.madrid Pre-Register Domain - .madrid Domain Information

Constitución Española de 27 de diciembre 1978, Estatuto de Autonomía de 25 de febrero de 1983, Ley de Gobierno y Administración de 13 de diciembre de 1983, la Ley de Administración Institucional de 19 de enero de 1984 y la Ley de Régimen Jurídico de las Administraciones Públicas y Procedimiento Administrativo Común, de 26 de noviembre de 1992.

The Comunidad de Madrid (the Government of the Region of Madrid) is applying for the .madrid TLD to serve the Madrid's community, defined as the community of individuals and legal entities with a bona fide presence, direct or indirect, in the Region of Madrid, including Madrid as the capital of Spain.

The goals of .madrid are:

* Facilitating digital communications from, to and within the Region of Madrid.
* Providing a platform for the urban development in the digital space of the Region of Madrid.
* Strengthening the image of Madrid in the online world.

This is to be achieved by:

* Actively designing and developing the .madrid TLD name space with a focus on the needs of the Region of Madrid, involving cultural, civil society, business and public-sector stakeholders.
* Allowing registrations of second-level domains in the .madrid TLD by individuals and organizations with a bona fide nexus with the Madrid area.
* Operating the .madrid TLD under the stewardship of the Region of Madrid in consultation with the local public authorities of the area and the private-sector stakeholders.

The .madrid TLD will be the new trusted domain-name space that offers a secure and global option for local institutions, companies, brands and citizens. It will allow them all to be present online by creating a multicultural space that integrates and facilitates new opportunities; a space that enables the materialization of public and private initiatives in order to promote and strengthen the brand image online driven by the solid image that Madrid already enjoys globally.

As .madrid Registry, the Region of Madrid (Comunidad de Madrid) is well aware of and fully acknowledges, the responsibility that arises from the management of the domain name ad commits to manage it in full respect of the interest of both the .madrid and the larger Internet communities.

The constant and sustained effort made during the last years, makes that the implementation of the Information Society in the Madrid area is a consolidated fact and in this sense, the Region of Madrid is the most suitable public institution to execute the management and running of the .madrid TLD.


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The key benefits to all stakeholders of the .madrid TLD will derive from the intrinsic link between the TLD string and the Madrid community: from the specificity of its policies to the needs of the Madrid community; from the ability to design and develop the name space from a clean sheet and from the clear accountability to the .madrid Registry to the Region of Madrid, and through it, as its elected administration, to all its citizens, registrants or not.

The specificity to Madrid of the both the string and the .madrid policies shall enable registrants to communicate in a way that demonstrates their commitment to the Madrid community. A potential registrant interested in a given .madrid domain name is more likely to be able to register it because the potential of contention from other areas is reduced.

The ability to design and develop a planned portion of the name space as a trusted space creates a web of predictable and memorable names that will facilitate access to key resources. Enhancing expectedness, predictability and accuracy for all users navigating that name space, not just .madrid registrants.


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


The goal of the .madrid TLD in terms of specialty, is the focus on the needs of the Madrid community. Service levels will match or exceed the high-end of currently existing TLDs. The .madrid Registry will vigorously build and defend the reputation of .madrid as an orderly and progressive TLD for the Madrid community.

Within the last years, the Region of Madrid has undergone tremendous efforts in order to facilitate access to the public services offered via the Internet, foster access among citizens and promote the development of IT companies.

The Madrid area leads the telematics services provision in Spain. The institutional portal madrid.org had a total of 36 million accesses and a total of 176 million site visits in 2011. The Comunidad de Madrid (the regional administration) made over 25 million of institutional information transactions with citizens during the same year. The service levels that the administration pretends to provide with .madrid, match perfectly with their policies of public offerings through the net.

With the acquisition of the .madrid TLD, the Region of Madrid will be able to centralize in thematic domains all the services that it provides to the community as a regional organism such as: educate.madrid (educa.madrid), health.madrid (salud.madrid), sports.madrid (deportes.madrid), culture.madrid (cultura.madrid) or justice.madrid (justicia.madrid). Likewise, there will also be a provision of information from the municipalities of the different cities of our region or local institutions, gaining in simplicity, clarity and quality of service.

The .madrid will be a TLD with immediate recognition, not only because the historic reference as a capital city and therefore seat of the General Administration, but also because nowadays the city is gifted with the attractiveness of being Spain's leading business center, hub for many multinational corporations' headquarters and focal point for world-leading trade shows and conferences (such as FITUR for tourism, Arco for art, and the Cibeles Fashion Week).

In terms of reputation, .madridenjoys the competitive advantage of being associated with the brand "España" (Spain), a new initiative promoted by the Spanish Government that will be launched in the near future. This new initiative pretends to value all those assets that are considered internationally as "Spain" and that will be represented by leading Spanish corporations with international presence, the success of our elite athletes and the Spanish language for its worldwide usage.

