Application number: 1-878-22942 for VIP Registry Pte. Ltd.

VIP Registry Pte. Ltd.

Lot 2-2, Incubator 1,
Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil
Kuala Lumpur 57000
MY

+60389966788

+60389968788

http:⁄⁄www.viptld.com

Mr. Ying-Hao-Lester Kum

VP, Policy and Business Development

+6591879532

+60389968788

lester.kum@registryasp.com

Mr. Tuan Khai Tan

Chief Executive Officer

+60389966788

+60389968788

tk.tan@registryasp.com

Private Limited Company

The specific national law that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a) is The Republic of Singapore. The Memorandum and Articles of Association of VIP Registry Pte. Ltd. which also includes the Companies Act can be accessed at http:⁄⁄db.tt⁄WCsh0Aqz
Attached is a copy of the business profile of VIP Registry Pte. Ltd. obtained from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) in Singapore which is evidence of the applicantʹs establishment as identified in 8(a) above.

Not Available

Qinetics Solutions Berhad

Chang Yit Fei
Director
Kum Ying Hao Lester
Director
Tan Tuan Khai
Director

Kum Ying Hao Lester
VP, Policy and Business Development
Tan Chang Boon
Manager, Finance and Administration
Tan Tuan Khai
Chief Executive Officer

Qinetics Solutions Berhad
Not Applicable

VIP

Not Available

VIP Registry is applying for a normal ASCII string and do not foresee any operational or rendering problems arising from the use of the applied-for gTLD string. VIP Registry has also tested out the use of the string in a private DNS root setup using popular web browsers and email applications with no problems. 

The mission of VIP Registry is to provide a platform for creating and promoting a better organized online environment for luxury goods and premium services.

Answer i) The .VIP TLD appeals to all industries and businesses that desire for premium customers.

Specialties:
.VIP TLD aims to be preferred TLD choice for businesses and organizations that offer luxury goods and premium services for the affluent Internet users. .VIP TLD would be easily associated in the brandings of businesses and organizations targeted not only such specific products and services, but also the specific group of customers.

.VIP TLD will carry a very strong intuitive association of brands with luxury goods and premium services that it provides consistent brandings across online and offline media. For instance, VISA could roll out a campaign for VIP customers using VISA.VIP, where prospective customers could type in “VISA.VIP” at their browser to check out the details of the offer. 

Service Levels:
VIP Registry provides a platform for Registrars and Service Providers to value-add and upsell solutions and services. For example, Registrars and Service Providers could bundle the following services with the registration of .VIP domain names:
- Email Reputation services where emails with the associated .VIP domain names will be whitelist for email filtering gateway worldwide. This will minimize and eliminate false positive rate for emails of using the bundled service;
- Email Filtering service, where emails with the associated .VIP domain names will be filtered against spams and virus; 
- Anycast DNS service for the .VIP domain names; and
- SSL digital certificates.

All these services are optional and can be bundled into the offerings of .VIP domain names by the Registrars and Service Providers with the aim to improve service availability and reputation of the website or services in association with the .VIP domain names.

Answer ii) The .VIP TLD will add to the current space as follows:

Premium Space:
Most of the existing TLDs are positioned for the mass market. .VIP TLD is created to fill in the vacuum for premium name space where the .VIP domain names can be branded for better reputation and service level for the premium services and luxury goods.

Market Oriented:
Most of the existing TLDs are categorized to reflect the identity of the businesses and⁄or organization that uses the domain names. For instance, ‘.com’ represent for company and ‘.sg’ for corporation or individual from Singapore. VIP Registry provides a different dimension for online marketing approach, where it reflects a proposition desires for premium customers. 

Highly ‘brand-able’:
.VIP TLD is uniquely different from the plain informative strings of the existing gTLDs. .VIP TLD will alleviate the profile of a proposition for a premium target audience

Answer iii) The .VIP TLD has the following goals in terms of user experience:

Premium Service Zone:
Users at large will be able to recognize websites with .VIP TLD are providers of luxury goods and premium services. For instance, Mastercard could create an online marketing campaign for their platinum card prospects using .VIP domain name (e.g. Mastercard.VIP). It is intuitive to users that Mastercard.VIP is a VIP zone for Mastercard customers who are high spenders that demand for higher service quality. 

Consistent Branding:
Websites using existing gTLDs could look forward to ‘upgrade’ to .VIP TLDs if they want to create a premium offerings but retain their brands. For example, Amazon may create Amazon.VIP for premium e-commerce customers. In this case, Amazon may not need to create a new branding for their target premium customers. The users at large will recognize the consistent branding of Amazon and the .VIP zone is a segment of Amazon that offers luxury goods and premium services.

Answer iv) Below is a complete description of the .VIP TLD registration policies in support of the goals listed above:

VIP Registry adopts Generic Registration Policy (like .com, .info). .VIP TLD serves as a namespace platform for Service Providers and Registrars to bundle value-added services (e.g. email filtering, email reputation etc) to create a safer and organized online environment for the end users. Such bundled services are beyond the scope of the intended registration policies. 

VIP Registry will accredit a number of registrars, for the registration and other domain name operations such as renew, update, transfer, delete etc of .VIP domain names. A list of accredited registrars will be prominently displayed on the VIP Registry website.

The composition of a domain name shall contain a string of minimum 1 (one) character and can contain up to a maximum of 63 (sixty-three) characters, excluding the .VIP TLD extension. A guideline of the characters accepted by VIP Registry includes:
- The alphabets from “A” to “Z”. There will be no distinction between upper-case and lower-case characters i.e. “A” is treated as “a” and vice-versa;
- The numerals from “0” to “9”; and
- The hyphen character. It shall not occupy the beginning, end or the third and⁄or fourth character of a domain name.

VIP Registry will not impose any eligibility requirements on the registration of .VIP domain names. All registration of .VIP domain names must be made in the form and manner prescribed by VIP Registry from time to time. Registrants must comply with all rules, policies, procedures and guidelines of .VIP domain names in respect of registration. VIP Registry may amend such rules, policies, procedures and guidelines from time to time. VIP Registry will ensure that such changes are communicated to its registrants on a timely basis.

.VIP domain names are allocated on a “first-come-first-serve basis”, provided the information submitted is complete and all rules, policies, procedures and guidelines relating to the registration have been compiled with. VIP Registry may cancel or suspend a registration accepted by a registrar in its sole and absolute discretion should VIP Registry determine that the registration is not in conformity with VIP Registry’s rules, policies, procedures and guidelines. Each of the registrant and registrar agrees that VIP Registry shall not be responsible for any loss or damages arising out of the rejection and⁄or cancellation of the registration.

The registrant shall provide to his registrar with complete and accurate information and maintain this information during the term of the domain name registration. The failure of a registrant to provide, promptly update or respond to inquires from the registrar in regards to complete and accurate information may constitute to a material breach of the Registration Agreement and shall be a basis for cancellation of the domain name registration.

VIP Registry shall not be involved in any dispute that the registrant may have with a third-party. Any dispute arising from the registration and use of a .VIP domain name shall be determined in accordance with the abuse handling mechanism in Question 28. 

Answer v) The proposed .VIP TLD will impose measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users. 

Firstly, all accredited registrars are required to abide by a Code of Practice established by the registry to be used in conjunction with the Registry-Registrar Agreement and all rules, policies, procedures and guidelines published by the registry.

The Code of Practice is a compulsory set of principles and approaches to market conduct for all accredited registrars and their appointed resellers. The objective of the Code of Practice is to promote and protect the interests of the domain name industry, registrants and domain name registrars by: 
a) Establishing minimum standards for dealings between domain name registrars and registrants; 
b) ensuring that registrants receive accurate, complete and timely information concerning domain name activities including, but not limited to registrations, renewals, transfers and solicitations; 
c) Preventing practices that undermine the reputation of the industry and the interests of registrants.

It is mandatory for all domain name registrars to comply with the code of practice herein without exception.
 
The Code of Practices addresses data privacy of registrants and states the following:
“Domain name registrars must not disclose the registrant’s domain data information, including, but not limited to the domain name, registrant, contact persons, name servers, registration, and expiry and billing information to any third party for any reason or purpose.”

Alleged breaches of the Code of Practice will be dealt with severely under the registry’s Complaints Policy. A breach of the Code of Practice is also a breach under the Registry-Registrar Agreement and may result in the suspension or termination of the registrar’s accreditation.

Secondly, an acceptable use policy shall be implemented by the registry in regards to the WHOIS service. The acceptable use policy shall clarify that the information published in the WHOIS service is only for informational purposes and can only be used for lawful purposes. Users are strictly prohibited to use the information published in the WHOIS service for the following purposes, but not limited to:
a) Advertising and⁄or marketing purposes;
b) Unsolicited communication purposes via email or otherwise;
c) Spamming or speculative purposes;
d) Commercial purposes;
e) Illegal purpose; and
f) Any other abusive purposes. 

Any user that is caught abusing the WHOIS service for unlawful purposes will be reported to the relevant authorities for further actions. This will be on a best effort attempt as not every country has implemented relevant policies in regards to SPAM and⁄or use of public information for commercial, illegal and other abusive purposes.

Lastly, two preventive measures can be adopted by the registry to prevent automated scripts from data-mining from the WHOIS service. The measures are as follows:
a) Implement the use of an Image Verification Check (IVC) on web-based WHOIS services where a user is required to type in a random word or phrase that is shown to the user in the form of a graphical picture. The principle is that machines cannot read the words in a graphical picture and only a real person can enter the word or phrase successfully. The technology for IVC has advanced quite a bit over the past few year and is still very effective against data-mining robots today; and
b) Limit the number of WHOIS queries per hour for a particular IP. This helps to thwart data-mining attempts.

Answer vi) The outreach and communication program will certainly help to create public awareness about the projected benefits of .VIP TLD for a safe and better organized online environment for luxury goods and premium services. 

Overview of the Outreach and Communications Program

The objective of the Program is to establish .VIP TLD as the home of all providers of luxury goods and premium services, and set a strong foundation for viral marketing through early adopters of .VIP TLD.

The targets of the Program are general consumers, adopters of .VIP TLD and Channels (i.e. Registrars), for the reasons of:
- General Consumers (Public Users) – General consumers will be aware of .VIP TLD as a specific zone for luxury goods and premium services. They could expect higher services levels and values in exchange of higher cost; 

- Adopters (Registrants) – Through the Program, the early adopters will reap the benefits and uniqueness of the .VIP TLD. With the increase of usage of .VIP domain names, the viral impact of the benefits will be multiplied; and

- Channels (Registrars) – The Program will bring awareness to the Channels about the opportunities to value-add on the various bundled services to make .VIP TLD a better environment for luxury goods and premium services. It promotes innovation among Channels to bring additional services to enhance security, availability and reputation.

The Program can be segregated into 2 main parts, namely:
- Marketing Campaign – to bring awareness of VIP Registry positioning and awareness of its projected benefit among adopters and channels; and 
- Public Relation – to educate the public about the positioning of VIP Registry and benefits attached with .VIP domain names. 

The Key Result Areas (KRAs) for the Program would be the financial indicators (sales and profits) and the volume of live sites using .VIP domain names. The VIP Registry will constantly monitor and review its approach for the Program.

Marketing Campaign

The marketing campaign for VIP Registry consists of:
- Outreach to Intellectual Property Communities;
- Campaign Support Material; and
- Channel Reward Programs.
 
Outreach to Intellectual Property (IP) Communities

- Association with the Communities
During the initial phase of the campaign, the Registry will reach out the IP community to raise awareness of .VIP TLD. The primary effort shall aim to establish ‘co-marketing’ initiative with key associations that have global influence to their regional counterparts, where they have conferences and events for outreach to their respective communities.

- Advertising
VIP Registry could participate in the activities of the IP community by advertising in the associations’ newsletter, magazines and websites. 

