.swiss Pre-Register Domain - .swiss Domain Information

The purpose of the TLD .swiss is to serve the Swiss community, defined as the community of individuals, legal entities and public institutions with a bona fide presence in Switzerland. (See responses to Question 20 regarding community delineation).


The goals of the .swiss TLD are:

(a) to facilitate digital communications to, from and within the Swiss community;
(b) to support and promote the international visibility and renown of Switzerland and the Swiss community, Swiss culture, monuments and institutions, as well as economic and social activities, in the common interest of the Swiss community;
(c) to represent a long-term community-wide shared effort to strengthen the value and prestige of Swiss arts, culture, products and services, to meet consumer expectations and enhance consumer confidence;
(d) to preserve the geographical, linguistic and social meaning of the word "Swiss";
(e) to provide a platform for the development of the Swiss community in cyberspace.


This is to be achieved by:
(i) actively designing and developing the .swiss TLD name space as a highly distinctive label of merit;
(ii) ensuring that registrations of domains in the .swiss TLD are reserved to content generally accepted as truly and deservedly representative of the label "Swiss" in accordance with the relevant Swiss legislation;
(iii) operating the .swiss TLD under the stewardship of the Swiss federal government in consultation with the regional (cantonal) and local public authorities of Switzerland as well as private sector stakeholders;
(iv) using the .swiss TLD as an internationally distinctive label for renowned products, services, monuments and places of Switzerland;
(v) promoting and continuously improving the concept of "Swiss Quality" in products and services from Switzerland;
(vi) protecting the label "Swiss" as an indication of origin or source;
(vii) applying the fundamental principle of prudence: starting with a conservative registration policy in order to establish quality of and confidence in the .swiss TLD and then gradually opening up the policy to the extend possible.

The key benefits of the .swiss TLD to registrants, end-users and all members of the Swiss community are derived from its purpose and use as a strictly and objectively controlled distinctive label. Registrants benefit from the very nature of the TLD, which by virtue of its purpose is designed to cater to their needs and positioning within the community. End-users benefit from the clear identification of the .swiss TLD as pertaining to all things Swiss. It is intuitive, logical and orderly.


This benefit goes beyond the eligible registrants. The effect of the controlled use of the .swiss TLD is beneficial to all members of the Swiss community, whether or not that member is eligible to register a .swiss domain name. Moreover, it is beneficial to all internet users by providing trusted content under the .swiss TLD.


The word "Swiss" means "of or relating to Switzerland or its people".
The well-established connotation of the TLD string ".swiss" (which refers directly to Switzerland) enables registrants to communicate with end-users in a way that demonstrates their qualification and commitment to the community. An eligible registrant will have a significantly higher likelihood of successfully registering a given domain under .swiss because the potential of contention is substantially lower than in the case of less-specific TLDs.


The concept of "Swiss quality" is one of the emanations of "Swiss" as an indication of origin or source. Members of the Swiss community at large, producers of Swiss products and providers of Swiss services - together with the consumers and users of those products and services - share a common interest in the trustworthiness of "Swiss" as a quality label. With the implementation of appropriate policy, the .swiss TLD supports efforts to preserve and enhance the "Swiss quality" label.


The ability to design and develop a planned portion of the name space creates a web of predictable and memorable names that will facilitate access to key resources for users. Predictability relates both to the choice of the name and to the content that the user may expect from a name corresponding to a certain pattern.


As a result of the planned nature of the name space, registered names will generally be highly predictable and memorable. The launch process and the community nexus compliance program are designed to achieve a high degree of relevance of .swiss domain names for Switzerland. The focus on Switzerland facilitates clear and easy communications to and from, as well as within, the Swiss community. Along with a policy providing strong assurances of legitimate use and intellectual property protection, the planned name space portion benefits national and international trademark holders as well as national and international Internet users.

