.versicherung Pre-Register Domain - .versicherung Domain Information

The German national company law (GmbH-Gesetz) defines the GmbH (legal form and type of entity) and has been issued by the German Ministry of Justice. The dotversicherung-registry GmbH is a registered at the public company register (www.handelsregister.de) at the district court in Tostedt (Germany) with the registration number (business ID) HRB 202490. The GmbH Law can be found here: http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gmbhg/index.html

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD is intended to serve the insurance community in the countries Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The .VERSICHERUNG TLD and its domains names shall support suppliers with memorable domain names and facilitate consumers to intuitively find insurance information on the Internet and shall contribute to more quality, reliability and consumer trust in insurance topics on the Internet.

The new domain names available with .VERSICHERUNG are concise and create a unique and individual identity for the community's members. Those providing and looking for information, goods and services can thus intuitively come together. The .VERSICHERUNG domain names strengthen the identification amongst community members, improve communication and make interaction easier, thus providing a stimulus for innovation and development. For both the insurance community as well as consumer .VERSICHERUNG domain names will become an attractive address to visit.

The allocation of .VERSICHERUNG domain names shall incorporate, in a fair and transparent manner, the many and varied interests of the insurance community in the top-level domain .VERSICHERUNG. The .VERSICHERUNG policies shall ensure that all community members may benefit individually by a unique identity with a .VERSICHERUNG domain name.

The registration of .VERSICHERUNG domains is restricted to eligible insurance community members. These members are registered insurance companies, registered insurance agents and intermediaries as well as governmental agencies of the insurance community.

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD is not a "financial TLD" as defined by the HSTLD group since it is not intended to be used primarily to perform financial transactions offered by recognized financial institutions including banks, saving associations, investment houses, and insurance companies. This has been discussed as well with the respective GAC representatives (from Germany, Switzerland and Austria). German authorities are involved in this TLD: In March 2012 the dotversicherung-registry GmbH received an award of the "initiative medium-sized businesses" for innovation and a high value of benefit for medium-sized businesses in Germany. The patrons of this initiative are IBM and the appointee of the German Government for information technology (Bundesbeauftragte für Informationstechnik der Bundesregierung, BSI) in Germany. This certificate has been awarded for the concept of a .VERSICHERUNG TLD to dotversicherung-registry GmbH.

(i)
* A Niche TLD as Specialty *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD and its .VERSICHERUNG domain names are solely dedicated and thereby specialized to create content, facilitate communication and foster business in connection with insurance topics between all parties involved in the insurance business in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The highly regulated insurance community and its commercially oriented members are a clear defined niche.

* Registrant validation as Service Level *

The most important service level of the .VERSICHERUNG namespace is the validation of each registrant of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name if he is a valid member of the .VERSICHERUNG community. The validation will take place directly after registration of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name and the domain name will only become active if the validation was successful. Therefore .VERSICHERUNG domain names will only resolve in the DNS after a registrant is successfully validated.

* Reputation gained by Validation *

Due to its eligibility requirements and the validation procedures the .VERSICHERUNG TLD is a namespace with support of leading organizations and stakeholder from the insurance community in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. It is our aim that such a secure namespace will gain quickly substantial reputation among the insurance community and also customers.

(ii)
* Highly competitive domain names *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD will enhance competition in the global domain name business by introducing a dedicated namespace for the insurance community in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The new .VERSICHERUNG domain names are a valuable alternative to the established national ccTLDs such as .de or .ch and generic TLDs like .com and .net, especially for members of the insurance community. The most important and intuitive domain names in the TLDs (.de, .at, .ch, .com) which are relevant for the insurance business are already taken. Many of those domain names have been registered just to be sold for high prices on the secondary domain name market.

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD will create new business opportunities and foster the development of innovative services for the benefit of the insurance community. With .VERSICHERUNG domain names, the community will have the ability to enhance their search engine rankings by delivering more relevant search results for members and customers. This will lead to more active websites, benefit the whole namespace and increase the position of community members in the global online business. From a user perspective this will result in a quicker and easier way to find relevant information online.

* Differentiation by a unique string *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD and its .VERSICHERUNG domain names are clearly differentiated to existing TLDs, not only due to their descriptive nature which has a clear meaning and value to the targeted community but also due to its restrictions for eligible registrants.