- Trade Shows
The VIP Registry will participate in the IP community trade shows to build awareness and preference for .VIP domain names among the community members. 

Support Material for Marketing Campaign

The VIP Registry will develop support material for marketing campaign for its Channels (i.e. Registrars). The marketing material will be helpful for registrars simply because:
- It saves time for registrar to create similar material;
- The Registry could portray a consistent message for .VIP domain names; and
- To be used as training material for registrars and their channels to market .VIP domain names. 

The marketing material shall consist of consistent content, message, diagram and taglines for:
- Presentation – Standard boiler-plate that spells out the information about .VIP domain names and its benefits;
- Press articles – Contents for joint press release with Channels;
- Website – Incorporate website contents of standard FAQ, ‘Why .VIP?’, benefits and etc.;
- Banners – Wide array of banner choices with different taglines for Registrars to choose;
- Newsletter – Contents for periodic opt-in newsletters to be shared among Registrars and IP community associations;
- Email – Contents to be incorporated within email communications by the Registrars to their clients for converting or upselling their prospects or existing clients; and
- Success Cases – A listing of ‘live’ sites that are using .VIP domain names, with short overview of the credential of these sites.

Channel Reward Program 

The VIP Registry will develop a Channel Reward Program with the following characteristics:
- Broad-base – We insist on equal treatment to all registrars, regardless of their size;
- Growth-base – We will reward Registrars based on the percentage of growth, benchmarked on its existing size or regional volume; and
- Time-bound – All reward program shall be time-bound (e.g. monthly or quarterly). 

The reward program can also be in the form of Marketing Rebates, where Registrars conduct marketing activities according the guideline given by the VIP Registry. Upon completion of the activities with performance assurance, the Registry shall reimburse partially or fully on the marketing expenses in association with the activity.

The VIP Registry will make use of the channel reward features incorporate in the Qinetics-RegistryASP SRS application that meets the above mentioned characteristics. We strongly emphasize on quality growth to .VIP domain names that results in active websites. We will reward Registrars who deliver more growth in quality registration of .VIP domain names.

Public Relation (PR) Program

The PR Program aims to educate the general public about the usage of .VIP domain names and its associated benefits. It also serves to establish the brand recognition of .VIP domain names as the online presence for luxury goods and premium services, among the brand⁄IP communities. 

Phases of Implementation

The PR program can be implemented in phases, namely:
- Education – We educate the general public about the usage of .VIP domain names. We also educate the Registrars about the opportunity to bundle related services with .VIP domain names;
- Awareness – We create awareness about .VIP domain name branding and its benefits over other potential domain name choices; and
- Influence – We make use of our Success Cases – adopters of .VIP domain names who found success through unique branding, traffic generation and customer engagement. Through these Success Cases, it will create a viral effect on the usage of .VIP domain names.

PR Activities

The PR program shall include the following activities:
- Media Relationship – The VIP Registry may establish a press desk to satisfy the needs for information about domain names in general and .VIP domain names in specific. We shall also target the IP-based media and court for long term relationship. 
- Editorial contribution – The press desk of VIP Registry shall also serve to contribute relevant articles and success stories of .VIP domain names to press and magazine on periodic basis. 
- Speaker’s Bureau – As part of our outreach program, the VIP Registry will develop a Speaker’s Bureau program to secure speaking opportunities at events focused on the brand⁄IP community.

Answer i) There will be three main phases for domain name registration upon the launch of VIP Registry namely:
1. Sunrise
 a. Government
 b. Trademarks
 c. Company Name
2. Landrush
3. General Availability

During the Sunrise phase, there are three identified sub-phases as follows:
1. Government
This sub-phase is only open to government organisations. Shall there be multiple applications for the same name, VIP Registry shall consult the competing government organizations and the GAC representatives for resolution. If there is no possible settlement for the contention, VIP Registry will suggest a settlement via an English auction.

2. Trademarks
This sub-phase is only open to brand and trademark owners. VIP Registry will work with the Trademark ClearingHouse for the verification and validation of registered marks. If there are multiple applications for the same domain name, Trademark ClearingHouse will only verify and validate the genuine owner(s) of the registered mark. If there are multiple owners of the registered mark in different countries, the registrants that have applied for the same domain name will be notified of the contention. The domain name contention will be resolved via an English auction, where the highest bidder wins.

3. Company Name
This sub-phase is open to companies that would like to register a domain name similar to their company name but do not have a existing trademark. The company needs to submit a legal document that shows the legal name of the organisation with its application. If there are multiple owners of the registered mark in different countries, the registrants that have applied for the same domain name will be notified of the contention. The domain name contention will be resolved via a english auction, where the highest bidder wins.

Next, multiple applications for the same domain name will be accepted in the Landrush phase. After the Landrush phase, registrants that have applied for similar domain names will be notified that the domain name contention will be resolved via an auction, where the highest bidder wins.

The registration of domain names in the last phase of the launch, General Availability will be on a first-com⁄first-serve basis.

Answer ii) VIP Registry may run several programs that will provide cost benefits directly to its registrants. 

Pioneer Program

VIP Registry may launch a pioneer program prior to the launch of the registry which allows Registrant to apply for a domain name that he⁄she is interested in at minimum cost if he⁄she is able to fulfil the stated terms and conditions as described below.

The Pioneer Program is organised into 5 categories:
- Community
To cater to general communities based on commonly used words and phases such as, “CASINO.VIP”, “MUSIC.VIP”

- Global Brand
To cater to proactive brand owners to develop and expand its branding online. The Pioneer Program does not replace the Sunrise process where most brand owners can register their marks for defensive purposes. To qualify, the brand owner must have trademark registrations for the brand and demonstrate development and promotion of the brand online and offline.

- Partner
To cater to service and technology partners of VIP Registry to further promote and their products and services in conjunction with .VIP TLD.

- Celebrity 
To cater to any prominent individual, group or team in the areas of sports, entertainment, arts, businesses, politics or other areas of human activity. The applicant could be the celebrity himself or it could be someone acting on his behalf with the appropriate authorization.

- Social
To cater to any Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Non-Profit Organisations and other social enterprises or initiatives to develop .VIP services to benefit the community.

Applicants whose proposals have been selected successfully to participate in the relevant categories are expected to dedicate time and resources into the marketing and development of the relevant services and content as per the submitted proposal to promote the selected .VIP domain name.

Development commitment includes the assurance of a working website and⁄or relevant services that features the selected .VIP domain name. The applicant is also expected to commit some marketing funds to showcase its website and services in conjunction with the selected .VIP domain name. The financial support of the applicant and the long-term viability of the financial proposal would be important criteria in selecting the applicant to participate in the Pioneer Program. To ensure that the applicant fulfils the marketing commitment, a marketing commitment deposit will be collected, which will be refunded to the applicant upon document proof of advertising attributed to the selected .VIP domain name. Certain categories of the Pioneer Program may be exempted from collection of the marketing commitment deposit.

A comprehensive challenge process will also be setup for intellectual property rights owners to challenge decisions that may appear to infringe upon the rights of its registered marks. Proposals that contain potentially abusive content will also be declined.

An applicant will go through the following stages when participating in the Pioneer Program:
- Submission of Proposal
- Payment of a Marketing Commitment Fee (If applicable)
- Selection or Rejection of Proposal
- Challenge Period
- Execution of Contract
- Registration of Selected Domain Name
- Fulfilment of Development and Marketing Commitments

Special Introductory Discount

VIP Registry may introduce Special Introductory Discount (SID) to Registrants from selected geographical regions (e.g. Latin America) and⁄or selected community group (e.g. celebrities from Bollywood). The SID program is only available after General Availability, for a limited duration (e.g. 3 months), and may be for a limited volume of registration.

The objective of SID is to grow a specific market segment that is crucial to the strategy and the market positioning of the .VIP domain names. It is also applicable for specific under-served market, where the SID would spur interest for the growth market. SID is strictly not meant to bias towards certain community or geographical area. 

VIP Registry shall extend the SID to Registrants via Registrars. VIP Registry will extend the SID program to all Registrars who can serve the target market fairly. A pre-determined discount structure will be presented in the program prior to the engagement of the Registrars into the program.

Answer iii) Other than the commitment of the advance written notice of price increases in the Registry Agreement, VIP Registry shall not make any contractual commitment to Registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation.

No

Not Available

No

VIP Registry shall adhere to the list provided by ICANN in Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement in regards to the schedule of reserved names at the second level in gTLD registries.

VIP Registry shall reserve all names of countries and distinct economies contained in the ISO 3166-1 list at the second level and any other levels within the TLD that is opened for registration under .VIP TLD. The names shall be reserved in English and all related official languages as may be directed by ICANN or GAC. The names of territories, distinct geographical locations, and other geographical and geopolitical names shall also be reserved upon ICANN directives from time to time. The names shall be reserved for registration in ICANN’s name upon the launch of the .VIP TLD. There shall also be a procedure to release the relevant domain names to the governments, public authorities and inter-governmental organizations and is as follows:
1. VIP registry will contact GAC about the reservation of the above country and territory names under the .VIP TLD. GAC should inform (a) governments, distinct economies and public authorities; (b) members of the ICANN governmental advisory committee about the reservation of country and territory names under the .VIP TLD. All governments, distinct economies or public authorities are expected to take the necessary steps to register their country and territory names as soon as possible.
2. If necessary, the government, distinct economies or public authorities concerned shall inform the GAC Secretariat of their request to register the name and the designated beneficiary. 
3. The GAC Secretariat authenticates the request and sends it to the ICANN and .VIP Registry.
4. VIP Registry verifies the availability of the name and issues an authorization number that is transmitted directly to the designated beneficiary.
5. The designated beneficiary shall register the name with an accredited registrar, using the authorisation number as the verification of their identity.

VIP Registry shall ensure procedures to allow governments, public authorities or inter-governmental organizations to challenge abuses of names with national or geographical significance at the second level and any other levels within the TLD that is opened for registration under .VIP TLD.

VIP Registry shall provide Registry Services as defined below: 
(i) the receipt of data from registrars concerning registrations of domain names and name servers; 
(ii) provision to registrars of status information relating to the zone servers for the TLD; 
(iii) dissemination of TLD zone files; 
(iv) operation of the Registry zone servers;
(v) dissemination of contact and other information concerning domain name server registrations in the TLD as required by the Registry Agreement;
(vi) Internationalized Domain Names (IDN);
(vii) DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC); 
(viii) WHOIS Data Watch Service;
(ix) Searchable WHOIS Service and
(x) Other products or services that the Registry Operator is required to provide because of the establishment of a Consensus Policy

VIP Registry will be engaging Qinetics Solutions Berhad of Malaysia as the back-end registry service provider for .VIP new gTLD operations.

Registry System

The system is based on RegistryASP SRS Application Suite that is deployed in ccTLD Registries, namely .sg (Singapore), .hk (Hong Kong, SAR), .cd (Congo, Democratic Republic) and .my (Malaysia). 

RegistryASP utilizes a ‘thick’ registry model which is EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) version 1.0 compliant, where registrant data is maintained on a central registry database as a contact set.

- Stealth DNS (Zone Generation)
The resolution of domain names is a crucial function in a registry system. The DNS system supports both IPv4 and IPv6. The stealth DNS stores the generated zone file from the database, which will undergo a complicated reconciliation process before the data is reloaded into the master zone. The Stealth DNS is hidden in the internal network and is only visible to the primary DNS server. The primary DNS server is hidden as well and is responsible for the zone transfer to external secondary DNS servers. RegistryASP has achieved 100% uptime for all country codes that they are supporting on DNS resolution. The DNS is in compliance to RFCs 1034, 1035, 1982, 2181, 2182, 2671, 3226, 3596, 3597, 4343, and 5966.

