.catalonia Domain Information

Applicant Full Legal Name

Generalitat de Catalunya

Legal Establishment

Generalitat de Catalunya - public administration, government of Catalonia

Applicant Address

Pl. de Sant Jaume, 4
Palau de la Generalitat
Barcelona Catalunya 08002
ES

State Jurisdiction

Spanish Constitution and Statute of autonomy of Catalonia (Constitución Española i Estatut d'autonomia de Catalunya) Constitución Española: Boletín Oficial del Estado núm. 311.3, de 29 de diciembre de 1978 Estatut dʹAutonomia: Llei Orgànica 6/2006, de 19 de juliol de 2006. Diari Oficial... Read more

Spanish Constitution and Statute of autonomy of Catalonia (Constitución Española i Estatut d'autonomia de Catalunya) Constitución Española: Boletín Oficial del Estado núm. 311.3, de 29 de diciembre de 1978 Estatut dʹAutonomia: Llei Orgànica 6/2006, de 19 de juliol de 2006. Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya núm. 4680 http://www.boe.es/aeboe/consultas/enlaces/documentos/ConstitucionCASTELLANO.pdf http://www.parlament.cat/porteso/estatut/eac_ca_20061116.pdf×

Applicant Website

http://www.gencat.cat

Applied for gTLD

CATALONIA

Mission/Purpose of Domain Extension

a. Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed TLD. The information gathered in response Question 18 is intended to inform the post-launch review of the New TLD Program, from the perspective of assessing the relative costs and benefits achieved in the expanded TLD space. For the application to... Read more

a. Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed TLD.

The information gathered in response Question 18 is intended to inform the post-launch review of the New TLD Program, from the perspective of assessing the relative costs and benefits achieved in the expanded TLD space.
For the application to be considered complete, answers to this section must be fulsome and sufficiently quantitative and detailed to inform future study on plans vs. results.
The New TLD Program will be reviewed, as specified in section 9.3 of the Affirmation of Commitments. This will include consideration of the extent to which the introduction or expansion of TLDs has promoted competition, consumer trust and consumer choice, as well as effectiveness of (a) the application and evaluation process, and (b) safeguards put in place to mitigate issues involved in the introduction or expansion.
The information gathered in this section will be one source of input to help inform this review. This information is not used as part of the evaluation or scoring of the application, except to the extent that the information may overlap with questions or evaluation areas that are scored.
An applicant wishing to designate this application as community-based should ensure that these responses are consistent with its responses for question 20 below.

The .catalonia TLD is requested by the Generalitat of Catalonia (the Government of Catalonia) as an institutional TLD for its own exclusive use in order to identify and promote Catalonia worldwide.

The main goal of .catalonia is to give the Generalitat an up-to-date means of external communication to promote Catalonia by publishing information to the world on what this territory offers.

The Generalitat will reserve the .catalonia TLD for its own exclusive use, and the .catalonia TLD will serve institutional purposes within the scope of the Generalitat's activities. The Generalitat of Catalonia will act as the only registrant of the .catalonia TLD.

Catalonia is located in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, bordered to the east by the Mediterranean sea and to the north by the mountain range of the Pyrenees. It covers an area of approximately 32,000 km² and has a population of over seven million inhabitants. The Generalitat of Catalonia is applying for the .catalonia TLD to protect its own brand and to promote Catalonia worldwide as a complement to its existing branding and communication strategies both online and offline.

The name Catalonia has already been registered as a US trademark by the Generalitat of Catalonia since 2008 with the registration number 3462412

In recent years the Generalitat of Catalonia has been actively marketing to the world various aspects of the cultural values such as its urbanism (well-known architects such as Antoni Gaudí), its history, its gastronomy (cooks such as Ferran Adrià and Carme Ruscalleda), sports (Futbol Club Barcelona), its landscape (Pyrenees, Costa Brava), its universities, its business opportunities, its creativity, its design, its fashion, and its entertainment (film festivals, exhibitions, music festivals). Nowadays the quickest and easiest way to reach a worldwide public is the Internet, and with the easy-to-remember .catalonia TLD it would be easier to increase the visibility and popularity of the region all over the world.

