Sunrise Question #4 The Working Group recommends that the following guidance be sought from Registry Operators. These questions are related to Sunrise Question #3. 4a-1. If you had/have a business model that was in some way restrained by the 100-name pre Sunrise limit for names registries can reserve under Section 3.2 of Registry Agreement Specification 5, or the practical problems with the ALP, please share your experience and suggested path to improvement. 4a-2. What was your work-around, if any? For instance, if you withheld names from registration (“reserved” names), how well did that work? 4b-1. If the Working Group were to identify specialized gTLDs as a key concern that required changes to the way the Sunrise Period operates, are there other TLDs, besides GeoTLDs that did or will encounter the same problem? 4b-2. What suggestions do you have for work-arounds or solutions that will not diminish the protections available from the Sunrise Period (balanced with the need to finish this work in a timely manner)? 4c-1. Did you initially intend (prior to the implementation of Sunrise rules in the original Applicant Guidebook) to offer a special Sunrise before the regular Sunrise that targeted local trademark owners? 4c-2. For instance, would the ability to offer a special “pre-Sunrise” Sunrise solve any problems? 4c-3. If so, would you have validated the marks in some way? 4c-4. How would you have resolved conflicts between trademark holders that got their domains during the first Sunrise and trademark holders who had an identical trademark in the TMCH that was registered prior to Sunrise? |
Context:
The Working Group has received information that the 2012 Applicant Guidebook (AGB) did not foresee that some TLDs (specifically GeoTLDs, but perhaps others) might need more than 100 domain names to allocate prior to the launch of the TLD and prior to Sunrise.
For GeoTLDs, one example is the potential need to register the websites of the city, county, office, and official, etc. in advance of Sunrise (e.g. the business of the TLD may make it critical that POLICE.[geo] is allocated to the police department, not to a brand).
The Working Group had limited information about the impact of this situation and did not know how many (and to what extent) Registry Operators were affected. For instance, if a Registry Operator withheld names from registration (“Reserved” names), how well did that work?
In order to understand whether Sunrise Registrations should have priority over other registrations under specialized gTLDs, and whether there should be a different rule for some Registry Operators (such as certain types of specialized gTLDs) based on their published registration/eligibility policies, the Working Group seeks guidance from Registry Operators.