- External DNS (Zone Resolution)
The external DNS setup consists of the secondary DNS servers dedicated to resolution of the extension domain worldwide. The Secondary DNS are utilizing 2 of the main providers in the world that supports AnyCast DNS with more than 100 nodes all around the world. The provider is CommunityDNS. All zone transfer will be protected using TSIG. The DNS is in compliance to RFCs 1034, 1035, 1982, 2181, 2182, 2671, 3226, 3596, 3597, 4343, and 5966.

- DNSSEC
VIP Registry shall provide DNSSEC services to registrars comply with RFCs 4033, 4034, 4035, 4509 and their successors, and follow the best practices described in RFC 4641 and its successors. The DNSSEC services shall include the publishing of Delegation Signature (DS) records and signed records to the root zones of the applied TLD.

- WHOIS Services
General public can check the information of a domain name through port 43. The daemon is proven of handling millions of WHOIS queries daily for some of the ccTLD reference for RegistryASP SRS. WHOIS data watch and web based searchable WHOIS will be provided for subscribed users. The WHOIS services are highly scalable, capable of handling higher query loads and comply with RFC 3912.

- Registry Web Interface
The control panel is used by the registry operational staff to administrate domain names, registrars and other domain name data. Key features include multi-users function control, flexible product configurations, business process configurations and event-triggered alerts.

- Registrar Web Interface
A registrar can perform daily operations, channel management and transaction accounting via the web control panel. Major functions include domain, contact and host management for domain names registered under the registrar, account balance and account top-up.

- EPP Services
A standard EPP server is used to provide flexibility for registrars to automate domain registration and management. The EPP server is configured with a SSL communications link that uses the EPP version 1.0 protocol comply with RFCs 5910, 5730, 5731, 5732, 5733, 5734, 3735.

- Reporting Services
Standard reports are provided to registry and registrar staff to perform secondary check on transactions made, payment received, domain renewal and balance enquiries.

- Operational Testing and Evaluation (OT&E)
All newly accredited registrars shall reserve a time slot to access OT&E server and perform a technical test. This is to ensure that the registrar’s system is capable of registering and managing domain names in the production environment without unnecessary problems. Once a registrar passes the OT&E Test, the registrar will receive an account to access the production system to register and manage domain names.

- Security and Monitoring
The system has been proven to adhere to ISO27001 standards by Hong Kong government and compliance with Singapore government security guidelines. User access will be controlled through 3 tiers of authentication: Registrar SSL Certificate, Registrar IP Addresses and Registrar User Name⁄Password Combination. The communication link with registrar will be SSL encrypted.
Multiple firewalls will be in place to ensure multiple levels of security together with IP filtering and Intrusion Detection with Prevention. Multiple security monitoring systems will be setup within and outside of the network of the Registry System to monitor the Registry Services. Host based intruder detection system will be in place on top of hardware based intruder protection system. Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG) will be installed to monitor traffic utilization in the network and each server of the Registry System.

- Data Escrow
The data will be deposited into ICANN approved escrow agent based on escrow requirements to ensure business continuity and data recovery in the unlikely event of data loss.

- Call Centre
System support and maintenance to guarantee maximum uptime shall be provided through Email and Phone to registrars. 24⁄7 technical support hotline are available in multiple languages.

- Channel Management
Client Relation Management (CRM) software is in place to manage communications and contact with the registrars.

- Other Registry Services
The registry will provide IDN domain names to the end users. The IDN will be deployed according to the IDN RFCs (5890, 5891, 5892, 5893) and the languages supported will be based on registered language tables in IANA.

VIP Registry is compliant to Specification 6 and Specification 10 in the Registry Agreement. The compliance table for Specification 6 is as attached.

SRS System Description 

1. System Architecture
RegistryASP SRS application is designed with multiple control interfaces to allow access by different parties via defined user roles and matrixes. All components have been designed to be deployed in a distributed environment. A diagram of the system architecture is attached.

Core Component of Registry SRS

The Registry SRS is split into multiple components to improve scalability. The Core SRS Component consists of presentation layer, application security framework, application layer and database layer. It supports HTTP, HTTPS and EPP protocols. 

The application layer is used to handle the business flow, audits, messages, processes and the daily tasks in the system. It has a data logger, which stores the details of all requests and responses from the application. The database layer deals with raw data management and utilizes relational databases.

2. SRS Data Flow Diagram
The system architecture of the SRS is designed to allow the EPP, WHOIS, registry web panel and registrar web panel to share the same set of business logics. In other words, the processing of the request will be the same regardless the request comes from which interfaces. A diagram of the SRS data flow is attached.

3. SRS System Features
Business Process Configuration:
• Administration module to configure business rules, policies and practices;
• Utilization of extensions in EPP to store additional information, e.g. language tag etc;
• Control panels to validate pending transactions and facilitate the submission of documents;
• Control panels for black and white list coupled with a pragmatic system to restrict sensitive names;
• Policy manager panels allow registry staff to control access to products and adjust policies;
• Feature access controller panels allow registry and registrar staff to customize functionalities available at various channels; and
• User access controller panel allows registry and registrar staff to customize access level of different users.

Channel Marketing (Registrar Support):
• Web-based multi-tier administrative control panel;
• Ability to brand email templates and extensive email tracking;
• Built-in marketing features such as volume discount and period discount tools;
• EPP connection Software Development Kit (SDK) and toolkits (in Java, PERL);
• Documentation, registrar technical training and change management.

Billing and Payment:
• Reminder notification with configurable alerts, content including other parameters; and
• Billing Manager to manage offline payments, fund alert, incentive rebate calculation and online invoice.

Report Management:
• Comprehensive statistical and transaction reporting system; and real-time reports for channel management (transaction, balance, renewal, announcements etc).
• Registrars detail and summary monthly statements; and
• Transaction tracking and action audit logs

Network Diagram
The attached diagram shows the network architecture and connectivity for all the components of the Registry SRS System. The Registry System infrastructure is located in 2 different data centers for redundancy and scalability purposes. The primary data center consists of the SRS, DNSSEC signing and Data Escrow. The secondary data center will be running the WHOIS services. The stealth and primary DNS are located in the primary data center. DNS Resolution Services are fully AnyCast enabled and dispersed geographically.

The primary data center has full redundancy up to the node level. The network is separated into 2 segments. The first network segment is IP restricted area for registrars to access the SRS which is the DMZ zone. The second segment is for internal access which consist of the database. All servers are protected by redundant firewall. 

The Web and EPP services are load-balanced between multiple servers. This provides maximum reliability, and is highly extensible by adding more servers behind the load balancers. Each server has redundant components (Power supplies, hard disk RAID, fans, network interfaces). The presence of multiple servers, multiple facilities, and multiple network providers means that the services will be well protected against single points of failure.

All services are setup in the secondary data center for emergency recovery in case of melt down in the primary data center. The services in the secondary data center can be online within 2 hours from the activation. Each site has at least 2 different network connections to the Internet. Our data centre belongs to a tier 1 provider with has four backbones peering to other tier 1 provider. 

The OTE server connects to the test database where the data resembles the production database. The Disaster Recovery Site (Secondary data center) is designed to replicate the primary site except the OTE environment. The OTE environment is not essential during a disaster. The DR site shall only be used to temporarily take over the registry operations while the primary site is being restored. A diagram of the network is attached.

Interconnectivity
The main components in the systems are SRS, Data Escrow, WHOIS, DNS, Reporting, Registrar Systems, Accounting System and System Monitoring. A diagram of the interconnectivity is attached which explains the interconnectivity between these components.

The system consists of a SRS system where the main database server resides. The interfaces in the SRS system are mainly web and EPP. The data are received from registrars through Web panel or automation from registrar system to the EPP server in real time. The central data will then be distributed to DNS, Accounting system and Data escrow agent through batch processing mode. 

A secondary database cluster is configured using bidirectional geographical replication to replicate data from the main database in near real time. The secondary database will provide WHOIS query and data access for reports. The monitoring system will probe the services in the SRS in real time. 

Synchronization Scheme
Interconnectivity between registry system components appear in 3 synchronization scheme:
1. Replication Synchronization (Only for database)
Source (SRS) to Destination (WHOIS)
- A secondary database cluster will be installed for providing the WHOIS response. The synchronisation is done using bidirectional database replication. The data are replicated to secondary database within mili seconds.

Source (SRS) to Destination (Reporting Services)
- A secondary database cluster will be installed for providing reports. The synchronisation is done using bidirectional database replication. The data are replicated to secondary database within mili seconds.

2. Batch Processing
Source (SRS) to Destination (Stealth DNS)
- A DNS reconciliation and generation program is in place to regenerate the zones in the interval of 2 hours.

Source (Stealth DNS) to Destination (Primary DNS)
- The zone is transfer to primary using notify = yes. Once records changed in stealth DNS, the primary will be notified to transfer the zone. The transfer takes less than 1 second.

Source (Primary DNS) to Destination (Secondary DNS)
- The zone is transfer to secondary using notify = yes. Once records changed in primary DNS, the secondary will be notified to transfer the zone. The transfer takes less than 1 second.
 
Source (SRS) to Destination (Data Escrow)
- A backend program will be running daily to deposit the data into Escrow agents SFTP server.

Source (SRS) to Destination (Accounting System)
- A backend program will be running daily to generate data file in the accounting system data import format.

3. Real Time Access
Source (Registrar System) to Destination (SRS)
- All transactions will be processed in real time and response will be returned immediately after processing.

Source (System Monitoring) to Destination (SRS)
- The monitoring software will be probing the services in near real time interval (every second).

Resource Plan
Qinetics will deploy the Registry Service of VIP Registry using its existing system and infrastructure. During the implementation of VIP Registry, new server hardware will be provisioned for SRS services. The Data Center Engineer will perform the server provisioning and installation of OS. Once the hardware is provisioned, System Administrator shall continue to install the required software and perform security configurations. On the other hand, the Database Administrator will create the required schemas. The assigned Software Developer will configure the rules and policies into the SRS system. Once done, our Test Engineer will perform rigorous testing procedures to ensure the system performs according to specifications. Upon the testing is fully completed, the SRS system shall be hand-over to System Administrator to perform deployment to production environment. Throughout the process, a Project Manager is assigned to perform project management and overall control on the implementation. The Project Manager will conduct training to the registry users on the functionalities of the system. The SRS setup shall be completed within a month.

The system will be in maintenance mode after the SRS is deployed. The SRS will be supported by general helpdesk support for enquiries. Any support issue related to SRS will be escalated to the Application Support Engineer for trouble shooting. System Administrator is tasked to monitor the SRS availability. Whenever there is a support ticket, Application Support Engineer and System Administrator will further escalate the support request base on severity. The emergency response team will be triggered whenever there is a catastrophe scenario at the highest severity. 

Once a remedy is identified, Test Engineer will perform testing on the fixes before deployment by System Administrator. During maintenance, the outsourced party has committed 4 resources for the 24 x 7 helpdesk, 4 data center engineers, 2 application support engineers, 1 support manager, 1 test engineer and 2 system administrators. As part of on going policy changes, a team of software developer is available for any standards upgrade to the SRS and the changes will trigger the change request procedure in accordance to CMMI standards.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)
VIP registry is committed to provide SLA according to the parameters below in accordance to Specification 10:
DNS
- DNS service availability: 0 min downtime = 100% availability
- DNS name server availability: ≤ 432 min of downtime (≈99%)
- TCP DNS resolution RTT: ≤ 1500 ms, for at least 95% of the queries
- UDP DNS resolution RTT: ≤ 500 ms, for at least 95% of the queries
- DNS update time: ≤ 60 min, for at least 95% of the probes

RDDS (WHOIS)
- RDDS availability: ≤ 864 min of downtime (≈98%)
- RDDS query RTT: ≤ 2000 ms, for at least 95% of the queries
- RDDS update time: ≤ 60 min, for at least 95% of the probes

EPP
- EPP service availability: ≤ 864 min of downtime (≈98%)
- EPP session-command RTT: ≤ 4000 ms, for at least 90% of the commands
- EPP query-command RTT: ≤ 2000 ms, for at least 90% of the commands
- EPP transform-command RTT: ≤ 4000 ms, for at least 90% of the commands

Qinetics deploys real time Interface between registry and registrar based on EPP implementation. EPP implements a thick model registry where WHOIS information is stored in registry main database as contact set. Every registration requires a set of contacts to be submitted to registry system. The EPP commands and responses are compliance to RFC 5730 to RFC 5734. The EPP supports all Login Commands (login, logout), Query Commands (check, info, poll, transfer) and Object Transform Commands (create, delete, renew, transfer, update). The supported commands in the system are:

Greeting, Hello, Login, Logout, Poll, Domain Check, Domain Info, Domain Create, Domain Update, Domain Delete, Domain Renew, Domain Transfer, Contact Check, Contact Info, Contact Create, Contact Update, Contact Delete, Contact Transfer, Host Check, Host Info, Host Create, Host Update, Host Delete 

The full set of commands and responses syntax are in a 30 pages document which can be furnished on demand. 