Some of the promotional efforts that the Generalitat of Catalonia has undertaken in the past have been on behalf of the following tourist locations: Barcelona, Costa Brava, Costa Daurada, Costa del Garraf, Costa Barcelona-Maresme, central Catalonia, Terres de Lleida, Pirineus, Val d'Aran and Terres de l'Ebre. All these touristic clusters would be promoted within the .catalonia TLD. The Agència Catalana de Turisme (Catalan Tourism Agency) is in charge of tourist development and outreach for the Generalitat.

The .catalonia TLD would also be used as a quick way to give advice to tourists and travelers and to promote Catalonia among travel agencies all over the world. For example, .catalonia could be used to promote PR campaigns under the following possible domain names: visit.catalonia, discover.catalonia, enjoy.catalonia, holidays.catalonia, hotels.catalonia, museums.catalonia, study.catalonia, and many others.

The goals of the .catalonia TLD are:

To provide an umbrella to address foreign (non-Catalan-speaking) markets under a common, easily readable and identifiable, secure and trusted TLD.

To provide a platform for the development of the Generalitat's digital communications strategy.

To enhance public trust. It will be recognized as a legitimate TLD used exclusively by the Generalitat of Catalonia to communicate its services worldwide in synchrony with its general online communication strategy.

To strengthen the visibility, ease of use, security, and trustworthiness of the Generalitat's online branding.

The Generalitat of Catalonia is convinced that the .catalonia string does not fall under the scope of the Geographic Names, and therefore, does not require Government Support. The section 2.2.1.4.2 of the Applicant Guidebook establishes in its sub bullet number 3 that:

"The following types of applied-for strings are considered geographic names and must be accompanied by documentation of support or non-objection from the relevant governments or public authorities:

3. An application for any string that is an exact match of a sub-national place name, such as a county, province, or state, listed in the ISO 3166-2 standard."

In ISO 3166-2 there is an entry for "Catalunya", but there is no entry for "Catalonia". It is clear from this description that the .catalonia string should not be considered a geographic name. However, the Guidebook also indicates in this same section that:

"it is in the applicant's interest to consult with relevant governments and public authorities and enlist their support or non-objection prior to submission of the application, in order to preclude possible objections and pre-address any ambiguities concerning the string and applicable requirements"

Given that the applied for string is the translation to english of the official name of the territory the Generalitat of Catalonia represents, and in order to dispel any ambiguities concerning the application, and also taking into account the GAC principles, regarding new TLDs, presented in March 28, 2007, and specifically, their point 2.2, the Generalitat of Catalonia obtained a letter of non objection from the Government of the Kingdom of Spain.

Therefore, and even though the application is not for a geographic name, the response of the Generalitat of Catalonia to the Q21 will be affirmative, in order to be able to attach the letters of non objection and support provided for this application.×

Benefits

b. How do you expect that your proposed TLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others? Answers to enumerated question points: b i.What is the goal of your proposed TLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?)) Specialty The goal of .catalonia is to focus on... Read more

b. How do you expect that your proposed TLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

Answers to enumerated question points:

b i.What is the goal of your proposed TLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?))

Specialty
The goal of .catalonia is to focus on the name of the region as a brand name to be communicated worldwide.

The key benefits of the .catalonia TLD are derived from its intrinsic relation to the name of the region in both Latin and English, "Catalonia". That will help to promote all the activities that the Generalitat of Catalonia will develop online and offline under a common and easy-to-understand brand name.

For instance, domain names such as www.invest-in.catalonia or www.holidays.catalonia may serve as a clear message in traditional and online media, while grouping together all the different portals of the Generalitat on a given topic, to provide a better experience for anyone searching for information.