With the application of the .madrid TLD, the Region of Madrid aims to promote the brand ʺMadridʺ, fact that consequently will help to promote the brand ʺSpainʺ internationally.

The .madrid TLD will help the Region of Madrid to strengthen and empower the visibility of Madrid worldwide, placing it firmly both, in the national and international spheres.
.madrid pretends to become the "official" Internet resource for citizens, institutional organisms and visitors. Moreover, we would like that .madrid becomes a large virtual call space where to concentrate ideas that improve the electronic service for the Region's citizens, to support cultural groups, to improve security and trust, to encourage citizens to interact with public institutions, civil servants and elected representatives approaching institutional organisms and public figures to the community.


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


Taking into account that the .madrid TLD is a unique digital resource with a wide global attractiveness, the Region of Madrid has decided to share it with the Internet community, with the purpose of collaborating and enhancing the presence of public, business and civil society interests related to that geographic area.

The .madrid TLD is the perfect platform where the Internet users from Madrid can build their social and business platforms or simply a virtual place to gather and exchange ideas representing a TLD that reinforces the common identity that time integrates at the same individuals from different cultures and races that cohabit within the Madrid area.

The Madrid area represents the biggest economy of Spain by its GDP; it has a population of almost 7 million inhabitants, over 3 million living in the capital city, Madrid, the biggest city in Spain, sixth in Europe and 28th in the world. Serving a metropolitan area with a considerable economic and cultural significance, the .madrid TLD fills up a large gap in terms of customer choice. From a competitive standpoint, it creates a level playing field with respect to the market power of large unspecific TLDs. It is naturally differentiated both by its scope, by its governance model and by its intrinsic meaning from other TLDs.

Innovation is greatly enhanced by the proactive structured development of the .madrid name space. The development process involves an open process with calls for proposals for purpose-built localized services based on designated portions of the .madrid name space. This approach helps use innovative potential worldwide for the benefit of the Madrid area and for the advancement of the global Internet.

One of the most important advantages of the .madrid TLD will be to facilitate the access to the general services of the Region of Madrid. All administrative procedures, such as health, public aid, activities, culture, tourism, sport, social services, general information, etc. will be centralized within domain names .madrid. This will simplify the access of the Region of Madrid's citizens to the ʺeAdministrationʺ.

We should not forget the sports-related projection of the area, including its successive candidatures for becoming host of the Olympic Games in 2012, 2016 and 2020; its international representation of its soccer, basketball and handball clubs, besides the organization of recognized sport events.

The existence of the .madrid TLD will reinforce the brand in this particular aspect since all the domains related to the sport community, sport events or the Olympic candidature will be branded under the .madrid TLD, giving the area a unified image worldwide.


iii. What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

Compared to most existing TLDs, the .madrid user experience will greatly enhance predictability and memorability of domain names. The community-based focus, the orderly development process and strong intellectual property support, ensure that users will generally find the services they are looking for under the names they intuitively tend to use for them.

The .madrid TLD will assure to all public institutions of the Region of Madrid the possibility of having a domain name that identifies them as member of the public administration and the Madrid area. Municipalities of the Region of Madrid will be able to request domain names such as ʺcity.madridʺ, enabling a unified criteria on the internet.

Organizations like ʺMadrid 2020ʺ (responsible body of the candidacy of Madrid for hosting the Olympic Games in 2020), may use domains like ʺ2020.madrid ʺ or ʺolympicgames.madrid ʺ, enhancing and promoting this appellation. Hence, Internet users will find intuitively the web page dedicated to the Olympic Candidature of Madrid.

The .madrid TLD will also promote global sport events internationally renowned such as the ʺtenisopen.madridʺ.

Users will have greater comfort on the context of naming variants (redirected to the canonical forms) will systematically be activated. Users in the Madrid community will be able to get accustomed to the predictability of .madrid domain names. As a result, they also minimize the chances of stumbling upon typo-squatting, robotized pay-per-click traps or domain-for-sale pages.

The .madrid TLD is attractive itself because it will be of the interest of all those Internet users who would like to link their researches, not only business related but also tourism, gastronomy or leisure in general. Tourism is one of the mainstays of the area's economy, reaching almost its 10% of GDP and it represents the 11,5% of the total of visitors within the country. From the 10,4 million visitors the region had in 2011, over 50% made their reservations online, a fact that clearly indicates the enormous potential that .madrid has in the tourism sector and its possibilities.


The clear focus towards the security policies for the consumer protection, procedural safeguards and the growing resources dedicated to security within the online transactions sphere, have generated enough trust for having had a very important growth within the last years of the commercial transactions online. The .madrid TLD will allow Internet users to issue their online transactions on a secure way increasing Madrid's residents and visitors loyalty and trust.

The.madrid TLD will be a safe and highly reliable domain name that will be have the best technical and technological resources to ensure the online safety and security of .madrid users. The Region of Madrid is well aware of the vulnerability of the organizations towards potential cyber-attacks, and therefore will reinforce the measures in order to minimize these risks, ensuring the rights of companies, brands, government agencies and other registrants.

