Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Registry Agreements

gTLD Registry Agreements establish the rights, duties, liabilities, and obligations ICANN requires of registry operators to run gTLDs.

Unsponsored TLD Agreement: Appendix K | Redline

ICANN | Unsponsored TLD Agreement: Appendix K
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Unsponsored TLD Agreement: Appendix K

(24 July 2003)


The redlining below shows changes proposed to the 26 April 2001 version of Appendix K of the .name Registry Agreement to implement the proposal of SLD .name registrations. Added text is shown with underlining and in magenta; deleted text is shown stricken out and in red.


Schedule of Reserved Names

Except to the extent that ICANN otherwise expressly authorizes in writing, the Registry Operator shall reserve names formed with the following labels from initial (i.e. other than renewal) registration within the TLD:

A. Labels Reserved at All Levels. The following names shall be reserved at the second level and at all other levels within the TLD at which Registry Operator makes registrations:

ICANN:

  • aso
  • dnso
  • icann
  • internic
  • pso

IANA-related names:

  • afrinic
  • apnic
  • arin
  • example
  • gtld-servers
  • iab
  • iana
  • iana-servers
  • iesg
  • ietf
  • irtf
  • istf
  • lacnic
  • latnic
  • rfc-editor
  • ripe
  • root-servers

B. Additional Second-Level Reservations. In addition, the following names shall be reserved at the second level:

  • All single-character labels.
  • All two-character labels shall be initially reserved. The reservation of a two-character label string shall be released to the extent that the Registry Operator reaches agreement with the government and country-code manager, or the ISO 3166 maintenance agency, whichever appropriate.The Registry Operator may also propose release of these reservations based on its implementation of measures to avoid confusion with the corresponding country codes.
  • aero
  • arpa
  • biz
  • com
  • coop
  • edu
  • gov
  • info
  • int
  • mil
  • museum
  • name
  • net
  • org
  • pro

C. Tagged Domain Names. All labels with hyphens in the third and fourth character positions (e.g., "bq--1k2n4h4b")

D. Second-Level Reservations for Registry Operations. The following names are reserved for use in connection with the operation of the registry for the Registry TLD. They may be used by Registry Operator under Subsection 3.6.1, but upon conclusion of Registry Operator's designation as operator of the registry for the Registry TLD they shall be transferred as specified by ICANN:

  • nic
  • whois
  • www

In addition, the Registry will reserve a set of names (“Common Names”) that are shared by a very substantial number of people.

For a number of reasons, it is difficult to identify a specific number of names that should be reserved, or a specific percentage of the populations with names that should be reserved in any particular region or country. In some countries (such as China) reserving a very small number of names would protect a very large percentage of the population. In countries that have an extensive immigrant population or history of immigration (such as the United States), a much larger number of names is needed to cover the same portion of the population. At the same time, surnames popular in countries with very high Internet penetration are more likely to be already protected by existing third level registrations. In most cases, it will be most important to reserve names popular in developing countries. On the other hand, this will not always be the case: a name that is very popular in a small developing country may also be registered, and thus protected, as a result of a history of emigration from that country to developing nations (e.g., Vietnamese names in the U.S.).

For this reason, the GNR Registry will need to make judgments, based on research and input from the ICANN community and from appropriate national and regional governments, to identify appropriate names for reservation. There are many sources of information about popular surnames. In developed nations, census data is generally available for this purpose. In other countries, this information may be available only through universities or other institutions. There is also a wealth of information available on the Internet, of various degrees of credibility that the GNR Registry will consult as appropriate.

The following approaches will be used in parallel to identify appropriate names to be reserved at the second level for the operation of the registry for registrations of third level domain names and SLD Email Forwarding. While there is no perfect methodology, these approaches should produce, overall, an appropriate level of protection of popular surnames.


D.1 Community reservations

The GNR Registry intends to get input from the ICANN community to learn which names may be important to reserve on the 2nd level. Governments may volunteer information on common names in their respective countries. This would be particularly useful for regions where extensive knowledge about Common Names is not currently readily available.

The Registry will evaluate names gathered from the Internet community, especially from government representatives participating in the Government Advisory Committee, and, after validation, may reserve common names on the 2nd level to help ensure that 3rd level registrations are available for such names.

The period for receiving input will be from August 18, 2003 to September 18, 2003, and during this period the Registry would collect submissions by email for review and reservation. Only strings that are names should be submitted, for the purpose of reserving them for registration on the third level at some time in the future. There will be an expiration date on this reservation, and if no third level is registered on a given 2nd level one year from the reservation date, the reservation will expire.

The Registry will publish its solicitation for input on the Registry website (http://www.nic.name), as well as ask ICANN to publish a link to the solicitation during the same timeframe.


D.2 Registry Common Name reservations

The Registry will use names gathered from name statistics in a series of countries around the world to reserve names on the 2nd level. Names from these lists will be reserved on the 2nd level and made available only for 3rd level registrations.

The Registry will use statistics gathered for last names for the following countries/regions:

1. African Names
(The GNR Registry will seek information on name distribution in a variety of African countries, with the intent of touching on the major language groups and cultures. Target countries will include, without limitation, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Uganda, etc.)
2. Arabic Names
(The GNR Registry will seek information on name distribution in a variety of Middle Eastern countries with the intent of touching on the major language groups and cultures.)


3. Belgium

4. China

5. Denmark
6. Estonia
7. Finland
8. France
9. Germany
10. India
11. Italy
12. Japan
13. Korea
14. Malaysia
15. Netherlands
16. Norway
17. Russia
18. Singapore
19. Spain
20. Sweden
21. Taiwan
22. United Kingdom
23. United States
24. Vietnam

D.3 Post-fix Reservations



The Registry is reserving all 2nd level names ending in a particular set of strings. Such names are reserved on the second level by default, and only 3rd level registrations are allowed on such 2nd levels. The following post-fix strings are reserved:

Post-fix (English version) Post-fix (Translated version) Language
Family -familie Dutch
Family -family English
Family -perhe Finnish
Family -famille French
Family -familie German
Family -parivaar Hindi
Family -keluarga Indonesian
Family -famiglia Italian
Family -angkan Philipino
Family -rodzina Polish
Family -familia Portugués
Family -familie Scandinavian
Family -familia Spanish
Family -mischpoche Yiddish
Family -umdeni Zulu

As an example, the reservation of these post-fix strings means that all second level names ending in e.g. “–parivaar”, for example “patel-parivaar” are reserved on the second level for third level registrations only.

Earlier drafts:

26 April 2001
25 April 2001
3 March 2001


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Page Updated 24-Jul-2003

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