.bayern Pre-Register Domain - .bayern Domain Information

The Internet name space is becoming increasingly overcrowded and reasonable or relevant domain names for registrants and the registrants' businesses are scarce goods. Germany especially, as one of the healthiest economies worldwide, will profit from the expansion of the gTLD market. The German ccTLD, .DE, is the most sought-after top-level domain of its kind (http://www.denic.de/en/background/statistics/international-domain-statistics/). Almost 15 million domain names are already registered under the .DE top-level domain and this means that most of the desired domain names are already registered or are priced at levels unaffordable for most. With the .BAYERN top-level domain we are targeting one of the economically strongest and most-visited regions in the whole of Germany and are giving the Free State of Bavaria its own name space and online presence, whilst accelerating the economy and creating new business opportunities for the region.
The goal of the .BAYERN top-level domain is to establish itself as the recognized choice for registrants who want to market and promote themselves and their websites to, and reach, the Internet-using public for business, political, personal or any other purpose, through an association with the Free State of Bavaria; and, as the recognized top level domain name for Internet consumers to look for, to know which people, businesses, information sources or other online resources associate themselves with the Free State of Bavaria or are trying to communicate with them.

ECONOMIC KEY FIGURES & MARKET DATA
The Free State of Bavaria is physically the largest state Germany, with 70.550 square kilometers, and the second largest by population with more than 12,5 million inhabitants (https://www.statistik.bayern.de/). The Free State of Bavaria constitutes one of the strongest economies in Germany with a GDP growth of 3,9% in 2010, compared to a 3,6% growth rate on the national level of Germany, and an unemployment rate of only 4,6% (7,7% in Germany) for 2011 (https://www.statistik.bayern.de/statistik/unternehmen/). Currently more than 630.000 companies are registered in the Free State of Bavaria, and in 2011 alone, 115.538 new businesses have been registered (https://www.statistik.bayern.de/statistik/tourismus/). Bavaria's economy features a mix of a strong industrial sector and an intelligent service sector, provided by large international corporations and small and medium-sized companies. Furthermore, Bavaria forms the stronghold of Germany's tourism sector, with the number for tourist arrivals in 2011 alone totaling almost 30 million (http://www.initiatived21.de/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/NOnliner2011.pdf). These figures show the dynamic and economically healthy environment of the Free State of Bavaria.

Another key figure, besides its strong economic data, that makes the Free State of Bavaria such an ideal region for a geographic top-level domain, is the high level of Internet penetration: almost 76% of its population uses the Internet
(http://www.initiatived21.de/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/NOnliner2011.pdf).

PURPOSE & MISSION
This company, in close association with the government of the Free State of Bavaria, aims to offer businesses, people and organizations the opportunity to associate themselves, their products or services with the Free State of Bavaria.

The specific purpose of the .BAYERN gTLD is to:

- Provide, worldwide, all those interested in disseminating or seeking information, whether commercial or non-commercial, issues, news, culture, lifestyle, entertainment, sports or any other topic with a convenient and recognizable domain name that associates them and/or their information with the Free State of Bavaria.

- Provide, worldwide, all those interested in selling or purchasing goods, services, or information of any kind with a convenient and recognizable domain name that associates them and/or their goods, services, or information with the Free State of Bavaria.

- Provide a top-level domain name that provides an identifiable means of communicating with people, organizations and businesses that do associate or identify with the Free State of Bavaria.

- Provide the worldwide Internet-using public with an additional choice of available domain names at competitive prices.

The mission of .BAYERN is:

- The promotion of the Free State of Bavaria, its issues, causes, interests, perspectives, positions, policies, supporters and admirers by making domain names ending in .BAYERN available to all those who may want to use such .BAYERN domain names for their own political, business, personal or other legal purposes in the Free State of Bavaria and worldwide.

- The promotion of the Free State of Bavaria by having information of any and all types and for any and all legal purposes available and disseminated from websites and email addresses ending in .BAYERN for the registrants' and users' own purposes in the Free State of Bavaria and worldwide.

- The promotion of the Free State of Bavaria by allowing businesses, not-for-profits and individuals to associate their products, services, information and selves with the Free State of Bavaria for their own purposes in the Free State of Bavaria and worldwide.

- To allow people and organizations to promote their association or identification with the Free State of Bavaria on the Internet and in emails.

