Questions to and Answers from Applicant for .union

ICANN is in the process of reviewing ICFTU's TLD Application. As outlined in the October 23, 2000 TLD Application Review Update which appears at http://www.icann.org/tlds/tld-review-update-23oct00.htm, ICANN may "gather the additional information [it] require[s] by posing specific questions to applicants in e-mail and requesting a written response."

Keeping in mind the goal to evaluate applications to operate or sponsor new TLDs in as open and transparent a manner as possible, both the questions posed by ICANN and the Applicant's responses will be publicly disclosed on the ICANN website.

Accordingly, ICANN requests your reponses to the following questions:

1. State ICFTU's policy relating to the registration of a company's name under the .union TLD. For example, will the ICFTU allow a person to register [company name].union? If so, please identify and describe in detail the rationale for allowing such a registration. If no such registration will be allowed, please identify and describe in detail the safeguards ICFTU will utilize in ensuring no such registration occurs.

2. State ICFTU's policy relating to the registration of a product name or geographical location under the .union TLD. For example, will the ICFTU allow a person to register [produce name].union or [southamerica].union? If so, please identify and describe in detail the rationale for allowing such a registration. If no such registrations will be allowed, please identify and describe in detail the safeguards ICFTU will utilize in ensuring no such registrations occur.

3. In Section E16 there is an extensive discussion regarding the three criteria for an organisation to satisfy in order to be a bona fide trade union. There is also a statement that "[i]n the vast majority of cases,applications would not be closely tested according to the 'bona fide'criteria mentioned above. Instead a 'fast-track' mechanism would approve the majority of registrants without any need for close scrutiny." Furthermore, your application further states that rapid approval of a registrant requires the express "support from a minimum of one direct member of the 'ICFTU Family'." And further define the ICFTU Family to include 216 national centre affiliates, eleven International Trade Secretariats and the Trade Union Advisory Committee of the OECD. On one hand the bona fide trade union criteria offers an extensive registration restriction yet on the other hand, the fast track procedure appears to do away with the bona fide trade union criteria. Identify and describe in detail the restrictions for determining "bona fide trade union organizations" as provided in Section C5 of your application.

ICFTU Responses:

1. We would first like to point out that no "person" can register in this TLD. Registrations will only be available to bona fide trade union organisations (see section E16 of the proposal for more information on the definition of bona fide trade unions).

Our policy would be as follows:

No specific policy on company names was referred to in the ICFTU proposal, because we do not propose to treat domain name registrations which happen to coincide with company names differently than other strings of characters being registered in the TLD.

The rationale for that policy is as follows:

Companies would specifically not be able to register in the ".union" TLD, since it is only available to bona fide trade union organisations. In drafting this proposal, we tried to respond to the call by ICANN for proposals which "enhance the utility of the DNS". This TLD would do so by guaranteeing to members of the public that ".union" websites carry information only from bona fide trade union organisations, and not from non-trade union entities such as other non-commercial groups, individuals, or employers. For these reasons, a website whose address is in the ".union" TLD would not be confused with the website of a company (or indeed of an individual), since the meaning of the TLD would in itself remove potential confusion.

Furthermore, we would regard the registration of a company name by a trade union organisation as legitimate, and in keeping with existing trade union practices outside the realm of domain name registrations. Trade union organisations often use company names, particularly when their membership is comprised entirely of employees from a single company.

eg. All NTT Workers Union of Japan Delta Air Line Pilots Association (USA) Sindicato de Trabajadores Nacional Nr. 1 de Entel Chile Federacion Nacional de Trabajadores de AASANA (Bolivia) Sindicato de Trabajadores de Cable&Wireless (Panama) Federacion de Trabajadores de CPT-Telefonica del Peru Cable&Wireless (HongKong) Ltd. Staff Assosiation Hong Kong Telephone Co. Ltd. Staff Association Philcom Employees Union (Philipines) Nepal Telecommunication Corporation Workers' Union

Many "world company councils" and "company alliances" exist in relation to a number of multinational companies (eg. Toyota World Company Council, Siemens World Company Council, The Telefonica Alliance).

In addition, it is likely that domain registrations using company names would provide additional utility, since they would contribute to the facilitation of linkages between workers representatives inside companies, particularly in order to facilitate communications with respect to the increasing number of important international framework agreements which have recently been signed between companies and trade union organisations (eg. IKEA, Danone).

2. Policy:

Our policy with respect to product names and geographical locations does not differ from our policy with company names: No specific policy on product names and geographical locations was referred to in the ICFTU proposal, because we do not propose to treat domain name registrations which happen to coincide with company names differently than other strings of characters being registered in the TLD.

The rationale for this is different, however, and is as follows:

Product names: We presume that this question relates to product names which are not the same as the name of the company. Where the name is the same as the name of the company, I refer you to our answer above. Where the product name differs from the name of the company (eg "Windows 98", "Scrabble") we foresee little to no demand for registrations. Even if, perhaps by coincidence, a registration in ".union" coincides with a string corresponding to a product name, a website whose address is in the ".union" TLD would not be confused with the website related to a product name, since the meaning of the TLD (all domain names belonging to bona fide trade union organisations) would in itself remove potential confusion.

Names of geographical locations: We would regard the registration by a trade union organisation of a string coinciding with a geographical location as not only legitimate, but entirely in keeping with existing trade union practices outside the realm of domain name registrations.

Trade union organisations frequently use geographical locations in their names (far more frequently than they use company names in fact). This practice is particularly common among, but not excluded to branch organisations of national trade union centres.

eg. AFL-CIO Minnesota (USA) Nashville Association of Musicians (USA) Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (Zimbabwe) Unió General de Treballadors de Catalunya (Spain) Australian Council of Trade Unions (Australia) UNI Europe (Europe)

3. I agree that there is a certain ambiguity the language of the first statement you quote above. We apologise for this. The "fast track" mechanism is indeed the only mechanism which would be used, and the "bona fide" criteria would always apply. There is no alternative system. Therefore there is no question of identifying which organisations are judged according to one or another system. We described the mechanism as "fast-track" not by way of comparison with a more detailed process, but to draw attention to the mechanism's strongest feature, which is to avoid devoting considerable resources to the painstaking assessment of the credentials of thousands of organisations which are already known to be "bona fide". These organisations will have already met those criteria prior to being admitted, directly, or indirectly, as members of international trade union organisations. Detailed assessments would only be made of organisations whose credentials are challenged by "TLD Trustees". All organisations, therefore, would be obliged to provide the data elements we refer to (Organisation name, contact name, etc), including those organisations which would be pre-approved during the start-up phase (described in E12). In the vast majority of cases (subsequent to the start-up period), organisations would apply to be allowed to make registrations in the TLD, and would be supported by one (or more) TLD Trustee(s), and, where no other TLD Trustee registers an objection, would, without further scrutiny, be accepted as "bona fide". The statement about the majority of the applications not being closely tested according to the "bona fide" criteria means that we foresee challenges to only a very small percentage of the applications. The challenges would take place according to the procedures described in E16 (either during the one month "period of reflection" or at any time subsequent to the granting of the qualification to register in the TLD). The benefit, therefore, of the mechanism proposed is that the workload of the adjudication panel (also described in E16), which would be charged with applying the detailed bona fide criteria, would be restricted to cases where there is disagreement among the TLD Trustees regarding the "bona fide" credentials of an organisation. The approach we are proposing has been extensively discussed, refined and agreed with representatives of the international trade union community.