Answers to enumerated question points:

i. The goal of .swiss is to serve the needs of the Swiss community, with a focus on controlled and curated designations as a specialty. Service levels will match or exceed the high end of currently existing TLDs. The Swiss Confederation will build and vigorously defend the reputation of .swiss as an orderly and progressive TLD for the Swiss community.

ii. As a name space specific to a sovereign country with close to 8 million inhabitants and an economy that heavily depends on exports related to the concept of Swiss quality, the .swiss TLD provides registrants and end-users with a trustworthy space for more information and greater choice.


The .swiss TLD offers logical alternatives to the existing competitive landscape. More choices for registrants and end-users result in greater competition. The .swiss TLD is naturally differentiated from other TLDs by its scope, governance model and intrinsic meaning.


The proactive and structured development of the name space greatly enhances the potential for innovation. The process involves calls for proposals for purpose-built localized services based on designated portions of the .swiss name space. These innovations are ultimately for the benefit of the Swiss community and the advancement of the global Internet.

iii. Compared to most existing TLDs, the .swiss user experience will greatly enhance predictability and memorability of domain names.

The clarity and recognition value of .swiss is significantly higher than that of .ch, the ccTLD of Switzerland. While .ch is well-understood within Switzerland (because the Swiss ISO-3166 alpha-2 code CH is based on the traditionally-used Latin expression "Confoederatio Helvetica" meaning Swiss Confederation), it is often confused outside the country with China, for example. Moreover, a .ch domain name may be registered by anyone anywhere, with no relation to Switzerland required. With its community-based registration policy, the .swiss TLD is therefore complementary to .ch and creates new opportunities for the Swiss community. And no one is confused with the meaning of "Swiss."

The community-based focus, orderly development process and strong intellectual property support provide end-users with a significantly higher probability of finding what they are looking for under the names they would intuitively use. Users will have greater comfort on the context of naming variants: in key portions of the .swiss name space, alternative names and variants (redirected to the canonical forms) will be systematically activated. Users in the Swiss community will become accustomed to the predictability of .swiss domain names. Given the stringent validation, compliance and enforcement programs, typo-squatting, robotized pay-per-click traps or domain-for-sale pages will be eliminated under the .swiss TLD.

iv. A key purpose of the .swiss TLD is to help promote quality products and services by ensuring legitimate use of ".swiss" as a quality label. The validation, compliance and enforcement methods will match this requirement. Pre-validation will be used where justified and as long as necessary, along with other appropriate methods designed to achieve the objective of effectiveness and efficiency.


Validation and compliance measures go beyond trademark rights and community nexus in that validators will ascertain that a registrant's brand or item referred to in the domain is generally accepted as truly representative of Switzerland (see Response to Question 20(e)). For those domains that can be construed to represent a category of products or services, validation ensures that each .swiss domain serves the role of an ambassador of Swiss quality.

The validation and compliance approach will regularly be reassessed and adapted to current needs based on experience and audit findings.

As all domains are validated and subject to a strict compliance and enforcement program, the .swiss TLD will start with relatively few domains, but will be free from abusive registrations.

v. The protection of privacy and confidential information of registrants and users will comply with Swiss law. 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.



To help achieve the goals of the TLD, the .swiss TLD will implement outreach and communication programs specifically adapted to each phase of its introduction.


The pre-launch phase will involve calls for projects by innovators and pioneer users. Such projects will foster the intuitive usability of the .swiss TLD with a focus on the needs of the Swiss community. Once these domain names are active, they become an outreach mechanism in their own right because they establish the touch-and-feel of the .swiss TLD in the minds of end-users.


The launch phase will involve outreach mechanisms that specifically target participation by the Swiss public authorities, public service providers, private sector stakeholders (including trademark holders) and other relevant actors.
Throughout the launch phase (as well as at any time thereafter), targeted invitations such as promotion codes distributed through community-specific channels will be a form of outreach available. They will also constitute a low-cost method to achieve community nexus and to prevent abusive registrations.