- To provide an identifiable means for people, organizations and businesses to communicate with those who associate or identify with the Free State of Bavaria.

- To increase the number of people and organizations in the Free State of Bavaria and worldwide that publicly identify themselves via the Internet with the Free State of Bavaria through their use of .BAYERN domain names and email accounts by making such .BAYERN domain names affordable and readily available (subject to compliance with the rules governing .BAYERN discussed elsewhere in this Application).

PUBLIC BENEFIT
The .BAYERN top-level domain will enable the Free State of Bavaria, with its strong national identity and unique cultural background, to have its own name space on the world wide web. The strong online presence of the Free State of Bavaria will greatly promote the recognition and identity of this region, open up new opportunities for businesses and offer the population of Bavaria a new domain name space for their purposes.

In light of the, under 18(a), mentioned figures and data, the demand for a .BAYERN top-level domain is high and the many small and medium sized companies in Bavaria will greatly profit from this new extension, in addition to the Free State's population and economy in general.

Therefore the government of the Free State of Bavaria fully supports the implementation and operation of the .BAYERN top-level domain. The government, like us, strongly believes in the benefits of the .BAYERN top-level domain, for the population as well as for the economy of the Free State of Bavaria. The government endorses our application to manage and operate the .BAYERN top-level domain in all respects. The implementation of the .BAYERN top-level domain shall be carried out in close cooperation with the Free State of Bavaria.

REGISTRANT BENEFIT
Over the past decade, the market for domain name registrations has grown at a tremendous pace. From 2000 to 2010, registrations increased from 40 million to 200 million globally. 2011 showed a growth of approximately 9%, which was significantly higher than the previous year's 6% growth, ending third quarter 2011 with approximately 220 million domain names registered globally. Approximately 60% of these are gTLDs, while the remaining 40% are comprised of ccTLDs. More specifically, gTLD growth was approximately 8% in 2011, while ccTLD growth exceeded 11%.

Taking into account the new opportunities available with new gTLDs, growth is expected to continue in all sections of the domain name industry. It will allow registrants to reach more targeted audiences and increase their web presence. Additionally, it will allow registrants to more closely identify with a particular market segment.

Existing TLDs, such as .COM and .NET, do not provide adequate solutions for many registrants. Domain names that relate to the registrants' business, interests, or associations are often already registered, priced exorbitantly high, or available options are unsuitable. Additionally, other options, such as ccTLDs, do not provide adequate alternatives as a registrant may not have any geographic relation or meet the criteria associated with other gTLDs such as .MUSEUM or .AERO. Therefore, the only available opportunity to pursue a relevant and useful domain name registration may be through a brand new registration of a gTLD.

At present, no specific .BAYERN domain name, or useful top-level alternative domain name, exists for the people, organizations and businesses that associate themselves with the Free State of Bavaria (Bayern) , or people, organizations and business that want to communicate with them. Those wanting a domain name that indicates some level of association with or recognition of the Free State of Bavaria could seek a second level domain name such as ".COM," ".us" or ".info," but such domain (or similar names) are not readily available under the limited number of existing gTLDs, and more importantly only provide a secondary (at best) or weak (at worst) relationship between the domain name and the Free State of Bavaria , which we believe is the primary goal of the registrant of such Bavarian-related names. From a competitive perspective, registrants that want a domain name that effectively and efficiently shows an association with the Free State of Bavaria, or registrants that want a domain name that allows them to identifiably communicate with people who associate or identify with the Free State of Bavaria, face a domain name marketplace that provides them with few if any options for their purposes. The .BAYERN top-level domain will resolve this problem by providing registrants with an efficient, effective, prominent, instantly understood way of showing their association with the Free State of Bavaria, and provide those registrants who desire it a domain that effectively communicates information to such Internet users in an identifiable way, while at the same time providing competition with existing TLDs and new gTLDs that will be approved by ICANN, thereby increasing consumer choice.