Summarizing, the Region of Madrid will take advantage of the opportunities of the new TLD, contributing to the community in the following ways:

* Internet users will clearly spot the domain names belonging to the Public Administration and will be able to find all the relevant information within the different domain names: Madrid.madrid as main domain name and many others such as procedures.madrid (tramites.madrid), health.madrid (salud.madrid), sports.madrid (deporte.madrid), tourism.madrid (turismo.madrid), culture.madrid (cultura.madrid), education.madrid (educacion.madrid) as examples of domain names that will have all the information gathered in their sites (and not spread out in different domain names).
* Citizens will gain in trust and security. The .madrid domain names will be managed by the Region of Madrid. Proactive measures will be adopted by the Registry Operator in order to ensure the highest level of domain name registrations data accuracy. Citizens will be certain that the domain name they are using to do all their administrative procedures are secured domains controlled by the pertinent entity. Malicious behavior activities affecting domain names under the .madrid TLD name space will be prevented through a strong commitment to both proactive and reactive surveillance by the Registry Operator.

- The community of users in general will easily find public institutions, organizations or private companies registered under the .madrid TLD, given that this will be a characteristic typology for companies or organizations located in Madrid. This fact does not only benefit citizens from Madrid, who will be able to easily find companies or institutions located in their geographical area, but will also be in the interest of citizens from rest of the country and even more for companies or visitors from other countries wishing to visit the region of Madrid (tourism promotion) or establish business relationships with companies located in Madrid (international commerce promotion), fact that is very important for the business promotion encouraged by business organizations and in particular by the Chamber of Commerce of Madrid.


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

The registration policies are differentiated between pre-launch phase, launch phase and general availability.

During pre-launch, projects and content provision commitments are actively sought and negotiated, especially for key public-interest portions of the name space. All potential registrants and mandate holders are subject to screening, thorough pre-validation, and very strict rules on using the .madrid names to promote the TLD adoption. There will be a clear and low limit on the numbers of pre-launch names.

During the launch phase, all registrations are pre-validated; launch phase pre-validation depends on priority status (public service, trademark, civil society sector, no prior rights) but will always involve community nexus.

At general availability, community nexus is subject to post-validation throughout an extensive compliance program. The ongoing compliance program will regularly be adapted to current needs based on experience and audit findings. Community nexus validation combined with strong protection of trademarks helps stamp out cybersquatting and abusive registrations.

Please see answers to Questions 18 (c) and 20 below for a much more detailed description of these phases, and its requirements.

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

The Region of Madrid recognizes first-hand 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 Spanish Personal Data Protection legislation. Within the bounds of applicable regulations, the Registry will implement anti-data mining measures by way of rate limitation, authenticated access or white-listing/black-listing, as well as tools to prevent unauthorized recourse to repetitive automated access.

The .madrid Registry also intends to incorporate contractual language in its Registry Registrar Agreement (RRA) model after language which has been included in the template Registry Agreement and which has been successfully utilized by existing ICANN gTLD registry operators. Specifically, Registry Operator shall notify Registrar of the purposes for which Personal Data submitted to Registry Operation by Registrar is collected, the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data, and the mechanism for access to and correction of such Personal Data. Registry Operator shall take reasonable steps to protect Personal Data from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. Registry Operator shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars. Registry Operator may from time to time use the demographic data collected for statistical analysis, provided that this analysis will not disclose individual Personal Data and provided that such use is compatible with the notice provided to registrars regarding the purpose and procedures for such use.

Finally, the Region of Madrid (Comunidad de Madrid, as the Government of the Madrid Region) will propose to ICANN through the Registry Agreement negotiations, as the Draft Base Agreement contains specific language on Governments and mandatory national legislation, a Whois service that allows individual registrants to opt-out from publishing their personal contact data, as other existing gTLD Registries have done. If this option is not available during the contractual negotiations, the.madrid would submit such proposal after delegation, though the New Registry Services procedure.


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

The .madrid TLD will have specific outreach programs adapted to each phase of its introduction.

The pre-launch negotiations involve calls for projects by innovators and pioneer users (of the Region). They foster the intuitive usability of the .madrid TLD with a focus on the needs of the Madrid area. Once these domain names are active, they become an outreach mechanism in their own rights because they establish the touch-and-feel of the .madrid TLD in the user's minds.

The launch phase will involve outreach mechanisms that specifically leverage participation by the regional public services, locally relevant trademarks and actors.

Promotion codes distributed through community-specific channels are a form outreach available at any time. They are also a low-cost method to achieve community nexus and to prevent abusive registrations.
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The pre-launch, launch and on-going registration phases of the .madrid TLD are designed to minimize social costs and negative externalities. They protect potential registrants and potentially affected parties while maximizing the value of the name space to its registrants and users.