* An innovative quality seal *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD and its .VERSICHERUNG domain names are innovative especially by the quality seal which is offered to all validated domain names (and its registrants). No other TLD so far has added such a high quality and validation seal which gives trust to consumers.

Since only authorized insurance companies, insurance agents and insurance intermediaries are able to register .VERSICHERUNG domain names, the successfully registration of a .VERSICHERUNG is therefore automatically a quality stamp for the registrant.

(iii)
*Namespace fulfills user expectations*

Users searching for content related to Insurance topics have to decide whether the search results really offer content they are looking for. If users are in doubt, they have to click on each search result to check whether the website offers the expected content or not. With .VERSICHERUNG domain names users searching for content related to Insurance topics will experience domain names and related websites that fulfill their expectations.

*Trusted namespace*

Since non-eligible registrants won't be able to register domain names under .VERSICHERUNG, users will get the certainty that only members of the community will be able to register and operate a .VERSICHERUNG domain name. They can trust .VERSICHERUNG domain names due to eligible registrants and their validated eligibility according to the restrictions of the insurance industry.

*Easy to find*

Furthermore the intuitive and descriptive domain names under a "speaking TLD" like .VERSICHERUNG will enable consumers to navigate and search more easily for insurance information on the Internet. It is also expected that search engines will give ranking preference to .VERSICHERUNG domain names compared to other TLDs. This will increase the visibility along with the marketing efforts for .VERSICHERUNG by insurance community members.

*Clear meaning*

The string VERSICHERUNG will clearly differentiate itself from many specialized existing and new niche TLDs because of its memorability. .VERSICHERUNG has a clear and unique meaning to German speaking registrants and Internet users worldwide.

(iv)
Beyond the provisions of the New gTLD Agreement the following policies are imposed: The .VERSICHERUNG TLD has the mission to serve the insurance community in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

* Eligibility *

According to the .VERSICHERUNG registration policies, the following entities can register a second-level domain name under .VERSICHERUNG. The entity must be based in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein or Switzerland:

- Governmental organizations regulating the insurance industry
- Organizations and individuals (sole proprietors) that are recognized and registered members of the insurance industry community:
- - Primary insurers, reinsurers and social insurers with an authorization within the legal framework for the insurance industry in the respective countries.
- - Insurance agents and intermediaries with an authorization within the legal framework for the insurance industry in the respective countries.
- - At an official public register registered associations and educational institutions of the insurance industry.

The eligibility will be determined by a validation of the registrant of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name. It will be checked in the official and public registers of insurance intermediaries if the registrant is a member of the insurance community.

* Name selection *

The registration policies state that any types of second-level names may be registered in the .VERSICHERUNG name space. In detail the second-level domain names are defined as:
- Not being restricted on the second-level (no restrictions like .co.uk).
- A second-level domain consists of numbers (0-9), hyphens, Latin characters (a-z) or the extended European Latin character set.
- A second-level domain must not have a hyphen at the 3rd and 4th position at the same time.
- Large and small characters are not different.
- The length of a second-level domain varies between minimal 1 and maximal 63 characters.

Initially reserved and excluded from registration are all second-level domain names defined in Spec 5 of the Draft New gTLD Registry Agreement of the Applicant Guidebook (Version 11.1.2012).
The registrant agrees not to register domain names that violate ethical or criminal law principles (illegal, violent, racist, ethnically offensive, harmful to minors, indecent, offensive or domain names that violate morality and public order) or may hurt the reputation of the .VERSICHERUNG namespace. In addition, domain names are not permitted that use the words or parts of words that could generally perceived as offensive. These include insulting, abusive or agitational words or words or word elements, which could violate the ethical, religious or moral sensibilities of Internet users.

* Registration Agreement *

The contract for the registration of a .VERSICHERUNG domain is entered into between the registrant and a registrar who is accredited by ICANN. The registry has no contractual relationship with the registrant. With the completion of the registration agreement the registrant commits to the registrar for the recognition of all ICANN consensus policies and registration policies and ensures that they are complied with from then on.