We believe that the .BAYERN top-level domain will add significantly to the competition and differentiation in the top-level domain space, both for registrants and Internet consumers. With respect to competition, registrants are presently extremely limited in their choice of domain names that allow them to efficiently and effectively associate themselves with the Free State of Bavaria. The availability of useful, effective, straight-forward domain names on existing top-level domains, such as .COM, .NET and .ORG, are few and far between, or may be for sale at prices that are out of reach for most. .BAYERN will allow registrants to obtain useful, effective, straight-forward domain names rather than be forced to purchase, for example, their fifth, sixth or even later choice .COM or .NET name, which may well barely relate to the registrant's purpose or use of the domain name and/or may be confusingly similar with numerous other .COM or .NET domain names. In addition, some existing generic top-level domain names, though newer, such as .XXX, may be inappropriate for most registrants for content associational reasons, while country-code top-level domains, though numerous, are not useful or appropriate for many registrants for geographical associational reasons. Thus, .BAYERN will increase competition for registrants who want a domain name that clearly, effectively and efficiently associates them with the Free State of Bavaria for their domain name purposes as well as for those registrants who want to reach Internet users who identify with the Free State of Bavaria.

.BAYERN will also increase pricing competition in the top-level domain name space by assuring that .BAYERN domain names are priced at levels that are appropriate to the vast majority of potential registrants to whom .BAYERN is targeted.

INTERNET USER BENEFIT
Internet consumers also benefit from this increase in competition, as less confusing and clearly associated .BAYERN domain names will make it easier for them to know that the owner of the second-level domain name seeks to associate with the Free State of Bavaria.

Likewise, .BAYERN will significantly help increase differentiation in the top-level domain space. Existing leading generic top-level domains names, such as .COM, .NET and .ORG no longer require and no longer represent any real differentiation in association, purpose or content. Newer top level domains, such as .XXX, .AERO and .MUSEUM, do represent differentiation, but are either inappropriate or unavailable to most prospective registrants at whom .BAYERN is targeted. .BAYERN will further increase differentiation by allowing registrants to be associated, and consumers to know that the registrant seeks to associate with the Free State of Bavaria.

The goal of .BAYERN is to provide users with a top-level domain name that easily allows them to recognize that the registrant seeks to have its second-level domain name (and content) associated with the Free State of Bavaria. We believe this will be of substantial benefit to the Internet user community, as it will allow them to more easily and more readily understand the purpose or motives of the registrant's website or email, allowing for better, more efficient and more effective use of their time online.

OUTREACH AND COMMUNICATION
Outreach and communications will both be important to .BAYERN achieving its projected benefits.

Outreach to targeted potential registrants will be important to .BAYERN achieving its projected benefits by allowing it to cost-effectively and quickly market to the most likely potential registrants, and to promote the ways in which .BAYERN will allow them to associate themselves with the Free State of Bavaria , and how their association with .BAYERN helps further their interest and that of the Free State of Bavaria. To achieve this outreach, we intend to leverage our existing relationships with groups with an association with the Free State of Bavaria, as well as engage in advertising, promotion, social media outreach, and other methods of reaching potential registrants. .BAYERN believes that outreach to people and organizations that already identify with the Free State of Bavaria will give it the best chance of launching the top-level domain as strongly as possible, giving it the best chance of long-term viability, and thus the best chance of providing its projected benefits to registrants of a positive association with the Free State of Bavaria, while at the same time promoting the Free State of Bavaria.

Communications will be as important to .BAYERN achieving its projected benefits as outreach. .BAYERN will be an open top-level domain, available to anyone interested in having a .BAYERN domain name, and .BAYERN's best chance of establishing itself as a viable top-level domain is to have as many potential registrants as possible know about .BAYERN and why a .BAYERN domain name may be right for them. However, many potential registrants for .BAYERN domain names who may want to associate their Internet presence with the Free State of Bavaria , or use a .BAYERN domain name to communicate with those who do, will be missed by .BAYERN's direct outreach efforts. Communications, in particular communication via social networks and blogs, will be helpful in reaching these potential registrants.

Communications will help .BAYERN realize its goal of serving registrants beyond the Free State of Bavaria. Given our finite marketing resources, communications through free resources, such as social networks and blogs will allow us to promote .BAYERN to members of the international community who want a domain name that associates them with the Free State of Bavaria, or use a .BAYERN domain name to communicate with those who do.

Communications will help .BAYERN keep in touch with its registrants, to understand how they would like to see .BAYERN develop, and to understand how we can improve our policies, registration rules, or other aspects of our operations or administration.

We plan to minimize social costs primarily through clearly written, widely disseminated, and easy-to-understand policies. Our Acceptable Use Policy clearly delineates unacceptable behavior and prohibited content by registrants using domain names in the .BAYERN zone.