This approach is based on the premise that extensive screening efforts by the registry in the early stages will create a fair and orderly name space with lower compliance costs in the long term.

In phases and areas where the first-come/first-served principle tends to yield perverse results, alternative modes are used. These include:

1) A pioneer name program and name space mandate program.
2) A long launch phase based on domain applications and contention resolution.

1) Pioneer name program and name space mandate program:

These programs adjudicate domain names based on an open and transparent project selection process. This process is highly economical in terms of social costs and yields substantial external benefits.

The pioneer name and name space mandate programs are part of the ..madrid outreach program. It begins before delegation of the TLD. In terms of workload, it mainly affects proposers who themselves are required to demonstrate support for their projects. Support will be required to come from the segment of the community concerned with the respective portion of the name space. Given the high value of the resulting online resources for the community and the public interest, and given the economic benefits that can be derived from their operation, the administrative effort is largely justified. To further protect affected parties, all adjudications in name space mandates have a safety-valve clause, allowing for later adjustments based on community input. The principle of the safety-value is that affected parties can obtain adjustments to a component of a mandate if they propose (and commit to) an improved use of the underlying domain names from a public interest perspective.

2) Launch phase:

The launch combines the so-called "sunrise" and "landrush" processes simultaneously in one phase. The use of domain applications instead of domain registrations means that the registry accepts multiple applications the same domain name. (By contrast, only a single registration can exist for a given domain.) In this way, contention resolution can take place without time pressure in a transparent, fair and orderly manner.

During the launch phase, the time stamp of domain application is not relevant for priority. Adjudication is based on priority differentiation and, in case of equal priority, through a largely automated, multi-step contention resolution process. This mechanism has the lowest aggregate social costs and the aggregate highest public benefits while individually protecting each stakeholder from the risk of an excessive burden.

All applications are published on the Whois service. Applicants mark their prior rights, if any, in the application. There are four fundamental classes of priority: public service (highest), trademark (second), civil society actors (third) and no-prior-right (fourth).

For a given domain, the highest priority applications will be validated with respect to the claimed priority right. If there is more than one application for the same domain in that priority class, a contention resolution process begins. The contention resolutions process allows agreement between contenders (withdrawal and refund of application), mediation and arbitration and, as a tie-breaker of last resort, auction.

In most circumstances, the agreement or auction are the cheapest solution for affected parties and are likely to be selected. It is possible, however, for a party to avoid auction by requesting arbitration panel decision. An arbitration panel decision will involve in-depth analysis, the cost of which is borne by the requesters. Unless prior rights provide sufficient grounds for a panel adjudication, the key criterion is the applicant's contribution to the value of the .MADRID name space in the public interest.

The options available to a contender are thus designed to promote quiet resolution by way of withdrawal, mediation or auction. Thanks to automation this minimize efforts for all parties.

3) On-going registration phase:

Registrations are checked in a post-validation process and subject to an enforcement program based on statistically targeted random investigation and complaint follow-up. This program minimizes both costs to registrants and third parties. In particular, it strongly diminishes the attractiveness of rights violations, abuse or malignant behavior. Having been preceded y a controlled launch phase, the validation and enforcement workload faces no resource bottleneck and thus achieves a high degree of credibility, further dissuading abuse from the start. This mode of operation has a strong positive side effect in the interest of trademark holders.

As management body of : the .madrid TLD, our regional government has enough authority to establish the requirements for second level domain registrants. Limiting the registration of .madrid domain names to legitimate and verified registrants, our government will help to improve the security in the online community. All entities with second level domain registrations, from the smallest to the biggest, will benefit from the potential prestige, visibility and authenticity granted by the .madrid TLD.
Answers to enumerated question points:

((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 described above, during pre-launch and launch phase, the first-come/first-served principle is NOT applied. Adjudication by auction is one of the solutions available to the parties in the context of the contention resolution process.

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

The focus of the .madrid TLD is the bottom-line cost to registrants and stakeholders. This takes into account all burdens, including the effort needed to register or the potential alternative cost to obtain a name on the secondary market. The direct per-unit cost is merely a component of the bottom-line cost.

The bottom-line cost is greatly reduced thanks by avoiding contention between legitimate community-based applicants and speculators. Community-specific promotion code programs are used offer registrations at low cost. This is a way to avoid perverse effects of low prices, such as speculation with ultimately high costs to registrants, large-scale confusion and waste of the name space, or cybersquatting.

The name space mandate program has special terms in order ensure that key portions of name space are used in the public interest.

((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.))

The Region of Madrid is committed to provide domain name registration services in accordance with the requirements, notices and periods set forth in the Registry Agreement. The .madrid TLD will be based on predictability regarding pricing. The .madrid Registry-Registrar Agreement will not contain specific or non-standard clauses regarding price escalation between the .madrid Registry and its registrars.

