13 December 2016
AUTHORIZATION FOR
RELEASE OF LETTER/LETTER TWO-CHARACTER ASCII LABELS AT THE SECOND LEVEL
Effective 13 December
2016, pursuant to Section 2 of Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, ICANN
authorizes all new gTLD Registry Operators to release
for registration to third parties and activation in the DNS at the second level
all two-character letter/letter ASCII labels not previously authorized by ICANN
for release and not otherwise required to be reserved pursuant to Section 6 of
Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, subject to the following:
1. implementing “Measures for
Letter/Letter Two-Character ASCII Labels to Avoid Confusion with Corresponding
Country Codes” included in Appendix A[1];
and
2. compliance with all other terms of the
Registry Agreement applicable to each individual TLD.
_____________________________
Akram Atallah
President, Global
Domains Division
Appendix A
Measures for Letter/Letter
Two-Character ASCII Labels to Avoid Confusion with Corresponding Country Codes
Mandatory Measures to Avoid Confusion with
Corresponding Country Codes
1. REGISTRATION
POLICY
Registry Operator must
include a provision in its publicly available registration policy requiring a
representation that the registrant of a letter/letter two-character ASCII label
will take steps to ensure against misrepresenting or falsely implying that the
registrant or its business is affiliated with a government or country-code
manager if such affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement does not exist.
2. POST-REGISTRATION
COMPLAINT INVESTIGATION
Registry Operator shall take
reasonable steps to investigate and respond to any reports from governmental
agencies and ccTLD operators of conduct that causes
confusion with the corresponding country code in connection with the use of a
letter/letter two-character ACSCII domain. In responding to such reports,
Registry Operator will not be required to take any action in contravention of
applicable law.
Voluntary Measures to Avoid Confusion with
Corresponding Country Codes
3. EXCLUSIVE
AVAILABILITY PRE-REGISTRATION PERIOD[2]
Registry Operator may implement a
30-day period in which registration of letter/letter two-character ASCII labels
that are country codes, as specified in the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard, will
be made exclusively available to the applicable country-code manager or
government. All registrations will remain subject to compliance with all other
requirements in the registry agreement, such as community TLD policies pursuant
to Specification 12, or the Trademark Clearinghouse Rights Protection Mechanism
Requirements. The Registry Operator
commits to affirmatively reaching out to those country-code managers and
governments to provide notice of the Exclusive Availability Pre-Registration
Period, including dates and registration process.
Registry
Operator may implement additional measures to avoid confusion with
corresponding country codes at its discretion.
In addition to the measures identified above, in accordance
with advice issued to the ICANN Board in the GAC
Helsinki Communiqué (30 June 2016), ICANN “urge[s] the
relevant Registry or the Registrar to engage with the relevant GAC members when
a risk is identified in order to come to an agreement on how to manage it or to
have a third-party assessment of the situation if the name is already
registered.”
Registry Operator continues to be subject to all other
safeguards, measures and requirements as set forth by the Registry Agreement applicable
to each individual TLD.
[1] The “Measures for Letter/Letter Two-Character ASCII Labels to Avoid Confusion with Corresponding Country Codes” were adopted by the ICANN Board on 8 November 2016 in Resolution 2016.11.08.15: https://www.icann.org/resources/board-material/resolutions-2016-11-08-en#2.a
[2] TLDs with an executed Specification 13 or Exemption from Specification 9 - Code of Conduct should not implement this measure based on the fact that all registrations in the TLD must be registered exclusively to Registry Operator, its Affiliates or, if applicable, its Trademark Licensees.