Reputation

It is clear that a .catalonia Top Level Domain will strengthen Catalonia's international recognition, which will naturally increase the value of its online and offline reputation and branding.

The aim of .catalonia is to show to the world from its own TLD:
Business opportunities
Universities and other places to study
Places to go on many different kinds of holidays (cultural, beach, sports, family, gastronomic, and so on)

Service Levels

Protecting the name of Catalonia and having exclusive control of what can be done with it is a top priority for the Generalitat of Catalonia.
Service levels will match or exceed the high end of currently existing TLDs. The .catalonia registry, being an exclusive TLD, will vigorously build and defend the reputation of .catalonia, providing only content approved by the department responsible for the online communications of the Generalitat.

b ii.What do you anticipate your proposed TLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?))

As .catalonia is a TLD for the exclusive use of the registry operator, it is naturally differentiated by its scope, by its governance model, and by its intrinsic meaning, from other TLDs.

Innovation is greatly enhanced by introducing a new use of the TLDs to take advantage of the whole name of the region (much easier to understand and remember).

b iii.What goals does your proposed TLD have in terms of user experience?))

Compared with most existing TLDs, the .catalonia TLD will greatly enhance the predictability and memorability of domain names. The brand-name focus and the responsibility of the Registry to ensure a strong respect for intellectual property ensure that users will generally find the services they are looking for under the names they intuitively tend to use for them.

The user experience is improved by a unique online identifier under which users can easily find the online services they are looking for.

.catalonia will simplify the way people find information about the region on the Internet by creating an easy and understandable Web address.

b iv.Provide a complete description of the applicant's intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.))



The .catalonia TLD will be for the EXCLUSIVE USE of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The Generalitat does not contemplate at this stage opening the registration to any third party. Therefore, the mandatory registration agreement will refer to the following terms and conditions:

a) Eligibility: The registrant will be the Generalitat of Catalonia.

b) Name selection: .catalonia domain name registrations will be related to any lawful promotional endeavour the Generalitat of Catalonia may wish to undertake.

c)Use and content: .catalonia domain names may be used only in relationship to the Generalitat of Catalonia and the promotion of its services on the Internet.

Considering that:

(i) The Generalitat of Catalonia will register and maintain all domain name registrations within .catalonia for its own exclusive use; and that
(ii) The Generalitat of Catalonia will not sell, distribute, or transfer control or use of any registrations in .catalonia to any third party that is not related to the Generalitat of Catalonia; and that
(iii) application of the Code of Conduct contained in Specification 9 of the Base TLD Registry Agreement to .catalonia is not necessary to protect the public interest

The Generalitat of Catalonia will request an exemption to the above-mentioned Code of Conduct, and expects ICANN to grant such exemption, as the Generalitat of Catalonia provides reasonable satisfaction of the conditions hereof expressed.

The Generalitat of Catalonia may in the future consider extending the use of domain names to employees, partners, and entities under its governmental scope, but this is not foreseen nor allowed in the current description of the registration policies.

b) v.Will your proposed TLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.))

The Generalitat of Catalonia recognizes that this is a relevant issue and an evolving area of law in which there is no international standard. The protection of privacy and confidential information of registrants and users will comply with applicable law, in particular the European Data Protection framework and the Catalan and Spanish Personal Data Protection legislation, as well as any ICANN requirements in this area.

As .catalonia is a single-user single-registrant TLD, all these issues are under control, as the only registrant will be the Generalitat of Catalonia on behalf of its ministries and departments, and no external organizations or individuals will be allowed to register .catalonia names.


b) vi. Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.))

The .catalonia TLD will be used, according to the communications strategy of the Generalitat of Catalonia, as an easy-to-read and identifiable name and a tool for outreach to address communication campaigns to non-Catalan speaking markets and targets in various existing media; including, of course, digital media.×

Operational Rules and Cost Benefits

c. What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences/costs imposed upon consumers? As explained in the... Read more

c. What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences/costs imposed upon consumers?