The pre-launch, launch and ongoing registration phases of the .swiss TLD are designed to minimize social costs and negative externalities. This will protect potential registrants and potentially affected parties while maximizing the value of the name space to its registrants and end-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 will be 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.


Pre-launch 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 .swiss outreach program, and begin 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 on-line 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-valve 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.


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 for 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 a 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 being excessively burdened.


All applications are published on the Whois service. Applicants indicate their prior rights, if any, in the application. There are three fundamental classes of priority: public service (highest), trademark and comparable rights holders (second) and no-prior-right (third).


For a given domain having passed eligibility validation, the highest priority applications will be validated with respect to the claimed priority right. If there is more than one eligible 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),
- allocation based on criteria agreed upon by all contenders for the same domain (including a possible auction, where appropriate), and
- decision based on priority rules interpreted by a panel.


Priority rules are based on applicable Swiss regulations and future guidelines specific to the .swiss TLD. They may include, as a criterion for priority, the value which a given use of a given domain represents to the Swiss community at large.


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


Ongoing registration phase:


As outlined above, pre-validation will be used where justified and as long as necessary, along with other appropriate methods designed to achieve the objective of effectiveness and efficiency. At a later stage, registrations are checked in a post-validation process and become subject to a compliance and enforcement program based on statistically targeted random investigation and complaint follow-up. This program minimizes costs to both registrants and third parties. Having been preceded by 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. In particular, it strongly reduces the risk of rights violations, abuse or malicious behaviour.


Answers to enumerated question points:

i. As described above, during pre-launch and launch phase, the first-come-first-served principle is NOT applied. As a principle, adjudication of domain names will be based on a priority evaluation. Adjudication by auction is one of the solutions available to the parties in the context of the contention resolution process (see above).

ii. The focus of the .swiss 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 to the avoidance of contention between legitimate community-based applicants and speculators. Community-specific promotion code programs are used to 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 to ensure that key portions of the name space are used in the public interest.

iii. The .swiss TLD will not be based on contractual clauses regarding price escalation between the .swiss registry and its registrars.


The .swiss 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, favors optimal allocation of domain names, helps prevent misuse and supports an orderly registration process.

The .swiss TLD belongs to and serves the Swiss community.The following clauses (A), (B) and (C) describe the delineation of the Swiss community and corresponding policy principles of the .swiss TLD. (A) The Swiss community comprises individuals, legal entities and public institutions with a bona fide presence in Switzerland. A bona fide presence in Switzerland may be: - Swiss citizenship, or - residence or offices in Switzerland, or - the pursuit of lawful business activities in Switzerland, or - the pursuit of cultural or social activities in Switzerland, or - any other kind of presence that is generally accepted as legitimate for, and conducive to the welfare of, the Swiss community at large. (B) Registration of domain names under the .swiss TLD is restricted to members of the Swiss community and subject to the further requirement that the domain name registrant's presence in Switzerland and the registrant's use of the domain name must be: (1) in compliance with Swiss law, and (2) of a kind that is generally accepted as legitimate, and (3) conducive to the welfare of the Swiss community, and (4) of commensurate quality to the role and importance of the respective domain name, and (5) based on good faith at the time of registration and thereafter. (C) The government of the Swiss Confederation acts as the central representative body for the Swiss community with regard to the .swiss TLD, in consultation with the members of the Swiss community. Answers to the enumerated question points: The Swiss community relates to Switzerland as a country delimited by national borders. The delineation described under (A) above matches the reality of the modern Swiss community, providing for adequate flexibility taking into account features of a modern multicultural society like migration, division of labour, etc.. A Swiss community has existed under that name since the year 1291. For as long as it has existed, those who belonged to it were those who had a bona fide presence in the territory. With the advancement of civilization, new forms of presence (such as business or culture) have become generally accepted. A bona fide presence in Switzerland may be on the basis of domicile, citizenship, activity, cultural links or any other constructive commitment to Switzerland. It may be emanating from the area or be directed to the area. On international level, the term "Swiss" is not only associated with people from or living in Switzerland, but also with products or services created in Switzerland ("swiss made") or by Swiss people , and with a certain level of quality attributed to them ("swiss quality"). On a political level, "Swiss" is often associated with neutrality, direct democracy and high respect for cultural and other minorities and human rights. As a modern democratic country, the Swiss Confederation and its community is organized to the highest degree. Because of if its importance and size, the community's organization involves a number of public bodies and authorities on several levels (agreements 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. The Old Swiss Confederacy was founded in 1291. European powers formally recognized the independence of Switzerland in 1648, following the end of the Thirty Years' War. The Swiss Confederation became a modern federal state with the ratification of a federal constitution in 1848. Activities of the Swiss community include: 1. to live and develop a shared vision of the Swiss as a nation of people living freely and peacefully in a society based on shared values like freedom, self-determination and sedulity as well as responsibility, respect for cultural diversity and rule of law; 2. to further develop its eco-social market economy which is based on the principles of competition, but with a strong focus on a minimal public service and a sustainable development protecting the environment as well as supporting the weak members of the community; 3. to promote the development and shared use of the infrastructure and services of Switzerland, such as transport, telecommunications, as well as culture, education, welfare and leisure. The population of Switzerland is approximately 8 million inhabitants. The territory of Switzerland is 41,285 square kilometers.