This applicant, like most organizations, takes its good reputation seriously. We are fully cognizant, for example, that artistic, political, economic and social issues, all of which can be associated with .BAYERN, often provoke heated debate and are at times controversial. However, we recognize and support the free speech rights of both registrants and Internet users as fundamental rights, and believe that such free speech rights are important to the success of the .BAYERN business plan, and that any plan to stifle free speech would be more harmful to .BAYERN's reputation and business success than any attempt by us to govern speech. That being said, to protect .BAYERN's reputation and the associational benefits it offers registrants and Internet consumers, we will actively promote and enforce our Acceptable Use and Abuse Prevention policies and procedures, which we believe will effectively combat improper or unlawful unprotected speech and online conduct. We believe that these mechanisms will be effective in assuring the reputation of the .BAYERN top level domain, its registrants, and Internet Users, as well as the public.

Another goal of .BAYERN in terms of user experience is to protect third-party rights as well as to prevent abusive uses of a .BAYERN domain name. We intend to achieve this goal by crafting our Naming Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, and other policies to be readily understandable and easily accessible, and by making sure that our mechanisms for enforcing rights and preventing abuse (such as our Complaint Resolution Service) operate effectively, efficiently, and fairly, as well as by ensuring that they work symbiotically with other ICANN-mandated rights protection mechanisms such as the UDRP.

We have crafted a draft framework for registration of .BAYERN domains that fully support the goals, mission and purposes set forth above. Our draft registration framework is based on advice from ICANN, WIPO, applicable laws, and a variety of other expert sources. Specifically, the .BAYERN draft framework includes these interrelated sets of agreements setting forth our policies and regulations, all of which registrants must agree to be bound by:

- The Registrant Agreement, which registrars contracted with .BAYERN must present to registrants. This is a collateral agreement to the Registrar Registry Agreement (detailed below), and will bind registrants to .BAYERN's Acceptable Use Policy (as detailed below), .BAYERN's Privacy & Whois Policy (detailed below), ICANN-mandated rights protection mechanisms (including the Universal Dispute Resolution Policy ("UDRP"), and the Complaint Resolution Service;
- The Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP"), which details the proper use of domain names that end in .BAYERN, which is incorporated by reference in the Registrant Agreement that registrants must agree to;
- The Privacy and Whois Policy, which describes how a registrant's personal data is to be used, which is also incorporated by reference in the Registrant Agreement;
- The Registrar-Registry Agreement, which is the contract between .BAYERN and its ICANN-accredited registrars which sets forth, inter alia, the duties and obligations of the registrar with respect to .BAYERN registrants and the .BAYERN registry; and
- The Naming Policy, which sets out .BAYERN's policies governing prohibited, blocked or reserved domain names.

These agreements and policies are designed to ensure transparent and non-discriminatory policies for the registration of .BAYERN names; fair and competitive pricing; protection of personal data and privacy; adherence by registrars and registrants to the AUP; protection of trademarks, the names of natural and juristic persons and other property rights; prevention of the registration of illegal terms; and the prevention violations of the law. Moreover, our policies promote competition among registrars, combat abuse of the DNS, address cybercrime, protect intellectual property rights, and align the .BAYERN top-level domain with applicable regulatory and legislative environments and Internet registry best practices.

These policies will effectively support the key mission, purposes and goals of the .BAYERN top-level domain, which is to allow registrants who want to associate themselves with the Free State of Bavaria , while at the same time protecting third-party rights and preventing abuse.

We specifically examined more restrictive registration policies, such as limiting registration to members of organizations with a specific relation to the Free State of Bavaria. We rejected such limitations because they would interfere with .BAYERN's primary mission, purpose and goals--which is to encourage as many registrants as possible to associate themselves with the Free State of Bavaria for any legal purpose. Factors that we took into account when considering a more restrictive registration policy included:

- Our recognition that registrants of a .BAYERN domain name will self-select because they have an interest in the Free State of Bavaria , and this fact will naturally reduce the number of potential registrants; and, because restrictive policies such as, for example, requiring membership in a specific organization or organizations, would exclude many legitimate registrants from obtaining a .BAYERN domain name. For example, and by way of illustration, if membership in an organization were required for registration, businesses and charitable organizations that would find a .BAYERN top-level domain name an effective marketing tool would be excluded from registering a .BAYERN domain name as they might not be eligible to be members in an organization that accepted only natural persons for membership.