The .madrid business plan is designed to avoid any future necessity to increase registry price in real terms. The fundamental principle is prudence: starting from conservative price levels and gradually lowering them. This method ensures sufficient financial reserves, favours optimal allocation of domain names, helps prevent misuse and supports an orderly registration process.
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The .MADRID TLD application is submitted by the Region of Madrid (Comunidad de Madrid), which is the Government of the region of Madrid region; analogous to the States in the Federal States of the USA) on behalf of, and for the Madrid community. The following clauses (A), (B) and (C) describe the delineation of the Madrid community and corresponding policy principles of the .MADRID TLD. (A) The Madrid community comprises individuals as citizens and legal entities with presence in the Region of Madrid. This territory comprises the 179 Municipalities, including the city of Madrid and its metropolitan area Madrid is the capital of Spain as established by art. 5 of the Spanish Constitution. A bona fide presence in the Madrid area may be determined by the following: - residence in the Madrid area, or - the pursuit of lawful business activities in the Madrid area, or - the pursuit of cultural leisure, and sport activities in the Madrid area, or - any other kind of direct or indirect presence that is generally accepted as legitimate for, and conducive to the welfare of, the Madrid area. (B) Registration of domain names under the .MADRID TLD is restricted to members of the Madrid community and subject to the further requirement that the domain name registrant's direct or indirect presence in the Madrid area and the registrant's use of the domain name must be: (1) of a kind that is generally accepted as legitimate and (2) conducive to the welfare of the Madrid area and (3) of commensurate quality to the role and importance of the respective domain name and (4) based on good faith at the time of registration and thereafter. (C) The government of the Region of Madrid, in relation to the requested .MADRID TLD, acts as the highest representative body for the Region of Madrid, as well as the representative of this community in dealings with other institutions of the Spanish state and its different administrative bodies, including the city of Madrid as state capital. In light of this, the full support of the Spanish Government has been obtained through the Secretary of State for Telecommunications, as well as for the Information Society and that of the city of Madrid, via its activities in the area of Economic Governance, Employment and Citizen Participation, with the common objective of establishing new channels for relationships based on good faith. Answers to enumerated question points: How the community is delineated from Internet users generally. Such descriptions may include, but are not limited to, the following: membership, registration, or licensing processes, operation in a particular industry, use of a language. The Madrid community relates to the geographic area of the Region (Comunidad) of Madrid or the Madrid area, a described above. The Madrid area comprises the geographic urban areas of the city of Madrid. It is clearly recognizable by urban infrastructure, such as the local transport network in and around the City of Madrid. It also comprises 180 other municipalities of diverse size and character. The delineation described under (A) above matches the reality of the Madrid community as it has existed since the advent of Madrid as a modern metropolis. A Madrid community has existed for a long time. For as long as it has existed, those who belonged to it were those who had a bona fide presence in the urban area and its surroundings. With the advancement of civilization, new forms of presence (such as business or culture) have become generally accepted. A bona fide presence in the Madrid area may be direct or indirect, on the basis of domicile, activity, cultural links or any other constructive commitment to the Madrid area. It may be emanating from the area or be directed to the area. Given the vast scope of a modern metropolitan community, and its surroundings, community membership always depends on context. This is why, for the purpose of domain registrations, the strength and quality of the registrant's nexus must be commensurate to the role and importance of the domain name to the community. In other words, a bona fide presence in the Madrid area (and thus community membership) is a necessary condition, NOT in itself a sufficient condition for the right to hold any imaginable .MADRID domain name. As the policy principles under (B) above description show, there are additional requirements specific to the intrinsic role and importance of the domain name in question. They concern in particular the nature of the registrant's presence in the Madrid area and the registrant's use of the domain name. The wish to hold a .MADRID domain name is not in itself a sufficient indication of a bona fide presence in the Madrid area. Furthermore, if a person has been able to register a domain name in .MADRID, this does not in itself entitle that person to register any imaginable other .MADRID domain name. How the community is structured and organized. For a community consisting of an alliance of groups, details about the constituent parts are required. As any other modern metropolitan area, the Madrid community is organized to the highest degree. The Madrid area belongs to one single, highly integrated community. Because of if its importance and size, the community's organization involves a number of public bodies and authorities on several levels (such as the Region, the Municipalities, and for the biggest among them, the Districts), treaties between public bodies, joint investments in public infrastructure companies, public-private partnerships, coordinated policies and legal frameworks that define the duties and prerogatives of each body. The public bodies are established by law and their representatives are democratically elected by universal suffrage. It goes without saying that private companies and cultural or welfare organizations also belong to the organization of the community. When the community was established, including the date(s) of formal organization, if any, as well as a description of community activities to date. The City of Madrid (and therefore the Greater Madrid Area) has existed as an organized community since Middle Age, having grown naturally over time. It has been the Court and then Capital of Spain since 1561. The activities of the Madrid community are: - the shared concerns and pursuits of the residents and stakeholders of the Madrid area (along with their organizations or public bodies) - the shared use of the infrastructure and services of the Madrid area, such as transport, telecommunications, as well as culture, education, welfare and leisure, - a strong focus for tourism, including leading role in cultural tourism (Madrid is the seat, for instance, of the World Tourism Organization). - the role of the City of Madrid as capital of Spain. The Madrid community includes extensive activities in the digital world specific to the Greater Madrid Community, both in the form of e-government services and public authorities' contributions to the development of information society. The .MADRID TLD is designed to be directly related to the activities of the Madrid community, including fostering the use of electronic administration and promoting political and social participation. The current estimated size of the community, both as to membership and geographic extent. The population of the Madrid area is in the order of 7 million inhabitants. The geographic extension of the Madrid Region is at 8.021 square kilometers. The Madrid Region comprises, beyond the City of Madrid, 179 Municipalities that can be found on www.madrid.org