The applicant is the Government of the Swiss Confederation. It is democratically elected by universal suffrage and has the authority to make key decisions on behalf and in the interest of all community stakeholders. The Swiss community extends beyond the territorial borders of the Swiss Confederation. Switzerland as a federal state is built on the principle of subsidiarity. While most regulation regarding e.g. education, health and taxation is in the competence of regional and local authorities, the regulation of the telecommunication market and the internet in general lies with the federal government. Further, the federal government is responsible for the use of names like "Switzerland" or "Swiss" not only but also in relation to the internet. For these reasons, the Swiss Confederation assumes the stewardship of the .swiss TLD, in consultation with relevant Swiss public authorities and private sector stakeholders . The Swiss federal government, the regional and local authorities collaborate with a wide array of community organizations for sustainable political, economic and social development, welfare, culture, education and leisure. This includes community organizations that specialize in the development of the digital economy, e-government and information society. The Swiss Confederation will build upon existing relationships to set up an effective and transparent governance process for the .swiss TLD. Switzerland's accountability mechanisms are built on the principle of separation of powers (legislative, executive and judiciary powers) and direct democracy. The government of the Swiss Confederation, the governments of Cantons belonging to the Confederation, as well as local authorities are democratically elected by universal suffrage. The governance process for the .swiss TLD is rooted in the public accountability mechanism defined by law. In addition, the .swiss TLD will have specific policy-oversight and consultation mechanisms.