* Content/Use *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD has both content and use restrictions:
- Content: .VERSICHERUNG domain names must only be used for purposes solely dedicated to insurance topics.
- Use: The registrant must use the .VERSICHERUNG domain name within six months after the initial registration, whereas use is defined in the .VERSICHERUNG registration policies.

* Transfer of Domain Names *

Domain Names can be transferred only to entities who are eligible to register .VERSICHERUNG domain names. As far as the allocation of .VERSICHERUNG domain names is not subject to the universal, but one of the special registration procedures, the initial registration and transfer may be subject to special conditions.

* Enforcement *

The dotversicherung-registry GmbH will have a team of legal personnel in place solely dedicated to the validation of the owners of registered .VERSICHERUNG domain names and the enforcement in the case that an owner validation fails. Our validation procedure has been developed in connection with ICANN accredited registrars and the dotversicherung-registry GmbH advisory board, whose members represents the community. The validation will take place directly after registration of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name. The domain name will only get an active status if the validation was successful (first level of enforcement). Further levels of enforcement include appeals under the .VERSICHERUNG Eligibility Requirement Dispute Resolution Policy (ERDRP) as well as court appeals under URDP, URS or PDDRP or national courts. Our anti-abuse policies are described in detail in our response to the technical questions.

* WHOIS *

The administrative contact of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name shown in the WHOIS database (Admin Contact) has to be a natural person who as an agent for the domain owner (Registrant Contact) has the right and obligation to make binding decisions on all matters concerning the domain. For each .VERSICHERUNG domain only one administrative contact can be named. Domain registrant and administrative contact can be one and the same natural person. The consent of the registrant to publish ICANN compliant registrant data in the WHOIS database will be granted with the approval of the registration policy.

* Start-up Schedule *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD will have a straight forward start-up schedule with the phases noted below:

Phase 1 - Reservation and blocking of names for defined interest groups of the insurance community including
- names of insurance companies in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland
- names for the representation of the interests of the insurance (associations, etc.)
- names for the TLD operation, namespace management, marketing and purpose of the TLD
- names according to ICANN specification 5 (2-letter, country names, others)
- premium names
- blocked names

Some categories of reserved names may be released for registration between entry of the TLD in the IANA root and the start of the Sunrise.

Phase 2 - Sunrise under the Trademark Clearinghouse rules, eligible are all registrants whose trademark was validated by the TMCH, eligibility restrictions to community members only, 30 days duration, First come - First serve allocation.

Phase 3 - Landrush, eligibility restrictions to community members only, First come - First serve allocation

Phase 4 - Auction of premium domain names at a later stage, eligibility restrictions to community members only.

(v)
Since .VERSICHERUNG domain names can only be registered by eligible members of the insurance community the .VERSICHERUNG TLD will not offer or allow privacy of confidential information of registrants to ensure that only eligible registrants hold a .VERSICHERUNG domain name. Due to the validation of each .VERSICHERUNG domain name it is essential that the WHOIS data of each registrant are visible to the public, although a captcha module prevents from automated inquiries. Bulk access to WHOIS data will not be allowed according to ICANN specifications. In addition dotversicherung-registry GmbH will establish an abuse point of contact.

(vi)
* Outreach to the community *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD is supported by a well-defined insurance community with a clear geographical reach in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Already around 2 years before the new TLD application window opened, we started the outreach to discuss our concept, with the goal to unite a reasonable part of the community for discussions and feedback on our project and supporting our application. As a result of our outreach the .VERSICHERUNG TLD has already gained relevant awareness within the insurance community including leading press publications, congresses and other communication events of the insurance branch. We will continue to communicate the benefits of .VERSICHERUNG domains names within the community. We believe that the broad outreach program, which is part of our marketing efforts, will help us to achieve the projected benefits of .VERSICHERUNG. (See also our press releases: http://www.dotversicherung.de/aktuelles/pressejournal)

* Management belongs to the community *

In addition the managers of the dotversicherung-registry GmbH belong to the community themselves. The CEO, Axel Schwiersch, started his career more than 25 years ago as an apprentice of an insurance agent and since then works in the insurance industry. He worked for different stakeholders like insurance companies, insurance agents and insurance brokers, and set-up his own business in the insurance community more than 10 years ago.