The system utilizes EPP statuses stated in the RFC as follows: 
Domain Action Statuses:
- clientDeleteProhibited: Requests to delete the object must be rejected. 
- serverDeleteProhibited: Requests to delete the object must be rejected. 
- clientHold: Delegation information must be withheld from publication in the objectʹs nominal zone. 
- serverHold: Delegation information must be withheld from publication in the objectʹs nominal zone. 
- clientRenewProhibited: Requests to renew the object must be rejected. 
- serverRenewProhibited: Requests to renew the object must be rejected. 
- clientTransferProhibited: Requests to transfer the object must be rejected. 
- serverTransferProhibited: Requests to transfer the object must be rejected. 
- clientUpdateProhibited: Requests to update the object (other than to remove this status) must be rejected. 
- serverUpdateProhibited: Requests to update the object (other than to remove this status) must be rejected. 

Domain State Statuses:
- ok: This is the nominal status value for a domain object at all times, whether or not the domain has prohibition of operation statuses. 
- Expired: This is the domain status when the domain fall into auto renew grace period
- RedemptionPeriod: The domain has fall out of renewal grace period into redemption grace period
- pendingRestore: A restore request has been received for the object, and completion of the request is pending. 
- pendingDelete: A delete request has been received for the object, but the object has not yet been purged from the server database. 
- pendingTransfer: A transfer request has been received for the object, and completion of the request is pending. 

When the requested action has been completed, the pendingDelete, pendingTransfer, or pendingRestore status value are removed. All clients involved in the transaction will be notified using a service message (Poll Command) that the action has been completed and that the status of the object has changed.

Below are conditions where domain statuses cannot co exist:
- ʺokʺ status cannot be combined with any other status.
- ʺpendingDeleteʺ status is cannot be combined with either ʺclientDeleteProhibitedʺ or ʺserverDeleteProhibitedʺ status.
- ʺpendingTransferʺ status is cannot be combined with either ʺclientTransferProhibitedʺ or ʺserverTransferProhibitedʺ status.

The pendingDelete, pendingTransfer, and pendingRestore status values cannot be combined with each other.

All Client statuses can be performed by registry or registrar, all server statuses can only be performed by registry.

Domain Transfer State Statuses:
Pending - The domain transfer request is initiated
clientApproved - Domain Transfer is approved by losing registrar
clientCancelled - Gaining registrar cancel domain transfer request
clientRejected - Losing registrar rejected the domain trainsfer request
serverApproved - Domain Transfer is approved by system after transfer grace
serverCancelled - Domain transfer is cancelled by registry system

Registrar will be required to download the EPP SDK (bundled with documentation) to establish connection to EPP Server. Procedure of TCP connection:
a. Post SSL request
b. SSL Handshaking
c. SSL session established
d. Send Greeting command
e. Greeting acknowledgment
f. Send login information
g. Authentication process
h. TCP over SSL connection established
i. Send command for operation such as Domain check command
j. Send Poll command to keep connection alive
k. Session will be closed automatically after 20 minutes if Poll command is not issued
l. Send logout command
m. Session closed

XML parser will be used against request and response to ensure integrity of the data and detect corruption of data. Once data is found to be loss or corrupted, EPP command fail response will be sent to the requestor.

SSL
The EPP handshake requires exchange of certificates between the client and the server. Qinetics implementation accepts any certificates issued by authorized Certificate Authority (CA). The authorized CA list supported: Verisign, Thawte, GeoTrust, EnTrust, Comodo, GlobalTrust, DigiCert, USERTrust, CyberTrust, Microsoft

Qinetics provides a self signed certificate as optional to the registrar for better security. Registrars can file in a request through email for Qinetics generated certificate. 

Once SSL handshake is established, registrar shall send in a Login command with username and password to access the EPP services. The EPP services implements IP address check before responding to the client. 2 Tier IP check are implemented in firewall and the EPP services respectively to provide double protection.

Operation and Test Environment (OTE)
As part of the standard procedure, registrar will be given access to the OTE environment only. Registrar will have to download the OTE guideline and program according to the documentation.

Registrar will then send a request to start OTE test at a predefined time slot. Once the registrar pass the test, the production username and password will be sent to the registrar technical contact. 
 
Registration Tools
• EPP 1.0 client SDK and documentation; and
• Tools are downloadable from registrar interface.

EPP Extensions Schemas
The EPP shall not implement and extension except for DNSSEC according to RFC 5910 and IDN according to RFC 3735. The extensions are applied to the following commands only:
• Domain Info
• Domain Create
• Domain Update

The table detailing the XML for the EPP commands and responses are as follows:

Domain Info
- Request
〈?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?〉
〈epp xmlns=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0ʺ xmlns:xsi=ʺhttp:⁄⁄www.w3.org⁄2001⁄XMLSchema-instance xsi:schemaLocation=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0 epp-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈command〉
 〈info〉
 〈domain:info xmlns:domain=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0ʺ
 xsi:schemaLocation=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0 domain-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈domain:name hosts=ʺallʺ〉example.com〈⁄domain:name〉
 〈⁄domain:info〉
 〈⁄info〉
 〈clTRID〉ABC-12345〈⁄clTRID〉
 〈⁄command〉
〈⁄epp〉

- Response
〈?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?〉
〈epp xmlns=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0” xmlns:xsi=“http:⁄⁄www.w3.org⁄2001⁄XMLSchema-instance” xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0 epp-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈response〉
 〈result code=ʺ1000ʺ〉
 〈msg〉Command completed successfully〈⁄msg〉
 〈⁄result〉
 〈resData〉
 〈domain:infData
 Xmlns:domain=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0ʺ xsi:schemaLocation=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0 domain-1.0.xsdʺ〉
〈domain:name〉example.com〈⁄domain:name〉
 〈domain:roid〉EXAMPLE1-EP〈⁄domain:roid〉
 〈domain:status s=ʺokʺ⁄〉
 〈domain:registrant〉jd1234〈⁄domain:registrant〉
 〈domain:contact type=ʺadminʺ〉sh8013〈⁄domain:contact〉
 〈domain:contact type=ʺtechʺ〉sh8013〈⁄domain:contact〉
 〈domain:ns〉
〈domain:hostObj〉ns1.example.com〈⁄domain:hostObj〉
〈domain:hostObj〉ns1.example.net〈⁄domain:hostObj〉
 〈⁄domain:ns〉
 〈domain:host〉ns1.example.com〈⁄domain:host〉
 〈domain:host〉ns2.example.com〈⁄domain:host〉
 〈domain:clID〉ClientX〈⁄domain:clID〉
 〈domain:crID〉ClientY〈⁄domain:crID〉
 〈domain:crDate〉1999-04-03T22:00:00.0Z〈⁄domain:crDate〉
 〈domain:upID〉ClientX〈⁄domain:upID〉
 〈domain:upDate〉1999-12-03T09:00:00.0Z〈⁄domain:upDate〉
 〈domain:exDate〉2005-04-03T22:00:00.0Z〈⁄domain:exDate〉
 〈domain:trDate〉2000-04-08T09:00:00.0Z〈⁄domain:trDate〉
 〈domain:authInfo〉
 〈domain:pw〉2fooBAR〈⁄domain:pw〉
 〈⁄domain:authInfo〉
 〈⁄domain:infData〉
 〈⁄resData〉
〈extension〉
 〈secDNS:infData xmlns:secDNS=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:secDNS-1.1ʺ〉
〈secDNS:dsData〉
 〈secDNS:keyTag〉12345〈⁄secDNS:keyTag〉
 〈secDNS:alg〉3〈⁄secDNS:alg〉
 〈secDNS:digestType〉1〈⁄secDNS:digestType〉
 〈secDNS:digest〉49FD46E6C4B45C55D4AC〈⁄secDNS:digest〉

(Below are optional)
 〈secDNS:keyData〉
 〈secDNS:flags〉257〈⁄secDNS:flags〉
 〈secDNS:protocol〉3〈⁄secDNS:protocol〉
 〈secDNS:alg〉1〈⁄secDNS:alg〉
 〈secDNS:pubKey〉AQPJ⁄⁄⁄⁄4Q==〈⁄secDNS:pubKey〉
 〈⁄secDNS:keyData〉
〈⁄secDNS:dsData〉
 〈⁄secDNS:infData〉
 〈⁄extension〉
 〈trID〉
 〈clTRID〉ABC-12345〈⁄clTRID〉
 〈svTRID〉54322-XYZ〈⁄svTRID〉
 〈⁄trID〉
 〈⁄response〉
〈⁄epp〉

Domain Create (IDN)
- Request
 〈?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?〉
 〈epp xmlns=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0” xmlns:xsi=“http:⁄⁄www.w3.org⁄2001⁄XMLSchema-instance” xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0 epp-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈command〉
 〈create〉
 〈domain:create xmlns:domain=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0”
xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0
 domain-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈domain:name〉xn--asjeiu3h34jhew.com〈⁄domain:name〉
 〈domain:period unit=ʺyʺ〉2〈⁄domain:period〉
 〈domain:ns〉
〈domain:hostObj〉ns1.example.com〈⁄domain:hostObj〉
〈domain:hostObj〉ns1.example.net〈⁄domain:hostObj〉
 〈⁄domain:ns〉
 〈domain:registrant〉jd1234〈⁄domain:registrant〉
 〈domain:contact type=ʺadminʺ〉sh8013〈⁄domain:contact〉
 〈domain:contact type=ʺtechʺ〉sh8013〈⁄domain:contact〉
 〈domain:authInfo〉
 〈domain:pw〉2fooBAR〈⁄domain:pw〉
 〈⁄domain:authInfo〉
 〈⁄domain:create〉
 〈⁄create〉
〈extension〉 
〈ext:extension xmlns:ext=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:ext-1.0ʺ xsi:schemaLocation=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:ext-1.0 ext-1.0.xsdʺ〉 
 〈langtag〉CHI〈⁄langtag〉 
〈⁄ext:extension〉 
〈⁄extension〉 
 〈clTRID〉ABC-12345〈⁄clTRID〉
 〈⁄command〉
 〈⁄epp〉

- Response
 〈?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?〉
 〈epp xmlns=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0” xmlns:xsi=“http:⁄⁄www.w3.org⁄2001⁄XMLSchema-instance” xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0
epp-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈response〉
 〈result code=ʺ1000ʺ〉
 〈msg〉Command completed successfully〈⁄msg〉
 〈⁄result〉
 〈resData〉
 〈domain:creData
 xmlns:domain=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0”
xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0
 domain-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈domain:name〉 xn--asjeiu3h34jhew.com 〈⁄domain:name〉
 〈domain:crDate〉1999-04-03T22:00:00.0Z〈⁄domain:crDate〉
 〈domain:exDate〉2001-04-03T22:00:00.0Z〈⁄domain:exDate〉
 〈⁄domain:creData〉
 〈⁄resData〉
 〈trID〉
 〈clTRID〉ABC-12345〈⁄clTRID〉
 〈svTRID〉54321-XYZ〈⁄svTRID〉
 〈⁄trID〉
 〈⁄response〉
 〈⁄epp〉