As described under Questions 18(a), the purpose of the .swiss TLD is: (a) to facilitate digital communications to and from, as well as within, the Swiss community; (b) to support and promote the international visibility and renown of Switzerland and the Swiss community, Swiss culture, monuments and institutions, as well as economic and social activities, in the common interest of the Swiss community; (c) to represent a long-term community-wide shared effort to strengthen the value and prestige of Swiss arts, culture, products and services, to meet consumer expectations and enhance consumer confidence; (d) to preserve the geographical, linguistic and social meaning of the word "Swiss"; (e) to provide a platform for the development of the Swiss community in cyberspace. The intended registrants of the TLD are members of the Swiss community as described in clause (A) in the answer to Q20a which meet the criteria of clause (B) in the answer to Q20a. This includes Swiss public institutions, businesses active in Switzerland, citizens and residents of Switzerland, as well as other legal entities or individuals who contribute to the political, economic, social or cultural development and welfare of the Swiss community, in particular the following: - public authorities of all levels (communal, cantonal, federal); - companies using the "Swiss Made" or "Made in Switzerland" label; - ambassador brands related to Switzerland; - businesses with a products or services which are of Swiss origin or source or otherwise strongly associated with Switzerland; - organizations promoting Swiss places, culture, values and heritage; - public interest organizations operating for a cause associated with Switzerland. Given the vast scope of a modern community, 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 Switzerland (and thus community membership) (A) is a necessary condition, but NOT in itself a sufficient condition for the right to hold any imaginable .swiss domain name. As the policy principles under (B) of the answer to Q20a above show, there are additional requirements specific to the intrinsic role and importance of the domain name in question. These requirements will be defined in detail in specific registration regulations. They concern in particular the nature of the registrant's presence in Switzerland and the registrant's use of the domain name. Again, this will based on the fundamental principle of prudence: starting with a conservative registration policy in order to establish quality of and confidence in the .swiss TLD and then gradually opening up the policy as long as it does not endanger this quality and confidence. The wish to hold a .swiss domain name is not in itself a sufficient indication of a bona fide presence in Switzerland. Furthermore, if a person has been able to register a domain name in .swiss, this does not in itself entitle that person to register any other .swiss domain name. The intended end-users of the .swiss TLD include the general public with an interest in Swiss arts, culture, values, ideas, products and services and Switzerland in general. The .swiss TLD is intended to be complementary to the ".ch" domain in that a key focus is on users of Swiss public services and customers of the Swiss export and tourism industries. Given the fact that well-known Swiss export brands are also very popular within Switzerland, a large portion of intended end-users are from inside Switzerland. Overall, the intended end-users are those who will remember the notion of Swiss values and quality in the long term. All activities of the Swiss Confederation that are related to the .swiss 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 (e). The purpose of the .swiss TLD is of a lasting nature because it exactly matches the popular use and generally accepted meaning of "Swiss" referring to Switzerland. The lasting nature of Switzerland and of the Swiss community are established beyond any doubt, as is their intimate association with the word "Swiss".

The .swiss TLD serves the Swiss community as described under (A) in the answer to Q20a. The TLD string ".swiss" is the adjective in English that refers to Switzerland and to the Swiss people. It is the distinctive element of the official name of the country, i.e."Swiss Confederation" in English. The use of adjectives for demonyms naturally varies from one language to another. The simplicity of the English adjective in the particular case of Switzerland gives the English adjective additional meaning and importance. Switzerland has four national languages (German, French, Italian, Rumantsch) of which three are official languages (German, French, Italian). In German, Italian and Rumantsch, the adjective is inflected based on gender (e.g. svizzero and svizzera for masculine and feminine, respectively) or for singular and plural. In German, a different adjective is used depending on the role ("Schweizer" vs "schweizerisch"), further complexified by inflection based on three genders, singular plural, four grammatical cases and strong and weak declension. In French, the adjective "suisse" happens to be identical to the short name of the country and inflected only for the plural. The inflections diminish the frequency of use of each form. Despite the fact that that English is not a national language, "Swiss" is the best known and most used word related to Switzerland and the Swiss community. Another reason for the importance of the "Swiss" adjective is the relatively cumbersome length and spelling of the English word "Switzerland". The label "Swiss Made" is easier to understand and shorter than "Made in Switzerland". It is already extensively used on many products (in particular high-quality products) originating from Switzerland. Furthermore, many non-native speakers often find it more difficult to remember "Switzerland" than "Swiss". The adjective is often used instead of the noun either by mistake or as even a result of a new usage trend of English. In addition, "Swiss" is often used, even on national level, in the name of bodies with an official function such as e.g. "Swissmedic" (Swiss agency for therapeutic products). For the reasons described above, the English adjective "Swiss" has an especially important role to play for Switzerland, both internationally and nationally, for reasons that go far beyond the role of English per se. It is ideally suited to function as a short and memorable label, easy to pronounce in most languages. The identification of community members is based on the Community delineation described in the response to Question 20(a), namely clause (A) as follows: The Swiss community comprises individuals, legal entities and public institutions with a bona fide presence in Switzerland. A bona fide presence in Switzerland may be: - Swiss citizenship, or - residence or offices in Switzerland, or - the pursuit of lawful business activities in Switzerland, or - the pursuit of cultural or social activities in Switzerland, or - any other kind of presence that is generally accepted as legitimate for, and conducive to the welfare of, the Swiss community at large. The word .swiss used for the TLD is the best known and most used word for the community itself. The word "Swiss" has no other meanings than those designating the Swiss community as defined above, i.e. relating to Switzerland or its people, institutions, culture etc.