* Outreach via existing relations of registry backend provider *

Nic.at, the parent company of our registry back-end provider TLD-BOX GmbH, operates the ccTLD ".at" since more than 10 years. Nic.at has established contacts and relations to most registrars in the geographic region which relates to the .VERSICHERUNG community. According to nic.at, more than 400 registrars are connected to nic.at. They know the SRS, systems and staff of nic.at. Therefore we are confident that nic.at will support our outreach activities, especially to German-speaking registrars. Furthermore nic.at started already with outreach about .VERSICHERUNG as a potential new namespace through their own communication activities.

(i)
The .VERSICHERUNG domain name allocation plan has several phases:
1. Reservation phase - Reservation of domain names for community members, ICANN and other Registry related purposes by dotversicherung-registry GmbH.

2. During the 30 days Trademark Clearinghouse Sunrise phase we are planning to allocate domain names on a first-come/first-serve basis.
For the Sunrise Phase we'll incorporate the respective rules set forth by ICANN for use of the Trademark Clearinghouse. Trademark claims service according to ICANN specifications will be implemented to minimize costs and resources for trademark owners.

3. During the Landrush phase we are planning to allocate domain names on a first-come/first-serve basis to minimize social costs and time resources of registrants.

4. A defined list of premium domain names will be allocated in a later phase. A fixed-price allocation for premium names might be deployed to avoid speculation and enable a fair and transparent allocation of domain names.

(ii)
Since registrants of .VERSICHERUNG domain names are exclusively businesses in the insurance community, we are not planning, at this stage, any cost benefit programs. End customers, who are not member of the .VERSICHERUNG community, are not allowed to register .VERSICHERUNG domain names. It is expected that the most efficient cost benefit of .VERSICHERUNG domain names for the intended commercially orientated .VERSICHERUNG community derives from the added value of short, descriptive and intuitive domain names and the expected ranking advantage in search engines.

(iii)
.VERSICHERUNG domains will only be available through ICANN accredited registrars. The registry will provide non-discriminatory access to registry services to registrars which are accredited by ICANN.
Domain name registrations are offered for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar.
We will reserve the right to reduce pricing for promotional purposes in a manner available to all accredited registrars. Registry Operator reserves the right to work with ICANN to initiate an increase in the wholesale price of domains if required. Registry Operator will provide reasonable notice to the registrars of any approved price increase.