The applicant is the Region of Madrid itself, the highest-level legitimate authority for the name of Madrid. Its democratically-elected government has the duty to make key decisions regarding the use of the name of Madrid in the interest of all the members of the Region: citizens, organizations, institutions, companies, municipalities, including the city of Madrid, capital of the region. The Government of the Region of Madrid has entrusted the Communications and Computer Agency of the Region of Madrid (ICM), the task of governing body for the management and running of the domain name ".madrid". Law 7/2005 of December 23rd, of Administrative and Fiscal measures of creation of ICM, establishes the legal regime, activity, competences and patrimony of the Agency. Within the exercise of the competences, the Agency will act with full financial and management autonomy and will operate under the objectives of equality and centralization of the management of the computer and communication services of the Administration of the Region of Madrid, that allow the best technical and financial balance of the applied solutions and the services given without prejudice of the necessary attention to the own peculiarities of the public services in direct relation with the citizen. The Agency's funding methodology is fixed through economic contributions of the General Administration of the Region of Madrid, which are comprised within the ICM's "Plan de Actividad e Inversiones Financieras" (Activities and Financial Investment Plan). This plan is approved in first instance by ICM's Administrative Council and as a last resort by Madrid's Assembly due to the fact that it is included within the global of the General Budgets of the Region of Madrid for the respective Budgetary Exercise. This funding is set aside to cover the Agency's annual activity, including the needed investments for the development of its competences. Therefore, having been assigned by Madrid's Regional Government the task of governing body for the management and running of the domain name ".madrid", those are contemplated as another activity to be done by ICM with the Agency's own resources and infrastructure. Therefore, the Agency remains submitted to the public accounting regime within the terms outlined in Title VI Law 3/1991, November 8th of the Treasury of the Region of Madrid (Hacienda) and to the financial control in the planned terms in article 17 Law 9/1990 of November 8th regulator of the Treasury of the Region of Madrid, except in the management of the subsidiary activity, which will be abided by the exercise of the auditor according what it is established in the Subsidies Law (Ley de Subvenciones) of the Region of Madrid. On the other hand, as shown in the letters of support attached to this application, the applicant counts on the collaboration of different key institutions of the Region of Madrid: the institution in charge of the Olympic Candidature "Madrid 2020", the President of the Court of Madrid, Madrid's Chief Judge, the President of Madrid's fairgrounds (IFEMA), the President of Madrid Business Confederation (CEIM), the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Madrid etc., proving their commitment and close collaboration with the Region's institutions. Therefore, and aiming to maintain alive the integration spirit and reinforce even more the collaboration between the different members of the Region, we have foreseen the establishment of an Advisory Council formed by representatives of the different stakeholders with the main goal of maintaining, ensuring and safeguarding the principles and policies that this project represents. ((- Relations to any community organizations.)) The Region of Madrid has a special responsibility towards the entire Madrid area with respect to the use of the name of Madrid. For this reason, the Comunidad de Madrid assumes the stewardship of the .MADRID TLD in consultation with public authorities and private sector stakeholders of the Madrid area. In doing so, the Region of Madrid builds upon established and proven relationships between the respective public bodies, defined by law and/or developed over time for the management of the vast public infrastructure jointly operated and developed by them. ((- Relations to the community and its constituent parts/groups.)) The Region of Madrid, the City of Madrid and the other Municipalities of the Madrid Area collaborate with a wide array of community organizations for economic development, welfare, culture, education, sport, tourism and leisure. This includes community organizations that specialize in the development of the digital economy, e-government and information society. The Region of Madrid will build upon existing relationships to set up an effective and transparent governance process for the .MADRID TLD. ((- Accountability mechanisms of the applicant to the community.)) The local government bodies of the Region of Madrid, and the Madrid area are democratically elected by their residents. The governance process for the .MADRID TLD is rooted in the public accountability mechanism of the City as defined by the Law. In addition, the .MADRID TLD will be have specific policy-oversight and consultation mechanisms. As the Region of Madrid itself assumes the stewardship of the .MADRID TLD, the ultimate line of accountability from the .MADRID governance body goes through the office of the elected President and Councilors to the electorate. The additional lines of institutional accountability are done through different audits, the auditing of the Region of Madrid and the Accounts Chamber (Cámara de Cuentas).