Domain Create (DNSSEC)
-Request
〈?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?〉
 〈epp xmlns=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0” xmlns:xsi=“http:⁄⁄www.w3.org⁄2001⁄XMLSchema-instance” xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0 epp-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈command〉
 〈create〉
 〈domain:create xmlns:domain=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0”
xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0
 domain-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈domain:name〉example.com〈⁄domain:name〉
 〈domain:period unit=ʺyʺ〉2〈⁄domain:period〉
 〈domain:ns〉
〈domain:hostObj〉ns1.example.com〈⁄domain:hostObj〉
〈domain:hostObj〉ns1.example.net〈⁄domain:hostObj〉
 〈⁄domain:ns〉
 〈domain:registrant〉jd1234〈⁄domain:registrant〉
 〈domain:contact type=ʺadminʺ〉sh8013〈⁄domain:contact〉
 〈domain:contact type=ʺtechʺ〉sh8013〈⁄domain:contact〉
 〈domain:authInfo〉
 〈domain:pw〉2fooBAR〈⁄domain:pw〉
 〈⁄domain:authInfo〉
 〈⁄domain:create〉
 〈⁄create〉
〈extension〉
〈secDNS:create xmlns:secDNS=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:secDNS-1.1ʺ〉
 〈secDNS:maxSigLife〉604800〈⁄secDNS:maxSigLife〉
 〈secDNS:dsData〉
〈secDNS:keyTag〉12345〈⁄secDNS:keyTag〉
〈secDNS:alg〉3〈⁄secDNS:alg〉
〈secDNS:digestType〉1〈⁄secDNS:digestType〉
〈secDNS:digest〉49FD46E6C4B45C55D4AC〈⁄secDNS:digest〉

(below are optional)
〈secDNS:keyData〉
 〈secDNS:flags〉257〈⁄secDNS:flags〉
 〈secDNS:protocol〉3〈⁄secDNS:protocol〉
 〈secDNS:alg〉1〈⁄secDNS:alg〉
 〈secDNS:pubKey〉AQPJ⁄⁄⁄⁄4Q==〈⁄secDNS:pubKey〉
〈⁄secDNS:keyData〉
〈⁄secDNS:dsData〉
〈⁄secDNS:create〉
〈⁄extension〉
 〈clTRID〉ABC-12345〈⁄clTRID〉
 〈⁄command〉
 〈⁄epp〉

- Response
〈?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?〉
 〈epp xmlns=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0” xmlns:xsi=“http:⁄⁄www.w3.org⁄2001⁄XMLSchema-instance” xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0
epp-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈response〉
 〈result code=ʺ1000ʺ〉
 〈msg〉Command completed successfully〈⁄msg〉
 〈⁄result〉
 〈resData〉
 〈domain:creData
 xmlns:domain=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0”
xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0
 domain-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈domain:name〉example.com〈⁄domain:name〉
 〈domain:crDate〉1999-04-03T22:00:00.0Z〈⁄domain:crDate〉
 〈domain:exDate〉2001-04-03T22:00:00.0Z〈⁄domain:exDate〉
 〈⁄domain:creData〉
 〈⁄resData〉
 〈trID〉
 〈clTRID〉ABC-12345〈⁄clTRID〉
 〈svTRID〉54321-XYZ〈⁄svTRID〉
 〈⁄trID〉
 〈⁄response〉
 〈⁄epp〉

Domain Update
-Request
〈?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?〉
 〈epp xmlns=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0”
 xmlns:xsi=“http:⁄⁄www.w3.org⁄2001⁄XMLSchema-instance”
 xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0
epp-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈command〉
 〈update〉
 〈domain:update
 xmlns:domain=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0”
xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0
domain-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈domain:name〉example.com〈⁄domain:name〉
 〈domain:add〉
 〈domain:ns〉
〈domain:hostObj〉ns2.example.com〈⁄domain:hostObj〉
 〈⁄domain:ns〉
 〈domain:contact type=ʺtechʺ〉mak21〈⁄domain:contact〉
 〈domain:status s=ʺclientHoldʺ
 lang=ʺenʺ〉Payment overdue.〈⁄domain:status〉
 〈⁄domain:add〉
 〈domain:rem〉
 〈domain:ns〉
〈domain:hostObj〉ns1.example.com〈⁄domain:hostObj〉
 〈⁄domain:ns〉
 〈domain:contact type=ʺtechʺ〉sh8013〈⁄domain:contact〉
 〈domain:status s=ʺclientUpdateProhibitedʺ⁄〉
 〈⁄domain:rem〉
 〈domain:chg〉
〈domain:registrant〉sh8013〈⁄domain:registrant〉
 〈domain:authInfo〉
 〈domain:pw〉2BARfoo〈⁄domain:pw〉
 〈⁄domain:authInfo〉
 〈⁄domain:chg〉
 〈domain:add〉
 〈domain:status s=ʺclientHoldʺ⁄〉
 〈⁄domain:add〉
 〈⁄domain:update〉
 〈⁄update〉
 〈extension〉
〈secDNS:update xmlns:secDNS=ʺurn:ietf:params:xml:ns:secDNS-1.1ʺ〉
 〈secDNS:rem〉
 〈secDNS:dsData〉
 〈secDNS:keyTag〉12345〈⁄secDNS:keyTag〉
 〈secDNS:alg〉3〈⁄secDNS:alg〉
 〈secDNS:digestType〉1〈⁄secDNS:digestType〉
 〈secDNS:digest〉38EC35D5B3A34B33C99B〈⁄secDNS:digest〉
 〈⁄secDNS:dsData〉
 〈⁄secDNS:rem〉
 〈secDNS:add〉
 〈secDNS:dsData〉
 〈secDNS:keyTag〉12346〈⁄secDNS:keyTag〉
 〈secDNS:alg〉3〈⁄secDNS:alg〉
 〈secDNS:digestType〉1〈⁄secDNS:digestType〉
 〈secDNS:digest〉38EC35D5B3A34B44C39B〈⁄secDNS:digest〉

(below are optional)
〈secDNS:keyData〉
 〈secDNS:flags〉257〈⁄secDNS:flags〉
 〈secDNS:protocol〉3〈⁄secDNS:protocol〉
 〈secDNS:alg〉1〈⁄secDNS:alg〉
 〈secDNS:pubKey〉AQPJ⁄⁄⁄⁄4Q==〈⁄secDNS:pubKey〉
 〈⁄secDNS:keyData〉
 〈⁄secDNS:dsData〉
 〈⁄secDNS:add〉
〈⁄secDNS:update〉
 〈⁄extension〉
 〈clTRID〉ABC-12345〈⁄clTRID〉
 〈⁄command〉
 〈⁄epp〉

-Response
〈?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?〉
 〈epp xmlns=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0”
xmlns:xsi=“http:⁄⁄www.w3.org⁄2001⁄XMLSchema-instance”
 xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0
epp-1.0.xsdʺ〉
 〈response〉
 〈result code=ʺ1000ʺ〉
 〈msg〉Command completed successfully〈⁄msg〉
 〈⁄result〉
 〈trID〉
 〈clTRID〉ABC-12345〈⁄clTRID〉
 〈svTRID〉54321-XYZ〈⁄svTRID〉
 〈⁄trID〉
 〈⁄response〉
 〈⁄epp〉

Resource and Operation Plan
Qinetics will deploy the Registry Service of VIP Registry using its existing system and infrastructure. During the implementation of VIP Registry, new server hardware will be provisioned for EPP services. The Data Center Engineer will perform the server provisioning and installation of OS. Once the hardware is provisioned, System Administrator shall continue to install the required software and perform security configurations. The assigned Software Developer will configure the rules and policies into the EPP system. Once done, the Test Engineer will perform rigorous testing procedures to ensure the system performs according to specifications. Upon the testing is fully completed, the EPP system shall be hand-over to System Administrator to perform deployment to production environment. Throughout the process, a Project Manager is assigned to perform project management and overall control on the implementation. The Project Manager will conduct training to the registry users on the functionalities of the system. The EPP setup shall be completed within a month.

The system will be in maintenance mode after the System is deployed. The EPP will be supported by general helpdesk support for enquiries. Any support issue related to EPP will be escalated to the Application Support Engineer for trouble shooting. System Administrator is tasked to monitor the EPP availability. Whenever there is a support ticket, Application Support Engineer and System Administrator will further escalate the support request base on severity. The emergency response team will be triggered whenever there is a catastrophe scenario at the highest severity. 

Once a remedy is identified, Test Engineer will perform testing on the fixes before deployment by System Administrator. During maintenance, the outsourced party has committed 4 resources for the 24 x 7 helpdesk, 4 data center engineers, 2 application support engineers, 1 support manager, 1 test engineer and 2 system administrators. As part of on going policy changes, a team of software developer is available for any standards upgrade to the EPP and the changes will trigger the change request procedure in accordance to CMMI standards.

EPP Server Capacity Plan
System performance depends heavily on the application server capability and the processes required for completing a transaction. As the transaction load increases, the system performance can be increased by tuning the application server, upgrade the hardware of the server or increase the number of servers and utilizing load balancers. A test has been carried out using the below hardware for the capacity planning:

- 1 x Dual Core CPU 1.6GHz
- 2G RAM

The test results recorded with a database of 180,000 names and 100 concurrent EPP connections for each commands (in parallel 1500 commands posting) in our test environment are as follows:

EPP Queries
- Average 1.5 seconds response time for query transactions
- Average 4 seconds response time after 90% line

EPP transactions
- Average 1.5 seconds response time for transactional commands
- Average 5 seconds response time after 90% line

The results are shown in the screen shot below. According to the result, more than 90% of online transactions take less than 2 seconds in average to response and the remaining of 10% (more time-consuming) transactions can also be completed in 5 seconds as per expectation.

Based on the proposed 2 EPP server hardware which is 4 times more powerful than the test server, the system can handle up to 500 concurrent connections easily. The number of servers will be increased based on the growth of number of registrars or change in the maximum number of connections allocated.

Shall the number of registrars increase, new servers will be provisioned into shared pool. Each registrar will have equal access to the shared pool of connections. The shared pool will serve registrars on First Come First Serve basis.

WHOIS System Architecture 
The WHOIS service contains data submitted by registrars during the domain name registration process. Any changes made to the data will be reflected in real-time, thus providing all interested parties with up-to-date information.
The WHOIS services to be provisioned include:
a. Port 43 command prompt WHOIS;
b. Searchable Port 80 web based WHOIS;
c. Configurable Port 43 rate limiter to prevent excessive request from the same IP;
d. Penalty for violation of query limit (e.g. barring access for the next 24 hours);
e. Ability to exclude certain IPs from normal rate limiting facilities;
f. Support multilingual WHOIS display; 
g. Easy, scalable and reliable WHOIS service;
h. Ensure accuracy in the display of WHOIS data; and
i. Conforms to RFC 3912.

WHOIS Access Method
WHOIS service shall be accessed via:
Command line (port 43)
The command line WHOIS allow queries by domain name in compliance to RFC 3912. The information will be displayed in a standard format. The WHOIS client makes a text request to the WHOIS server, then the WHOIS server replies with text content. All requests are terminated with ASCII CR and then ASCII LF. The response might contain more than one line of text, so the presence of ASCII CR or ASCII LF characters does not indicate the end of the response. The WHOIS server closes its connection as soon as the output is finished. The closed TCP connection is the indication to the client that the response has been received.

Registry Public Web Site (port 80)
The web based WHOIS is a searchable WHOIS by domain name. The corresponding information will be displayed if a match is found.
 
Both web and command prompt WHOIS will be accessing a standard database connection pool before connecting to the database as shown below. The secondary database is configured to replicate the data from production database in real time. A interconnectivity diagram between the SRS and WHOIS service is attached.