As described in the response to Questions 20(a), two types of conditions must be fulfilled for the right to register a .swiss name. These are: (A) community membership (bona fide presence in Switzerland) and (B) Registration of domain names under the .swiss TLD is restricted to members of the Swiss community and subject to the further requirement that the domain name registrant's presence in Switzerland and the registrant's use of the domain name must be: (1) in compliance with Swiss law, and (2) of a kind that is generally accepted as legitimate, and (3) conducive to the welfare of the Swiss community, and (4) of commensurate quality to the role and importance of the respective domain name, and (5) based on good faith at the time of registration and thereafter. As already mentioned in the answer to Q20c, a bona fide presence in Switzerland (and thus community membership) (A) is a necessary but NOT in itself a sufficient condition for the right to hold any imaginable .swiss domain name. As the policy principles under (B) above show, there are additional requirements specific to the intrinsic role and importance of the domain name in question. These requirements will be defined in detail in specific registration regulations. They concern in particular the nature of the registrant's presence in Switzerland and the registrant's use of the domain name. Again, this will based on the fundamental principle of prudence: starting with a conservative registration policy in order to establish quality of and confidence in the .swiss TLD and then gradually opening up the policy as long as it does not endanger this quality and confidence. The strength of the eligibility validation is kept in line with the importance of the underlying domain name based on the assumption that a typical user would reasonably make. In order to assess whether the use of the domain name is conducive to the welfare of Switzerland, and is commensurate to its role and importance, validation will take into account, among other elements of appreciation, the nature and qualities (and in particular the origin or source) of the products and/or services to be offered on the web site of the applicant. To facilitate validation, registrants can be 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 Switzerland. 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 programs 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. The fundamental rule on which name selection is based is part of the policy principles: the registrant's presence in Switzerland and use of the domain name must be commensurate to role and importance of domain registered. The role and importance of the domain name is based on the meaning that an average user 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 Switzerland 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 (see mechanisms described in the response to the Question 18 c). This process not only covers the identity and legitimacy of the party entrusted with the operation of the domain(s), but also defines obligations with respect to the content to provide for the benefit of the public. As described in clause (B) of the response to Question 20(a), not only the registrant's presence in Switzerland but also the use of the domain must be: (1) in compliance with Swiss law and (2) of a kind that is generally accepted as legitimate and (3) conducive to the welfare of the Swiss community and (4) of commensurate quality to the role and importance of the respective domain name and (5) based on good faith at the time of 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. The purpose of the enforcement program is to protect the credibility of the .swiss TLD for its national and international public. In particular, such program upholds the community-based purpose of the .swiss 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 be 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 .swiss 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 Switzerland, the registration is rejected. If content or use of an existing .swiss 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 .swiss 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 .swiss 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. An agency of the Swiss Confederation will provide 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 that agency.

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 .swiss 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 .swiss names based on various syntactic rules, multiple reserved names lists, and patterns. Prior to the launch of the .swiss 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 .swiss 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. Being a Government itself, the .swiss Registry is aware that other Governments might have interest in registering and using their names in connection with the .swiss TLD to promote their countries or even specific events in Switzerland.

For registration requests from the relevant public authority, the .swiss 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.


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 .swiss Registry does not plan to monitor use of geographic names below the second level (i.e. subdomains used by a .swiss 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 territories.