*** Community Delineation *** The string has been mentioned in the medieval times (14th century) according to the GRIMM dictionary: http://woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB/?lemma=Versicherung. The string "versicherung" has a clear meaning, relating to the service offering of community members, according to Wikipedia "Vereinbarung, bei der eine Partei meist gegen ein Entgelt der anderen bei Eintritt bestimmter schädigender Ereignisse einen Ausgleich des Schadens zusagt" (Agreement, where one party offers compensation for an harmful event which has been previously defined and contracted, to another party). The insurance community in the German speaking countries Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, which is the "Community" for our community-based application, exists for approximately 500 years. The setting of clearly defined community actors and members of the insurance community has not changed over that time and is expected not to change in the future. The insurance community as defined above is regulated and clearly delineated, since the membership to the community is restricted by laws and oversight bodies under governmental influence or operation within the countries concerned. Members of the insurance community are registered by various measures, ranging from formal accreditation of insurance providers at a governmental agency, to registration of agents at an official public insurance agents register or a formal acknowledgement as registered entity in the interest of the insurance community. The insurance community is well organized with all kinds of measures, associations and organizations a very large branch is usually making up. Governmental regulatory bodies themselves are completing the insurance community. ** Community Organization ** The insurance community consists of the German speaking countries Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland (the respective countries) which make up the community for the .VERSICHERUNG community TLD and are eligible to register .VERSICHERUNG domain names: * 3 layers of insurance community * First layer: Governmental organizations in the countries regulating the insurance industry make up the first layer of the community. These organizations are - FMA, Oesterreichische Finanzmarktaufsicht, Austria (www.fma.gv.at) - BAFIN, Bundesamt fuer Finanzen, Germany (www.bafin.de) - FMA-LI, Finanzmarktaufsicht Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein (www.fma-li.li) - FINMA, Eidgenoessischen Finanzmarktaufsicht, Switzerland (www.finma.ch) These organizations are members of the .VERSICHERUNG community and eligible to register .VERSICHERUNG domain names. Second layer: The following organizations (and sole proprietors) are recognized and officially registered members of the .VERSICHERUNG community: - Insurance companies with an authorization within the legal framework for the insurance industry in the respective countries. - Insurance agents and insurance intermediaries with an authorization within the legal framework for the insurance industry in the respective countries. * Insurance companies * An insurance company in Germany, Austria, Switzerland or Liechtenstein usually has to exist in the form of a company (insurance company) or a public institution. The central directive of federal law is the law on the supervision of Insurance companies (Insurance Supervision Act). The Insurance Supervision Act governs, among other things approval, business, legal forms, and investment oversight. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein there are about 800 licensed insurers. * Insurance agents and salesmen * The European Insurance Mediation Directive was published on 15 Jan. 2003 in the EU Official Journal (Directive 2002/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 Dec. 2002 on insurance mediation). Third layer: Official public registers for insurance agents and salesmen and registered associations in the respective countries. * Official public registers * Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have successfully implemented the Insurance Mediation Directive into their national law. Each of these countries manages its own official register of insurance intermediaries which are online accessible: -Germany: http://www.vermittlerregister.org, http://www.vermittlerregister.info -Austria: http://versicherungsvermittler.brz.gv.at -Switzerland: http://register.vermittleraufsicht.ch -Liechtenstein: http://register.fma-li.li * Community associations * The Germany-based insurance companies are organized in the German Insurance Association (GDV).The Swiss Insurance Association (SVV) represents the interests of insurance companies in Switzerland. The insurance companies in Austria are organized in the Austrian Insurance Association (VVÖ). The insurance companies in Liechtenstein are organized in the Liechtenstein Insurance Association (LVV). Intermediaries and Insurance agents are represented, among others, by the Germany-based association BVK (Bundesverband Deutscher Versicherungskaufleute). Further associations represent the community members. ** Establishment of Community ** The idea and practice of insurances goes back to the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC and was invented in Chinese and Babylonian merchants. The modern insurance industry and by this the insurance community as we know has evolved in Europe during the 14th century. Therefore there is no date of formal organization of the community itself. Insurance companies first emerged in the mid-17th century. These companies were mostly specialized in the fire and (sea) transport insurance. The first professional insurance companies were founded in Germany because of an initiative of the state: The Hamburg Fire Fund (1676) and the Berlin Fire Society (1718). Today the insurance community is defined by a set of industry players (the community as defined before) and is essential for the effective operation of a modern economy, protecting people and companies against uncertainty associated with every day events. The community has more than 450.000 employees, and more than 450 million contracts only in Germany. It covers a wide range of business and consumer needs, from insuring a business or home, preparing for retirement, insuring major catastrophe risks such as earthquakes or managing flood risks as a result of climate change. *Sales activities* The direct sale of insurance products by the insurance companies itself adds up only to a small percentage of the whole market. The vast majority of insurance products are sold by insurance brokers and insurance agents. These brokers and agents are divided into two groups of insurance intermediaries, the tied insurance intermediaries agents (representatives of a insurance company) and the Insurance Broker. *Marketing activities* The role of advertising, depending on the type of the insurance company, has a broad spectrum. Some large insurers using advertising mainly to increase awareness, brand value and company image. For insurance companies with direct contacts to customers, advertising is also often necessary to highlight specific product features, like cost-effective products and latest test results. But the greatest importance in the insurance industry is still the personal sales promotion. *Activities of Associations* The most important task of insurance associations in general is to represent the insurance companies, insurance agents and insurance intermediaries in relation to political and social institutions (Lobbying). They develop positions on political and social issues and represent the interests of their members. Since insurance associations have a high level of professional competence through their members, they advise stakeholders with regards to policies related to insurance topics (neo-corporatism).

