products or services related to Portugal but that they comply with applicable regulations. As this may not be warranted by registration policies and contracts, we would request Portuguese Government is consulted before any registration, regardless of the grounds for objection. Portugal reserves the right to change position in this regard in the future. The Portuguese Government will continue to closely follow the evolution of the market and of the technical and political framework to collect data and evidence to better understand the consequences of such release.

pt Comments

By Ana Cristina Ferreira Amoroso das Neves, Director, Department Information Society, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education

I request previous comments to objections to the release of the ".pt" as the SLD signaling 1) consumer protection concerns and confusion; 2) some gTLD correspond to a regulated market in EU countries, so their release might generate possible abuses and confusion at the end-users level and therefore must be subject to authorization by the Portuguese Government; 3) others should remain reserved so that can only be assigned to a person, entity or corporation proposed or accepted by the Portuguese Government, which demands consultations with the Portuguese Government. These comments are due to the ICANN's new process launched on the 6th October 2015 on the use of the 2-letter CC and CN at the SLD, taken into account nonetheless GAC's advice from Dublin Communiqué (October 2015). Confusability exists in all instances since the PT code is widely recognized both on and off the Internet as an identifier for Portugal. In this regard, we are concerned that consumers assume that persons or undertakings operating under "pt.string" not only offer their services in Portugal or products or services related to Portugal but that they comply with applicable regulations. As this may not be warranted by registration policies and contracts, we would request Portuguese Government is consulted before any registration, regardless of the grounds for objection. Portugal reserves the right to change position in this regard in the future. The Portuguese Government will continue to closely follow the evolution of the market and of the technical and political framework to collect data and evidence to better understand the consequences of such release.

pt Comments

By Ana Cristina Ferreira Amoroso das Neves, Director, Department Information Society, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education

I request previous comments to objections to the release of the ".pt" as the SLD signalling 1) consumer protection concerns and confusion; 2) some gTLD correspond to a regulated market in EU countries, so their release might generate possible abuses and confusion at the end-users level and therefore must be subject to authorization by the Portuguese Government; 3) others should remain reserved so that can only be assigned to a person, entity or corporation proposed or accepted by the Portuguese Government, which demands consultations with the Portuguese Government. These comments are due to the ICANN's new process launched on the 6th October 2015 on the use of the 2-letter CC and CN at the SLD, taken into account nonetheless GAC's advice from Dublin Communiqué (October 2015). Confusability exists in all instances since the PT code is widely recognized both on and off the Internet as an identifier for Portugal. In this regard, we are concerned that consumers assume that persons or undertakings operating under "pt.string" not only offer their services in Portugal or products or services related to Portugal but that they comply with applicable regulations. As this may not be warranted by registration policies and contracts, we would request Portuguese Government is consulted before any registration, regardless of the grounds for objection. Portugal reserves the right to change position in this regard in the future.
The Portuguese Government will continue to closely follow the evolution of the market and of the technical and political framework to collect data and evidence to better understand the consequences of such release.

es Comments

By GEMA CAMPILLOS GONZALEZ, Deputy Director on Information Society Services, Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism

Confusability with the country code for Spain exists since the ES code is widely recognized both on and off the Internet as an identifier for Spain. Our Government only deems necessary to interfere in the allocation of second level domains with the "es" label where other concerns arising from the association of the string with our country come out.

In this regard, we are concerned that consumers asume that persons or undertakings operating under "es.insurance" not only offer their services in Spain or products or services related to Spain but that they comply with applicable regulations. As this may not be warranted by registration policies and contracts, we would request Spanish Government is consulted before these names are registered.

We are open to consider other mitigation plans that effectively address concerns expressed successively by our Government.

es Comments

By GEMA CAMPILLOS GONZALEZ, Deputy Director on Information Society Services, Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism

Confusability with the country code for Spain exists since the ES code is widely recognized both on and off the Internet as an identifier for Spain. Our Government only deems necessary to interfere in the allocation of second level domains with the "es" label where other concerns arising from the association of the string with our country come into play.

In this regard, we are concerned that consumers asume that persons or undertakings operating under "es.doctor" not only offer their services in Spain or products or services related to Spain but that they comply with regulations applicable to medical practitioners in Spain or have a PHD degree (these being the two main meanings the word "doctor" has in Spanish, see http://dle.rae.es/?id=E3TMkYQ). As this may not be warranted by registration policies and contracts, we would request Spanish Government is consulted before these names are registered.

We are open to consider other mitigation plans that effectively address concerns expressed by our Government.

eu Comments

By Giovanni Seppia, External Relations Manager, EURid

We would like to object to the release of "eu" under these two gTLDs as they refer to two areas well-regulated at EU level and therefore, they can cause confusion at consumer level.

eu Comments

By Giovanni Seppia, External Relations manager, External Relations

We object to the release of the eu code under the .insurance and .sucks TLDs because such release will either contribute to consumer confusion because the "insurance" market is regulated at EU level or - second case - have a negative impact on the .eu profile, consumers and, more broadly, on the EU reputation.

eu Comments

By Giovanni Seppia, External Relations manager, External Relations

We object to the release of the eu code under the .shopping TLDs because such release will either contribute to consumer confusion because the "retail and online retail" markets are regulated at EU level. Therefore, the release of the .eu may push consumers to believe that items or information under .eu.shopping are EU regulated and therefore, have certain levels of consumer safeguards, while they may be not.

sn Comments

By Alex Corenthin, Administrateur, NIC senegal, .sn registry

Senegal is not favouring the release of Two-Character ASCII labels ""sn"" deceptively similar as the ccTLD "".sn"" at the second level. ICANN is requested to notice than SEnegal's objection on release of Two-character ASCII labels ""sn"" at the second level should apply to all current and future requests from new gTLD's" to avoid any confusion with the geographic domain name .SN.

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."