As described under Questions 18(a), the purpose of the .MADRID TLD is to: (a) facilitate digital communications from, to and within the Madrid Community; (b) provide a platform for the urban and regional development in the digital space of the Madrid Community; (c) strengthen the image of Madrid in the online world. ((- Intended registrants in the TLD.)) The intended registrants of the TLD include the residents of the Madrid area, businesses active in the Madrid area, contributors to the cultural, sport and tourism life of the Madrid area as well as any other legal entities or individuals who contribute to the welfare of the Madrid area. ((- Intended end-users of the TLD. )) The intended end-users include the general public with an interest in Madrid. This comprises one the one hand the public in the Madrid area and on the other hand the public world-wide with an interest in Madrid. ((- Related activities the applicant has carried out or intends to carry out in service of this purpose. )) All the activities of the Region of Madrid are related to .MADRID TLD serve the community-based focus of the TLD. They involve the active development of the name space and other activities to support community-based eligibility and name selection processes described under Question 20. ((- Explanation of how the purpose is of a lasting nature.)) The purpose of the .MADRID TLD is of a lasting nature because it exactly matches the popular use and generally accepted meaning of the name of Madrid. The lasting nature of City of Madrid, of the Madrid area and of the Madrid community are established beyond doubt, as is their intimate association with the name of Madrid. As indicated in Question 18, the .MADRID TLD application is enshrined within the development of technological projects that will benefit the Region of Madrid's citizens. One of the most important projects is the electronic management of all the administrative procedures.

The .MADRID TLD serves the Madrid community. The Madrid community comprises persons and legal entities with a bona fide presence in the Madrid area. The Madrid area is the area of the Region of Madrid, Spain. ((- relationship to the established name, if any, of the community. )) The TLD string .MADRID matches the name of the community, Madrid, in the generally accepted sense of the word, in English, French and all other internationally used languages. ((- relationship to the identification of community members. )) The identification of community members is based on the Community delineation described in the response to Question 20(a), namely clause (A) as follows: (A) The Madrid community comprises individuals and legal entities with a bona fide presence, direct or indirect, in the Madrid area which includes Madrid as the capital of Spain. The Madrid area is the metropolitan area of Madrid and its geographic environment, including the non-uban areas in the Region. A bona fide presence in the Madrid area may be: - residence in the Madrid area, or - the pursuit of lawful business activities in the Madrid area, or - the pursuit of cultural activities in the Madrid area, or - any other kind of direct or indirect presence that is generally accepted as legitimate for, and conducive to the welfare of, the Madrid area. Community membership is a necessary condition for the right to hold a .MADRID domain name, but is not in itself a sufficient qualification, as is also described in the response to Question 20(a), namely the policy principles in Clause (B) as follows: (B) Registration of domain names under the .MADRID TLD is restricted to members of the Madrid community and subject to the further requirement that the domain name registrant's presence in the Madrid area and the registrant's use of the domain name must be: (1) of a kind that is generally accepted as legitimate and (2) conducive to the welfare of the Madrid area and (3) of commensurate quality to the role and importance of the respective domain name and (4) based on good faith at the time of registration and thereafter. ((- any connotations the string may have beyond the community.)) The word "Madrid" does have minor other meanings or connotations. None of them have any remotely comparable significance to that of Madrid referring to the urban area of Madrid, Spain. There are smaller places in the World by the name of .MADRID. All of them bear the their name in reference to the City, and Region, of Madrid in Spain. Depending on the context, the word Madrid can designate a wider or smaller area (ranging from central Madrid to the entire metropolis, and the whole Region of Madrid as is the case with any place name). This has no practical consequence because these usage variants of the word all point to a key aspect of the same community.