DB Connection Thread Controller
The WHOIS system will connect directly to replicate secondary database using a connection pool which will limit the number of maximum connections that can be connected to the database at any given time. Once the maximum is reached, the remaining requests are queued until the current connections are released. If the connection(s) could not be released on time (until database timeout hits), the system will throw an error out stating that the system is currently busy. 

Searchable WHOIS Service
VIP Registry will offer searchable web-based WHOIS service on a subscription basis and reserves the rights to impose a fee. The searchable WHOIS will have partial match capabilities on the following fields: 
• domain name
• registrant’s name
• registrant’s postal address
• all the sub-fields described in EPP (e.g., street, city, state or province, etc.).

The WHOIS will offer exact-match capabilities on the following fields: 
• registrar id
• name server name
• name server’s IP address (only applies to glue records).

The searchable WHOIS will allow Boolean search capabilities supporting logical operators to join a set of search criteria: AND, OR, NOT. The search results will include domain names matching the search criteria.

A potential form of abuse for this feature is data-mining, which is already commonly seen in the domain name industry with many domain name registries implementing reviewing their public WHOIS display policies to mitigate the problem. For example, SGNIC (.SG Registry) has recently revamped their WHOIS display to remove the mailing address of the registrant and administrative contact, the mailing address and telephone number of the technical contact and all of the information of the billing contact. The formal announcement from SGNIC can be found at http:⁄⁄sgnic.sg⁄news⁄sgnic-sg-whois-changes-2-may-2012.

The subscribers can access the searchable WHOIS feature from VIP Registry website. To access this feature, the subscriber would have to apply for access to the feature and sign an agreement with VIP Registry. VIP Registry reserves the right not to approve the application. Upon approval, the subscriber would be given an unique login to ensure non-abusive use of this feature. The search is also protected by Image Verification Check (IVC). The access to this service will be monitored by VIP Registry. Any abuse detected by VIP Registry will be severely dealt with and the access of the offending subscriber will be revoked immediately.

All subscribers will agree to abide by all applicable privacy laws and policies as stated in the Searchable WHOIS Subscription Agreement.

WHOIS Data Watch Service
VIP Registry will provide a service for alerts on WHOIS information change. Any changes on the WHOIS data will be alerted to the previous and the new email address of the registrant contact. VIP Registry shall provide the services for free but reserves the right to impose a fee on the service. This feature provides extra security to ensure accuracy of the WHOIS information. 

WHOIS Query Control
The WHOIS service has the capability to perform query limit to avoid bulk access. The registry has the flexibility to amend the rate limit any time. To avoid further access to the registrant information, the search do not allow query on the registrant name. The search will return exact match results to avoid harvesting of related matching records. 

WHOIS and Privacy
VIP Registry shall provide access to registrant information to the extent compatible with applicable privacy laws and policies. VIP Registry shall not use the WHOIS data to send any unsolicited email to registrants, to solicit registrants by telephone or to otherwise engage in unauthorized uses of their data. VIP Registry shall not sell any WHOIS data to third party under any circumstances. 

Registrars will agree to abide by all applicable privacy laws and policies as stated in the Registry Registrar Agreement. Registrars shall require customers to enter into an agreement prohibiting the customer from using the WHOIS database to send email, contact by phone or use it for other commercial purposes. 

Registrars are required to post privacy policies that provide clear and complete notice to registrants of the type of data that will be collected, the use of such data in operating the registry service and correct data maintained by VIP Registry. Such data are required for submission of domain registration.

System Network and Hardware:
For optimum effect of WHOIS server, minimum 2 WHOIS servers will be provisioned. 2 database servers are provisioned as replicated secondary database cluster from the production site. A backup WHOIS server is setup for disaster recovery purposes in the primary data center. The network diagram is attached.

Interconnectivity and Synchronization
A replicated secondary database cluster is configured to replicate data from the main database in the SRS system. The secondary database will provide WHOIS query and data access for reports. The replication will be done using MySQL bidirectional geographical replication feature which is near real time and providing active-active hot site. The monitoring system will probe the services in the SRS in real time. 

Source (SRS) to Destination (WHOIS)
- A secondary database cluster will be installed for providing the WHOIS response. The synchronisation is done using bidirectional database replication. The data are replicated to secondary database within mili seconds.

WHOIS Output
The WHOIS server is based on a template system for both web interface and command line based WHOIS. The templates can be configured and changed in real time. The standard WHOIS output format is as below:

Sample WHOIS Output (Search By Domain):
Domain Name:EXAMPLE.VIP
Created On:18-Feb-1996 05:00:00 UTC
Last Updated On:26-Mar-2010 16:53:27 UTC
Expiration Date:19-Feb-2015 05:00:00 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-VIP)
Status:DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:VIP-0000012
Registrant Name:Registration Department
Registrant Organization:Domain Company.
Registrant Street1: 1511 Hayden Rd.
Registrant Street2:Ste 160, PMB 353
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Scottsdale
Registrant State⁄Province:Arizona
Registrant Postal Code:85260
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.4806242599
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:+1.4806242598
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:admin@example.com
Admin ID:VIP-22131674
Admin Name:Registration Department
Admin Organization:Domain Company.
Admin Street1:1511 Hayden Rd.
Admin Street2:Ste 160, PMB 353
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Scottsdale
Admin State⁄Province:Arizona
Admin Postal Code:85260
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.4806242599
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:+1.4806242598
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:admin@example.com
Tech ID:VIP-12131674
Tech Name:Registration Department
Tech Organization:Domain Company
Tech Street1:1511 Hayden Rd.
Tech Street2:Ste 160, PMB 353
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Scottsdale
Tech State⁄Province:Arizona
Tech Postal Code:85260
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.4806242599
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:+1.4806242598
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:admin@example.com
Name Server:NS1.EXAMPLE.VIP
Name Server:NS2.EXAMPLE.VIP
DNSSEC:Signed
DS Created 1:26-Mar-2010 16:52:50 UTC
DS Maximum Signature Life 1:3456000 seconds
DS Key Tag 1:54135
Algorithm 1:5
Digest Type 1:1
Digest 1:225F055ACB65C8B60AD18B3640062E8C23A5FD89
DS Created 2:26-Mar-2010 16:53:27 UTC
DS Maximum Signature Life 2:3456000 seconds
DS Key Tag 2:54135
Algorithm 2:5
Digest Type 2:2
Digest 2:6CDE2DE97F1D07B23134440F19682E7519ADDAE180E20B1B1EC52E7F58B2831D

If the information does not exist, WHOIS will display a message e.g. “No Record Found”.
Sample WHOIS Output (Search By Host or Host IP: For Searchable WHOIS Subscribers Only):

Hostname: ns1.fivio.vip
Created On:18-Feb-1996 05:00:00 UTC
Last Updated On:26-Mar-2010 16:53:27 UTC
Expiration Date:19-Feb-2015 05:00:00 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-VIP)
IP address: 202.11.11.90
IP address: 202.11.11.91

Sample WHOIS Output (Search By Registrar Name, Address, Phone etc: For Searchable WHOIS Subscribers Only):
Registrar Name: Example Registrar, Inc.
Street: 1234 Admiralty Way
City: Marina del Rey
State⁄Province: CA
Postal Code: 90292
Country: US
Phone Number: +1.3105551212
Fax Number: +1.3105551213
NEW GTLD AGREEMENT SPECIFICATIONS
Email: registrar@example.tld
WHOIS Server: whois.example-registrar.tld
Referral URL: http:⁄⁄www. example-registrar.tld
Admin Contact: Joe Registrar
Phone Number: +1.3105551213
Fax Number: +1.3105551213
Email: joeregistrar@example-registrar.tld
Admin Contact: Jane Registrar
Phone Number: +1.3105551214
Fax Number: +1.3105551213
Email: janeregistrar@example-registrar.tld
Technical Contact: John Geek
Phone Number: +1.3105551215
Fax Number: +1.3105551216
Email: johngeek@example-registrar.tld

Sample WHOIS Output (Search By Registrant ID: For Searchable WHOIS Subscribers Only):
Registrant ID:VIP-0000012
Created On:18-Feb-1996 05:00:00 UTC
Last Updated On:26-Mar-2010 16:53:27 UTC
Expiration Date:19-Feb-2015 05:00:00 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-VIP)
Registrant Name:Registration Department
Registrant Organization:Domain Company.
Registrant Street1: 1511 Hayden Rd.
Registrant Street2:Ste 160, PMB 353
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Scottsdale
Registrant State⁄Province:Arizona
Registrant Postal Code:85260
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.4806242599
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:+1.4806242598
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:admin@example.com

Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)
The same templates that are used for the English version will be used for IDN display. Users will have to convert the domain name to xn—before executing the query. 

IPv6 Address
Any hostname submitted with IPv6 AAAA record will be displayed. 

Resource and Operation Plan
Qinetics will deploy the Registry Service of VIP Registry using its existing system and infrastructure. During the implementation of VIP Registry, new server hardware will be provisioned for WHOIS services. The Data Center Engineer will perform the server provisioning and installation of OS. Once the hardware is provisioned, System Administrator shall continue to install the required software and perform security configurations. On the other hand, the Database Administrator will ensure the database cluster work fine across geographically different data centers. The assigned Software Developer will configure the WHOIS display template into the WHOIS system. Once done, the Test Engineer will perform rigorous testing procedures to ensure the system performs according to specifications. Upon the testing is fully completed, the WHOIS system shall be hand-over to System Administrator to perform deployment to production environment. Throughout the process, a Project Manager is assigned to perform project management and overall control on the implementation. The Project Manager will conduct training to the registry users on the functionalities of the system. The WHOIS setup shall be completed within 2 weeks.

The system will be in maintenance mode after the System is deployed. The WHOIS will be supported by general helpdesk support for enquiries. Any support issue related to WHOIS will be escalated to the Application Support Engineer for trouble shooting. System Administrator is tasked to monitor the EPP availability. Whenever there is a support ticket, Application Support Engineer and System Administrator will further escalate the support request base on severity. The emergency response team will be triggered whenever there is a catastrophe scenario at the highest severity. 

Once a remedy is identified, Test Engineer will perform testing on the fixes before deployment by System Administrator. During maintenance, the outsourced party has committed 4 resources for the 24 x 7 helpdesk, 4 data center engineers, 2 application support engineers, 1 support manager, 1 test engineer and 2 system administrators. As part of on going policy changes, a team of software developer is available for any standards upgrade to the WHOIS and the changes will trigger the change request procedure in accordance to CMMI standards.

Compliance Table (Specification 4)
The table showing our compliance to specification 4 is attached.

Registration (1 to 10 years)
A .VIP domain name can be registered for a span of 1 to 10 years.
1. Active Period
A .VIP domain name becomes ACTIVE immediately upon being registered, meaning that it is no longer available for registration. The WHOIS record of the newly registered domain is created upon registration. A .VIP domain name can be active for 1-10 years depending on the duration of the registration term selected by the registrant. A .VIP domain name can be transferred from one registrar to another while it is in ACTIVE state. The domain will have OK status.

2. Registry-Lock
This condition can only be set by the registry. A .VIP domain name with this status cannot be transferred, modified or deleted by its registrar. The domain can however be renewed. The domain will be resolvable as it is included in the registry zone files if the domain has been delegated to at least one name server. The domain will have serverTransferProhibited, serverUpdateProhibited, serverDeleteProhibited statuses.

3. Registry-Hold
This condition can only be set by the registry. A .VIP domain with this status cannot be transferred, modified or deleted by its registrar. The domain can however be renewed. The domain will not be resolvable as it is not included in the registry zone files. The domain will have serverHold Status.