The .BAYERN top-level domain will be marketed to registrants who want to associate themselves, their products, services, thoughts, ideas or anything else in a positive way with the .BAYERN top-level domain, as well as to those who want to communicate with them in an easily identifiable way. Therefore we believe that the great majority of registrants who apply for a .BAYERN domain name will do so because of its association with the Free State of Bavaria or because they want to reach those who do, and not for other reasons. In these ways, the .BAYERN top-level domain will bring a special association to the top-level domain name space.

With respect to protecting registrant privacy and confidential information, we will comply with applicable ICANN rules, including Whois policies, and all applicable laws, rules and regulations of appropriate jurisdictions. Registrant privacy and use of confidential information are set forth in our Privacy & Whois Policy. Information concerning updates and changes to the Privacy & Whois Policy will be promptly and prominently displayed on the .BAYERN web site.

.BAYERN's back-end registry services provider will also be required to employ industry standard procedures to prevent the unauthorized or illegal access of registrant privacy or confidential information.

With respect to users, .BAYERN's Registration Agreement will require that all registrants must comply with any and all applicable laws, rules or regulations concerning user privacy and confidential information for applicable jurisdictions, and that failure to do so may result in suspension or loss of their .BAYERN name, and may in addition result in legal actions by appropriate authorities.

Our rules concerning applications for the same domain name establish clearly delineated rules, and will be published well in advance. They provide adequate safeguards for the rights of all participants as well as expeditious and cost-effective challenge procedures in the event of disputes.

During the Sunrise period and Landrush periods, multiple applications for the same name will be resolved by auction. UDRP or URS will be used if there are disputes as to rights to a name.

After Sunrise and Landrush, domain names will be allotted on a first-come, first-serve basis. All domains are subject to UDRP and URS challenges.

At all times,.BAYERN's Complaint Resolution Service will be available to registrants as well as to the public in the case of alleged prohibited use or content.

.BAYERN does not envision special discounts for different classes of registrants, but may consider such offers in the future. We may offer introductory discounts for first-time registrants in .BAYERN. Bulk registration discounts are not being considered at this time.

.BAYERN plans to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price increases. .BAYERN will contract with its registrars that any percentage increase in renewal and first registration fees will be applied uniformly across all registrations, and that notice of any price increases will be provided on the registrar's website and by the registrar to registrants via email six months or more in advance.

--PROPOSED MEASURES FOR PROTECTION OF GEOGRAPHIC NAMES AT THE SECOND AND OTHER LEVELS IN THE APPLIED-FOR GTLD--

We have accepted the advice of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) that we should adopt appropriate procedures to block names with national or geographic significance at the second and other levels, and will do so in the manner described below:

The country and territory names contained in the following internationally recognized lists will be initially reserved at the second level, as follows:

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

Procedurally, the geographical names contained in these lists, as described in Specification 5 of the New gTLD Agreement, will be added to the registry software system "prohibited word" function. This function, part of Espresso, our registry platform, allows strings to be blocked from registration. Upon an attempt via the EPP or web interface, the registration will not be allowed. Any attempt to register a domain containing those geographical names will be automatically denied, as they were similarly blocked in the .INFO TLD. If a Government or public authority decides to register a geographic name which has been blocked by the process describe above, the .INFO procedure for notice, authentication, and registration will be substantially adhered to, as follows:

1. The Government or public authority concerned informs the GAC Secretariat of their request to register the name, and the designated beneficiary.
2. The GAC Secretariat authenticates the request and transfers it to the ICANN staff and to the registry operator.
3. The registry operator verifies the availability of the name and issues an authorization number that is transmitted directly to the designated beneficiary in the country concerned.
4. The designated beneficiary (the Registrant) registers the name, paying the normal fee, with an ICANN-accredited registrar contracted with the registry operator using the authorization number as their authority.

The registry operator may at some point seek agreement with the applicable governments to release these reservations, subject to review by ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee and approval by ICANN.

For protection of geographic names at other levels, we have a complaint mechanism in place and any geographic entity may register a complaint if they feel their national rights have been violated.

We believe that the measures outlined above incorporate GAC's advice and serve as a pledge to block, at no cost to governments, geographically significant names and allow a means of challenging any abuse of the use of a geographically significant name.