((- Eligibility: who is eligible to register a second-level name in the gTLD, and how will eligibility be determined.)) As described in the response to Questions 20(a), two types of conditions must be fulfilled for the right to register a .Madrid name. These are: (A) community membership (bona fide presence in the Madrid area) and (B) the additional requirements that - the presence in Madrid area and use of domain are generally accepted as legitimate; - the presence in Madrid area and use of domain are conducive to welfare of the Madrid area; - the presence in Madrid area and use of domain are commensurate to role and importance of domain; - presence in Madrid area and use of domain are based on good faith at registration and thereafter. These conditions must always be fulfilled. The strength of the validation is kept in line with the importance of the underlying domain name base on the assumption that a typical user would reasonably make. To facilitate validation, registrants are required to state their intended use of the registered domain name. A false statement of intended use is an indication of bad faith and can be the basis for the suspension of the domain name. Registrants are further required to have an administrative contact in the Madrid area. This is verified in part automatically (through the postal code in the administrative contact record and by a human eyes review pre-validation or post-validation). The administrative contact may be any person or entity having received and accepted the mandate to act as such for the respective domain. (The registrar may act as administrative contact.) Any communications addressed to the administrative contact are deemed to have been brought to the attention of the domain holder. Validation checks include machine and human verification of address accuracy. The validation may be assisted through pre-identification of potential registrants using existing community channels, in particular through promotion codes. After the launch phase, the validation mode goes from pre-validation to post-validation and later to statistically targeted random validation, backed up by a ongoing enforcement program. The validation and enforcement program are supported by an integrated issue tracking system. This system allows validating agents and personnel to cooperate and interact with the registrant. The system keeps track of decisions made by the agents and stores supplemental documentary evidence that may be supplied by the registrants. ((- Name selection: what types of second-level names may be registered in the gTLD.)) The fundamental rule on which name selection is based is part of the policy principles: the registrant's presence in Madrid area and use of domain must be commensurate to role and importance of domain registered. The role and importance of the domain name is based on meaning an average user in would reasonably make in the context of that domain name. This criterion also applies to the strength of the documentation or proof required of the registrant. Pre-definition of the name space, especially names with significance for Madrid area from a public service or public interest standpoint, is developed through special programs with strong selection processes, based on proposals made by parties interested in providing content on such domain names. This process not only cover the identity and legitimacy of the party entrusted with the operation of the domain(s), but also a defined obligations with respect to the content to provide for the benefit of the public. ((- Content/Use: what restrictions, if any, the registry operator will impose on how a registrant may use its registered name.)) As described in the response to Question 20(a), not only the registrant's Madrid presence but also the use of the domain must be: - generally accepted as legitimate - conducive to welfare of the Madrid area - commensurate to role and importance of domain - based on good faith at registration and thereafter This is verified on the basis of: 1) the intended use statement supplied by the domain registrant at the time of registration (or possibly updated later) 2) the ongoing enforcement program. ((- Enforcement: what investigation practices and mechanisms exist to enforce the policies above, what resources are allocated for enforcement, and what appeal mechanisms are available to registrants.)) The purpose of the enforcement program is to protect the credibility of the .MADRID TLD for its local in international public. In particular, upholds the community-based purpose of the .MADRID TLD and helps prevent misuse or malicious behaviour. The enforcement program is based on statistically targeted random investigations and on a complaint follow-up process. The statistical targeting is strongly automated and involves the use of search engines and the analysis of registry data related to behaviour of registrants. Depending on the type of misuse to be investigated, web site content or content sent to victims of abuse will reviewed and analyzed by investigators. Enhanced investigation takes place if the registrant has a bad track record in terms of compliance with the rules of the .MADRID TLD. Other violations of public record (such as UDRP or URS cases) will also be taken into account. If the intended use cannot be deemed legitimate or has a negative impact on the welfare of the Madrid area, the registration is rejected. If content or use of an existing .MADRID domain demonstrate that the registrant has shown bad faith by stating a false intended use, the domain name is suspended. If a registrar is complicit with systematic violations of the .MADRID policies or causes an unacceptable burden for the validation and enforcement program by negligence, the registry can restrict that registrar's access to the new registrations, subject its inventory of .MADRID domains to enhanced investigation and require it conduct its own post-validation program. An appeals process is available for all administrative measures taken in the framework of the enforcement program. The first instance of the appeals process is managed by the registry service provider. The Region of Madrid provides the second and last instance of an appeals process by itself or entrusts it to an alternative dispute resolution provider. The charter of the appeals process is promulgated by the Region of Madrid.

1. 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 .madrid 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 .madrid names based on various syntactic rules, multiple reserved names lists, and patterns. Prior to the launch of the .madrid 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

However, the .madrid Registry recognizes that there may be cases where a request to register and use a geographic name at the second level should be considered legitimate, valid and useful.

Examples of such cases are:

* the local Embassy wishing to use that name for itself, with the agreement of its Government;
* the countryʹs or territoryʹs relevant authorities wishing to use it, e.g. for touristic or cultural promotion purposes;
* other legitimate purposes.

For registration requests from the relevant public authority, the.madrid Registry will put in place the procedure agreed between the GAC and Afilias for the .info gTLD, as referenced in the letter written by Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, GAC Chair, on Sept 9, 2003; see

https://gacweb.icann.org/download/attachments/1540128/dotinfocircular1.pdf.

The current procedure is:

Technically, the registrar needs to use the authorisation code supplied by the registrant as the domain authinfo in the EPP 〈domain:create〉 request, which will let the request bypass the rule engineʹs blocking mechanism and permit the registration.

3. Additional monitoring

The .madrid Registry does not plan to monitor use of geographic names below the second level (i.e. subdomains used by a .madrid TLD domain name registrant), as those procedures are both difficult and ineffective. Available dispute resolution mechanisms are a more adequate resolution procedure in cases where third or higher level domains unduly use country or territory names.


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