Renewal
A .VIP domain name can be renewed up to a maximum period of 10 years. The following are the rules that govern the renewal of a domain name:
• The request to renew a domain name should contain the Period parameter to identify the number of years to be added to the registration. If not provided, the system provides a default one year renewal.
• The request to renew a domain name must contain the current expiration date. This is required to ensure that repeated attempts to retry this command do not result in multiple successful renewals.
• The system renews the domain name for the period specified by the registrar. If the domain name renewal is completed successfully, the system returns the new registration expiration date in the response.
• The number of years requested plus the time of the remaining registration period cannot exceed 10 years. Registration periods are capped at 10 years per the agreements between VIP Registry and ICANN. Any attempt to create a registration period longer than 10 years will be rejected with an error response code. For example, if a registration has 18 months remaining until expiration and 9 years are requested for the renewal, the request would be rejected. The resulting period would be 10 years and 6 months - this is not allowed because it is greater than 10 years.

The state diagram of the .VIP domain life cycle is attached.

Grace periods are available for billable EPP commands to account for errors and support the auto-renewal model. The applicable grace period information is returned in the domain info EPP XML response.

Add Grace Period 
The Add Grace Period is a specified number of calendar days following the initial registration of the domain. The proposed Add Grace Period is 5 calendar days. The domain could be in OK or prohibited statuses.

If a Delete, Renew, or Transfer operation occurs within the 5 calendar days, the following rules shall apply:
• Delete. If a domain name is deleted within the Add Grace Period, the sponsoring registrar will be refunded the amount of the registration fee. The domain name is immediately deleted from the registry database and available for registration by any registrar. If a domain name is deleted after the 5 calendar day grace period expires, it will be placed in the Redemption Period Status for 30 calendar days and then deleted via the system after going through a 5 calendar day Pending Delete Period. 
• Renew. If a domain name is renewed within the Add Grace Period, there will be no grace period credit for the registration fee. In addition to the initial registration charge, the sponsoring registrar will be charged for the number of years the domain name is renewed up to a maximum resulting registration period of not more than 10 years. 
• Transfer. A domain name may not be transferred within the Add Grace Period. Registrants are prohibited from changing registrars within the first 60 days of the initial registration of the domain name.

Add Grace Period Consensus Policy
If a domain is deleted within the Add Grace Period, the sponsoring registrar is credited for the amount of the registration fee. However, the Add Grace Period Consensus Policy limits the number of deletes within the grace period that are allowed per registrar. It is the intention of this Policy is to limit the behavior known as “domain tasting” through modifications to the Add Grace Period (AGP) process.

The Add Grace Period Consensus Policy can be found on the ICANN website at http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄tlds⁄agp-policy-17dec08-en.htm

VIP Registry will not offer any refund to an ICANN accredited registrar for any domain names deleted during the AGP that exceed (i) 10% of that registrarʹs net new registrations (calculated as the total number of domain name registrations of one-year through ten-year registrations) in that month, or (ii) fifty (50) domain names, whichever is greater, unless an exemption has been granted by the registry. The calculation will be done automatically by the system. 

A registrar may seek an exemption from the registry from the application of such restrictions in a specific month under special circumstances. A report would have to be presented to the registry by the registrar requesting for the exemption stating the circumstances and that the registrar was unable to prevent the deletions from taking place. The acceptance of any exemption will be at the sole and reasonable discretion of the registry, however special circumstances which reoccur regularly for the same registrar will not be deemed acceptable and will be rejected as a reason. 

Example:
If a registrar has 1,000 net new registrations, had its account with the registry auto-debited for US$5,000 (based on a price of US$5 per domain name registration), and had 250 AGP deletes, the Registrar would be entitled to a refund of US$500 for 100 AGP deletes (10% of 1,000 net new registrations at US$5 per domain name registration). The registrar would not be eligible for a refund of US$750 for the additional 150 deletes made.

Renew Grace Period 
The Renew Grace Period is a specified number of calendar days following the renewal⁄extension of a domain name registration period. The proposed Renew Grace Period is 5 calendar days. The domain could be in OK or prohibited statuses.

If a Delete, Renew, or Transfer occurs within that 5 calendar days, the following rules apply:
• Delete: If a domain name is deleted within the Renew Grace Period, the sponsoring registrar will be refunded the renewal fee. The domain then enters the Redemption Grace Period unless the deletion occurs during the 5 day Add Grace Period. 
• Renew A domain name can be renewed up to a total of 10 years. If a domain name is renewed within the Renew Grace Period, there will be no grace period credit for the renewal fee. The sponsoring registrar will be charged the renewal fee for each of the additional number of years the domain name is renewed. 
• Transfer: If a domain name is transferred within the Renew Grace Period, the number of years that was renewed for the domain name will still be valid.

If a domain name is deleted and then restored or if a domain name transfer is approved or auto-approved [within the grace period], then the domain name is no longer considered to be in the renew grace period.

Transfer Grace Period 
The Transfer Grace Period is a specified number of calendar days following the completion of a domain name transfer, The proposed Transfer Grace Period is 5 calendar days. The domain could be in OK or prohibited statuses.

If a Delete, Renew, or Transfer operation occurs within the 5 calendar days, the following rules apply: 
• Delete. If a domain is deleted within the Transfer Grace Period, the sponsoring registrar will be refunded the registration fee. 
• Renew. If a domain is renewed within the Transfer Grace Period, there will be no grace period credit for the transfer fee. In addition to the transfer fee, the registrar will be charged for the number of years the registration is renewed resulting in a registration period of not more than 10 years.
• Transfer. A domain can be transferred to another registrar within the Transfer Grace Period. There will be no refund for the transfer fees. The gaining registrar will be charged for the transfer fee. 

If a domain is deleted and then restored or if a domain transfer is approved or auto-approved [within the grace period], then it is considered no longer to be in the transfer grace period.

Auto-renew Grace Period 
The Auto-Renew Grace Period is a specified number of calendar days following the completion of the auto-renewal (via batch process) of the domain name. The proposed Auto-Renew Grace Period is 45 calendar days. The domain will be in Expired status.

If the sponsoring registrar does not renew the domain name prior to its expiration date, the registry automatically renews the domain for 1 year. The renewal of the domain name is executed by the registry system the day prior to the expiration date via a batch process. The sponsoring registrar has 45 calendar days to delete the domain and receive a refund for the domain name renewal fee. 

If a Delete, Renew, or Transfer operation occurs within the 45 calendar days, the following rules apply:
• Delete. If a domain name is deleted within the Auto-Renew Grace Period, the sponsoring registrar will be refunded the renewal fees.
• Renew. A domain name can be renewed up to a total of 10 years. If a domain name is renewed within the Auto-Renew Grace Period, there will be no grace period credit for the renewal fee. 
• Transfer. If a domain name transfer is approved or auto-approved within the Auto-renewal Grace Period, the losing registrar is refunded the renewal fees..
 
Overlapping Grace Periods 
If an operation is performed that falls into more than one grace period, the actions appropriate for each grace period apply as follows:
• If a domain is deleted within the Add Grace Period and the renew Grace Period, then the registrar is credited the registration and renew amounts, taking into account the number of years for which the registration and renewal were done. 
• If several billable operations, including transfers, are performed on a domain and the domain is deleted within the grace periods of each of those operations, only those operations that were performed after the latest successful transfer, including the latest transfer, are credited to the current registrar. 
• If a domain is deleted within one or several transfer Grace Periods, then only the current sponsoring registrar is credited for the last transfer amount. For example, if a domain is transferred from Registrar A to Registrar B, and then to Registrar C and finally deleted by Registrar C within the Transfer Grace Period of the first, second, and third transfers, then only the last transfer is credited to Registrar C.

NOTE: There is no special logic for renewals within any grace period. For example, if a domain is renewed within the Transfer Grace Period, then the current registrar’s account is debited for the number of years the registration is renewed. 

5. Pending Period
Pending Periods are defined as a specified number of calendar days following a specific operation during which certain operations are prohibited. The following subsections define the length of each pending period and the operations that are allowed within each pending period.

Types of Pending Periods 
There are three Pending Periods - Redemption Period, Pending Restore, and Pending Delete. 
NOTE: These three periods correspond to the following statuses in EPP – redemptionPeriod, pendingRestore, and pendingDelete.

When a delete domain request is successful, the domain is placed on redemptionPeriod status for 30 days. During this 30-day Redemption Period, the domain can be restored if the registrar submits a successful Restore request and Restore Report. 

The successful restore request changes the domain to pendingRestore status and subsequently, the successful Restore Report replaces the pendingRestore status with the ok status

If a domain in pendingRestore status does not have a Restore Report successfully submitted within the 7 day pending period Pending Restore Period, then the domain is moved to the beginning of a new 30 day Redemption Period.

If the domain is not successfully restored within the 30 day Redemption Period, then the domain is changed to pendingDelete status. The domain remains in the Pending Delete Period for 5 days before it is purged and made immediately available for registration.

Redemption Period
The proposed Redemption Period is 30 calendar days. When a domain name is deleted outside of the Add Grace period, it is placed on redemptionPeriod status for 30 days. 

The Redemption Period status does NOT apply to domain names deleted within the 5 day Add Grace Period. If a domain name is deleted within the 5 day Add Grace Period, it is immediately purged from the registry, and immediately made available for registration.

The Redemption Period is designed to help registrars defend against inadvertent deletions. By placing the domain name on Redemption Period status for 30 days, the registrar has a sufficient time to realise the deletion and restore it, and not worry about the domain name being purged from the registry.

Pending Restore Period
The proposed Pending Restore Period is 7 calendar days. A domain stays in the redemptionPeriod status for 30 days OR until a successful RESTORE command places the domain on pendingRestore status. 

The domain name stays in pendingRestore status for 7 calendar days or until a Restore Report is received from the Registrar and verified to be complete.

If a domain in pendingRestore status does not have a Restore Report successfully submitted within the 7 day pending period, then the domain is moved to the beginning of a new 30 day Redemption Period.

Pending Delete Period
The proposed Pending Delete Period is 5 calendar days. A domain name that is deleted outside of the Add Grace Period, and does not have a RESTORE command issued during the 30 day Redemption Period is placed into the Pending Delete Period.

Once a domain enters the Pending Delete Period, it cannot be restored. The domain stays in pendingDelete status for 5 days and then it is purged from the system at the end of the 5 days. It should be noted that no EPP operations can be performed on domains with the pendingDelete status.

Pending Transfer Period
The proposed Pending Transfer Period is 5 calendar days. A successful TRANSFER REQUEST command will place the domain on pendingTransfer status for 5 days or until the transfer is explicitly approved, rejected, cancelled, or auto-approved. 

The sponsoring registrar (also referred to as the losing registrar) has 5 calendar days to approve or reject the request. If the potential winning registrar receives an approve response, then the domain is automatically transferred. If the potential gaining registrar receives a reject response, then the pendingTransfer status is removed. If the potential gaining registrar does not receive any response by the end of 5 calendar days, then the request is automatically approved.

Resource and Operations Plan
Qinetics will deploy the Registry Service of VIP Registry using its existing system and infrastructure. The assigned Software Developer will configure the domain life cycle into the system. Once done, the Test Engineer will perform rigorous testing procedures to ensure the system performs according to specifications. Upon the testing is fully completed, the configurations shall be hand-over to System Administrator to perform deployment to production environment. Throughout the process, a Project Manager is assigned to perform project management and overall control on the implementation. The Project Manager will conduct training to the registry users on the domain life cycle of the system. The domain life cycle setup shall be completed within 2 weeks.
The system will be in maintenance mode after the System is deployed. The domain life cycle will be supported by general helpdesk support for enquiries. Any support issue related to domain life cycle will be escalated to the Application Support Engineer for trouble shooting. Whenever there is a support ticket, Application Support Engineer will further escalate the support request base on severity. The emergency response team will be triggered whenever there is a catastrophe scenario at the highest severity. 

Once a remedy is identified, Test Engineer will perform testing on the fixes before deployment by System Administrator. During maintenance, the outsourced party has committed 4 resources for the 24 x 7 helpdesk, 2 application support engineers, 1 support manager, 1 test engineer and 2 system administrators. As part of on going policy changes, a team of software developer is available for any standards upgrade to the domain life cycle and the changes will trigger the change request procedure in accordance to CMMI standards.