As explained in the registration polices above, the .catalonia TLD will be open to registrations by the Generalitat of Catalonia only. Moreover, the domain names will be used only for the Generalitat's legitimate purposes.

This guarantees that no costs need to be borne by the owners of trademarks and other intellectual property rights to monitor the .catalonia zone and protect themselves against abuses from registrations. This also applies to personal names, geographical names, intergovernmental organizations based on international treaties, and so on.

Answers to enumerated question points:

c) i. How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come/first- serve basis?))

As the .catalonia TLD is for the EXCLUSIVE USE of the Generalitat de Catalonia, first come, first served will be the only available and feasible option, should multiple applications for the same domain name occur; although this seems unlikely for this TLD model.

c) ii. Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).))

In a model in which the Registry is the sole and exclusive registrant of the domain names in the TLD, the Generalitat de Catalonia does not believe that it makes sense to apply any such pricing measure.

c) iii. Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.))

In accordance with Specification 9, point 6 of the Base TLD Registry Agreement, as published in Module 5 of the Applicant Guidebook, the Generalitat of Catalonia, taking into account that it will operate the .catalonia TLD for its EXCLUSIVE USE, will request an exemption to the Code of Conduct contained in Specification 9 of the Base TLD Registry Agreement. The Generalitat of Catalonia does not intend to provide any special contractual commitments to registrants, as the only allowed registrant will be the Generalitat of Catalonia itself.

Other than that, the Generalitat of Catalonia will comply with any of the TLD Registry Agreement's obligations, such as offering registration of domain names for periods of one to ten years, and the pricing provisions as contained in the Agreement.×

Is this a Community-based TLD?

No

Is this a Geographic-based TLD?

Yes

Protection of Geographic Names

Reserved List of Geographic Names In accordance with Specification 5 of the proposed TLD Registry Agreement published as Attachment to Module 5 of the Applicant Guidebook by ICANN, and with Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice on geographic names at the second level, the .catalonia... Read more

Reserved List of Geographic Names

In accordance with Specification 5 of the proposed TLD Registry Agreement published as Attachment to Module 5 of the Applicant Guidebook by ICANN, and with Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice on geographic names at the second level, the .catalonia Registry will put the following names on the reserved list, therefore making them unavailable for registration or any other use:
• the short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166-1 list, as updated from time to time, including the European Union, which is exceptionally reserved on the ISO 3166-1 list, and its scope extended in August 1999 to any application needing to represent the name European Union;

• the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and

• the list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names.

Technically, this is achieved by utilising the advanced domain name rule engine that is part of the CORE Registration System and described in detail in the answer to Question 28. As laid out there, the underlying set of checks can be tuned to block registrations of .catalonia names based on various syntactic rules, multiple reserved names lists, and patterns. Prior to the launch of the .catalonia TLD, the rule engine will be configured in accordance with the reserved list mandated by Specification 5, which means that the listed names are not available for registration by registrars.

2. Exceptions

The .catalonia Registry intends to propose to ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), and, if approved, submit to ICANN for final approval an exception to allow the .catalonia Registry to use some or all of those itself, in order to better localize its promotional services in each individual country and territory where it carries commercial activities.

Once final approval has been received, the use of such names is conducted in a diligent manner, In particular, the names are not simply removed from the reserved names lists to allow their registration. Instead, the .catalonia Registry will internally issue a special authorization code for the specific reserved name to be registered. This authorization code is then used as the domain authinfo in an EPP request to the .catalonia SRS, which will let the request bypass the rule engineʹs blocking mechanism and permit the registration.

3- Additional monitoring

As the .catalonia Registry will not allow third-party registrations or use of second or other level domains within .catalonia TLD, no additional monitoring mechanisms are required.
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