* Management are members of the community * The executives and managers of the applicant dotversicherung-registry GmbH have been working for years in the German speaking insurance industry having business relations to all major insurance providers. The CEO of dotversicherung-registry GmbH, Axel Schwiersch, is a registered insurance agent at the official public insurance register. * Relations to any community organizations * The dotversicherung-registry GmbH is supported for its .VERSICHERUNG TLD application among others by the following organizations which are part of the insurance community: - Bundesverband Deutscher Versicherungskaufleute e.V. (BVK) (the largest European association of insurance agent) - Helvetia Versicherung (oldest Swiss based insurer, founded in 1858) - DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG (German based insurer) - Sueddeutsche Krankenversicherung (German based insurer) - Provinzial Versicherung (German based insurer of the Sparkasse bank) - Quantum Leben AG (Liechtenstein based insurer) - Zurich Versicherung Deutschland (Major European Insurer) - many other insurance agents and insurance intermediaries who give their support to the .VERSICHERUNG TLD through official statements or support-letter.(For statements online see: http://www.dotversicherung.de/was-ist-versicherung/wir-sind-fuer-dotversicherung/entries). * Relations to the community and its constituent parts/groups * The management team of dotversicherung-registry GmbH is community members themselves. The dotversicherung-registry GmbH is working for its .VERSICHERUNG TLD application with the following organizations and individuals being part of the insurance community: - Prof. Dr. Schwintowski, Humboldt University Berlin, Institute of business law and economic law (the leading academic for insurance law topics in Germany) (http://schwintowski.rewi.hu-berlin.de/). Prof. Dr. Schwintowski serves as the patron to the .VERSICHERUNG TLD. - The Advisory Board consists of senior representatives from the german speaking part of the Insurance industry. The advisory board has advised the dotversicherung-registry GmbH in the process of policy making. In particular, the registrant eligibility requirements policies were developed in collaboration with the advisory board. * Award-winning concept* In March 2012, the dotversicherung-registry GmbH received an award of the "initiative medium-sized businesses" for innovation and a high value of benefit for medium-sized businesses in Germany. The patrons of this initiative are IBM and the appointee of the German Government for information technology (Bundesbeauftragte für Informationstechnik der Bundesregierung, BSI) in Germany. This certificate has been awarded for the concept of a .VERSICHERUNG TLD to dotversicherung-registry GmbH. * Accountability mechanisms of the applicant to the community * The dotversicherung-registry GmbH has already introduced or plans to establish mechanisms to be accountable to the insurance community. These include: - A multi-stakeholder Advisory Board (already existing) - An ombudsman (already existing, Stephan Michaelis, professional lawyer specializing in insurance law, http://www.kanzleimichaelis.de) - Distribution of annual reports of the company and the .VERSICHERUNG TLDs within the insurance community (planned) - Educational papers, speeches and other public awareness on the .VERSICHERUNG TLD (already existing)

*Eligible registrants* Eligible registrants in the .VERSICHERUNG TLD are based in the countries of Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland: - Organizations and sole proprietors that are recognized and officially registered members of the public insurance industry community: - - Primary insurers, reinsurers and social insurers with an authorization within the legal framework for the insurance industry in the respective countries - - Insurance agents and insurance intermediaries with an authorization within the legal framework for the insurance industry in the respective countries - - At an official public register registered associations of the insurance industry *Intended end-users* Intended end-users of the .VERSICHERUNG TLD are the registrants and consumers interested in insurance topics. *Related activities* The dotversicherung-registry GmbH has carried out and intends to carry out its activities in service of this purpose. The dotversicherung-registry GmbH has started already in early 2010 with an outreach program to inform the insurance industry about the upcoming .VERSICHERUNG TLD and will continue this approach by press releases, speeches, publications, an open dialogue with all stakeholder and events. A large campaign to reach consumers will start after approval of .VERSICHERUNG with beacon .VERSICHERUNG domain names operated by well-known registrants. (Press releases: http://www.dotversicherung.de/aktuelles/pressejournal ) *Explanation of how the purpose is of a lasting nature* The .VERSICHERUNG TLD is intended to become an integral part of the insurance-based Internet content in the German speaking countries. The insurance industry is a long lasting community. This will not change at any time in the near future. Therefore any party representing this community has a long lasting nature. Since insurance industry members are deeply involved at .VERSICHERUNG, for instance by the Advisory Board, the long lasting nature of the .VERSICHERUNG TLD will be supported.

* Relationship to the established name, if any, of the community * The string .VERSICHERUNG is solely connected and matches the name of the insurance industry in the German speaking countries. It has no other meaning - neither to the community and customers - nor to the general public beyond identifying the community and its products offered to the public described in the articulated community-based purpose of the TLD. * Relationship to the identification of community members * The string .VERSICHERUNG identifies the insurance community members in the German speaking countries since consumers and the public are aware of the highly regulated nature of the insurance industry and its members (the community). * Any connotations the string may have beyond the community * The string .VERSICHERUNG has no other meaning to the community, consumers and the public beyond identifying the community described in with the articulated community-based purpose of the TLD.

* Eligibility * According to the .VERSICHERUNG registration policies eligible registrants to register a second-level name in .VERSICHERUNG TLD are based in the countries of Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland and are in detail: - Governments - Governmental organizations regulating the insurance industry - Organizations and individuals (sole proprietors) that are recognized and registered members of the insurance industry community: - - Primary insurers, reinsurers and social insurers with an authorization within the legal frameworks for the insurance industry in the respective countries. - - Insurance agents and insurance intermediaries with an authorization within the legal framework for the insurance industry in the respective countries - - At an official public register registered associations, educational institutions and service providers of the insurance industry The eligibility will be determined by a validation of the owner of each registered domain name. It will be checked in the public registers of insurance intermediaries if the registrant is a member of the insurance community. * Name selection * The registration policies state that any types of second-level names may be registered in the .VERSICHERUNG name space. In detail the second-level domain names are defined as: - Not being restricted on the second-level (no restrictions like .co.uk). - A second-level domain consists of numbers (0-9), hyphens, Latin characters (a-z) or the extended European Latin character set. - A second-level domain must not have a hyphen at the 3rd and 4th position at the same time. - Large and small characters are not different. - The length of a second-level domain varies between minimal 1 and maximal 63 characters. - Initially reserved and excluded from registration are all second-level names defined in Spec 5 of the Draft New gTLD Registry Agreement of the Applicant Guidebook (Version 11.1.2012). * Content/Use * The .VERSICHERUNG TLD has both, content and use restrictions: - Content: .VERSICHERUNG domain names must only be used for purposes solely dedicated to insurance topics. - Use: The registrant must have started the use of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name within six months after the registration in respect to the content and use restrictions of a .VERSICHERUNG domain. * Enforcement * The dotversicherung-registry GmbH will have a team of legal personnel in place solely dedicated on the validation of the owners of registered .VERSICHERUNG domain names and the enforcement in the case an owner validation fails. The validation of a registrant takes place in the following cases: - New registration of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name - Changes of the owner data (eg. Ownerchange) of a domain name - At least once a year even if nothing has changed in the owner data The re-validation ensures that .VERSICHERUNG domain names are only owned by eligible community members. The re-validation is performed annually for each registrant. Our validation procedure has been developed in connection with ICANN accredited registrars and the dotversicherung-registry GmbH advisory board. The first validation will take place directly after the initial registration of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name and the domain name will only become active if the validation was successful (first level of enforcement). Further levels of enforcement include appeals under the .VERSICHERUNG Eligibility Requirement Dispute Resolution Policy (ERDRP) as well as court appeals under URDP or national courts. Our anti-abuse policies are described in detail in our response to the technical questions.

We will protect names as per the requirements in the New TLD Registry Agreement (Specification 5, paragraph 5) by reserving the country and territory names at the second level and at all other levels within the TLD operator make registrations. A list of those names will be compiled and published to relevant audiences before the TLD is introduced. These domains will be blocked following the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice "Principles regarding new gTLDs", at no cost to the relevant organization, so that no parties may register them as a domain name.
Furthermore the country names of Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland in German language will be initially reserved (Oesterreich +IDN, Deutschland, Liechtenstein, Schweiz). The procedure to release the names will include the consultation with the respective GAC members as described in Specification 5.
Together with the respective governments and ccTLD managers as well as with ICANN we will comply with any procedures and set-up agreements by which the above reserved domain(s) may be released to the Registry Operator and may be made available for registration consecutively by eligible parties.