VIP Registry shall allocate resources from its Operation team to the following finance and billing activities:
- Refund and billing activities with the registrars;
- Discrepancies on billing with the registrars;
- Reconcile the billing on the accounts and the systems

VIP Registry relies on the automated system for calculation of billing and refund activities based on the logics of the Registration Life Cycle as described in this section. The Operation Manager of VIP Registry will lead the administration for the finance and billing function.

VIP Registry recognizes that the abusive uses of domain names, such as phishing, spamming and distribution of malware, are growing problem across the Internet. These behaviors are increasingly perpetrated by professional criminals who use technically and socially sophisticated means to victimize the public and misuse Internet resources.

VIP Registry will adopt an anti-abuse use policy that is designed to benefit registrants, registrars and end-users of .VIP domain names across the Internet. It will define the abusive practices with respect to .VIP domain names and outline the prevention and mitigation effort towards these practices.

Implementation Plan
1. Single Abuse Point of Contact

VIP Registry will establish an Implementation Plan for handling complaints about abuse, as following:
• Registry will prominently publish abuse contact information on its website;
• The abuse contact will prominently displayed on its webpage, and a uniform naming convention will be utilized to facilitate discovery of the website;
• The abuse contact information shall consist of telephone and email address. The email address may be an alias, not a specific person’s name, to manage operational efficiency;
• Request submitted by verified law enforcement agencies to this contact will receive an acknowledgement of receipt from the registry within 24 hours; and
• The contact at the registry will be empowered to act in response to a well-founded report of illegal, criminal or malicious activity involving .VIP domain name registration.

Policies for Handling Complaints regarding Abuse
1. Scope of Jurisdiction
VIP Registry’s area of jurisdiction for handling complaints is only limited to matters related to the .VIP domain names. It does not have the authority to handle complaints related to other Top Level Domains (TLDs), web hosting, email services and objectionable website content.

2. Anti-Abuse Use Policy
a. Registrar
VIP Registry intends to incorporate Anti Abuse Use Policy into the VIP Registry Registrar Agreement (RRA). Registrars should not tolerate abusive use related to .VIP domain names for which they act as sponsoring registrars. 

Under the provision of the Registry Registrar Agreement (RRA), Registrar shall promptly investigate complaints alleging any such abusive practices, and shall take all appropriate actions based upon such investigations. Registrar shall use commercially reasonable effort to resolve the complaints, as request or recommended by the registry or any legal authority. 

Registrar’s failure to comply with the policy shall constitute a material breach of the RRA, and shall give rise to the rights and remedies available to the registry under the RRA. 

b. Registry 
Pursuant to the RRA, VIP Registry reserve the right to deny, cancel, or transfer any registration or transaction, or place any domain name(s) on registry lock or hold, in its discretion, with the aim to:
• Protect the security and stability of the DNS;
• Comply with any applicable court order, laws, government rules and requests of law enforcement;
• Comply with any dispute resolution process;
• Comply with the terms of Registration Agreement;
• Avoid any liability, civil or criminal, on the part of the registry, as well as its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors and employees;
• Correct mistakes of the registry or any registrars with regards to .VIP domain registration.

VIP Registry reserves the right to place upon registry lock, hold or similar status a domain name during resolution of a dispute.

Glue Records
VIP Registry does not allow orphan glue records. Glue records are removed when (or required to be removed before) the delegation point NS record is removed. Other domain names that need the glue record for correct DNS operation may become unreachable or less reachable depending on their settings of DNS service.

Resource Plan
Anti-Abuse Desk
VIP Registry will have a management staff (i.e. Operations Manager) to spearhead the setting up of an anti-abuse desk, dedicated to handle all matters with regards to abuse. An Administrative Executive will be hired to assist the Operations Manager for the handling of abuse complaints, shall the workload increase.

VIP Registry will intend to engage external providers to resolve the abuse complaints, such as:
• Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS), as drafted by ICANN; 
• Rapid Takedown, as similar service engaged by ICM Registry (the operator of .XXX TLD); or⁄and
• Legal professional to deal with any legal matters arise. 

The budget for the engagement of the legal professional is provisioned in the projection forecast in Template 1. The fees for the URS and Rapid Takedown would be borne by the complainant.

Joining Working Groups
To keep up with knowledge in dealing with anti-abuse issues and mitigation practises, VIP Registry intends to participate in Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). The APWG is the global pan-industrial and law enforcement association focused on eliminating fraud and identity theft that result from phishing, pharming, and email spoofing of all types. The APWG also focuses on policy-related issues associated with the DNS to examine abuses of the DNS that may require remediation. 

VIP Registry may also tap into the forum of Registry Internet Safety Group (RISG). The purpose of RiSG is to facilitate dialogue, affect change, and promulgate best practices to combat domain name abuse, Internet identity theft in all its forms and malware distribution. The member registry operators are examining anti-abuse best practices and use cases for registries, and opportunities for data sharing. 

WHOIS Accuracy
VIP Registry intends to outline measures to promote WHOIS accuracy that to be undertaken by the registry directly or by the registrars via the requirements in the VIP Registry-Registrar Agreement (RRA).

VIP Registry intends to incorporate the WHOIS Accuracy policy into the RRA where Registrars are required to regularly monitor registration data for accuracy and completeness. 

Registrar shall use commercially reasonable effort to monitor and check on the registration data, as requested or recommended by the registry. 

Registrar’s failure to comply with the policy shall constitute a material breach of the RRA, and shall give rise to the rights and remedies available to the registry under the RRA. 

Authentication of registrant information
.VIP domain name is for open registration and generic use TLD. VIP Registry (via its registrars) will perform authentication of the registrant information as complete and accurate during Sunrise registration. 

Regular Monitoring of Registration Data for Accuracy and Completeness
VIP Registry will randomly sample WHOIS data from the registry database daily, and will check on the registration data for accuracy and completeness. Any WHOIS irregularities or inaccuracies found during the sampling will be forwarded to the sponsoring registrars for their subsequent remedies. 

Any failure to remedy the situation in a timely fashion may result the domain name to be treated as violation of Registration Agreement, where anti-abuse domain use policy shall be enforced.

VIP Registry will rely on the WHOIS Data Reminder Policy (WDRP) set down by ICANN for the accredited registrars to ensure the WHOIS data of all .VIP domain names are at least reviewed once a year for accuracy.

VIP Registry provides a Data Watch service which will will email the new and old registrant contact address when there is a change in contact information for the domain. This mechanism works as a counter check measurement to ensure that the registrant validates that the information. The registrant can contact VIP Registry through the anti-abuse helpdesk.

Policies and Procedures that define malicious or abusive behavior 
1. Definition of Abuse
VIP Registry does not tolerate the abusive use of its domain name, which causes security and stability issues for the registry, registrars and the general Internet community. VIP Registry defines abusive use as the wrong use of power, position or ability and includes but is not limited to the following:
- Illegal or fraudulent actions;
- Any form of spam i.e. email spam, messaging spam etc;
- Phishing which involves the use of bogus websites to obtain personal information;
- Pharming which involves redirecting unknowing users to fraudulent websites to obtain personal information;
- Willful dissemination of malware;
- Fast-flux hosting which involves the use of DNS to frequently change the location of a website to hide its location or host illegal activities; and
- Botnet command and control.

Establishing Service Level Requirement for resolution
2. Participating in Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS)
VIP Registry will cooperate with ICANN for the implementation of URS, shall the policies and procedures are finalized. The involvement of the registry for the scope of URS shall include the followings:
• Upon completion of the Administrative Review, the URS Provider will immediately notify the registry (via email) (“Notice of Compliant”) after the Compliant has deemed compliant with the filing requirements. Within 24 hours of receipt of the Notice of Complaint from the URS Provider, the registry shall “lock” the domain name, meaning the registry shall restrict all changes to the registration data, including transfer and deletion of the domain names, but the name will continue to resolve. The registry will notify the URS provider immediately upon locking the domain name (“Notice of Lock”).
• If after the Examination in Default case, the Examiner rules in favor of the Registrant, the URS provider shall notify the registry. Upon receiving the official notice from the URS provider, the registry will unblock the name and return full control of the domain name registration to the Registrant.
• If the Determination is in favor of the Complainant, upon receiving the official decision from the URS provider, the registry will suspend the domain name, which shall remain suspended for the balance of the registration period and would not resolve to the original web site. The nameservers shall be re-directed to an informational web page provided by the USR Provider. 
• The Registry will incorporate URS into the Registration policies, as a takedown measures and procedures to minimize abusive registration. 

3. Alternative use of Rapid Takedown Dispute Resolution Policies
In the absence of URS, VIP Registry may provide a Rapid Takedown process through engagement with a dispute resolution provider that consists of a response team of qualified expert (qualified UDRP panelist). 

VIP Registry agrees that majority of cases that go through the Uniform Dispute Resolution Process (UDRP) are mainly obvious variant of well-known marks. As such, it would be a waste of time or resources for the most obvious cases of infringement to go through the UDRP filings. VIP Registry may provide a rapid takedown process where a response team of qualified experts (qualified UDRP panellists) will be involved to determine within 48 hours of receipt of a short and simple claim of involving a well-known mark or otherwise inherently distinctive mark and a domain name where no conceivable good faith basis exists. The results may result in an immediate termination of the domain name, but will not prejudice either party’s election to pursue other dispute mechanisms.

4. Service Level for responding to law enforcement requests
In responding to law enforcement requests, VIP Registry will use the provision within the Anti-Abuse Domain Use policy to act quickly to take down sites that are harboring malware, launching phishing attacks, or otherwise being used to launch attacks across the Internet. 

5. Disqualification of Registrant
Traditionally, speculative abusive domain registrations have always attracted a small group of individuals and organizations specializing in high volume registrations due to the profitability of abusive registrations. VIP Registry may disqualify any registrants that have been found to be making abusive registrations and their agents or any parties determined to be acting in cahoots will also be disqualified from maintaining any registrations or making future registrations in the .VIP TLD.

Control for proper access to domain function
VIP Registry intends to outline measures to promote access control to domain functions by the registrars. The measures to be outlined in the RRA shall include:
• Requiring strong passwords from registrants to process update, transfers and deletion requests;
• Requiring the notification of multiple, unique points of contact when a domain has been updated, transferred or deleted. 

VIP Registry shall implement and adhere to any Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) that may be mandated by ICANN from time to time. Additional RPMs as further described below may also be developed and implemented by VIP Registry to discourage and prevent abusive domain name registrations. All RPMs mandated by ICANN and independently developed by VIP Registry will be included in the VIP Registry registry-registrar agreement.

Compliance with RPM mandated by ICANN
Trademark Clearinghouse
VIP Registry will use Trademark Clearinghouse to support its pre-launch or initial launch period rights protection mechanism (RPMs). These RPMs, at minimum, will consist of a Trademark Claim service and a Sunrise process.

VIP Registry agrees to adhere to the Clause 6 ‘Mandatory Rights Protection Mechanisms’ and Clause 7 ‘Protection for Marks in Clearinghouse’ of the Trademark Clearinghouse attachment to the DAG. 

VIP Registry shall also take reference to the Trademark Notice as attached in the same document. 

VIP Registry has allocated budget as cost of sales to pay Trademark Clearinghouse for the Trademark Claims and Sunrise service. 

Uniform Rapid Suspension System (“URS”)
VIP Registry will cooperate with ICANN for the implementation of URS, shall the policies and procedures are finalized. The involvement of the registry for the scope of URS shall include the followings:
• Upon completion of the Administrative Review, the URS Provider will immediately notify the registry (via email) (“Notice of Compliant”) after the Compliant has deemed compliant with the filing requirements. Within 24 hours of receipt of the Notice of Complaint from the URS Provider, the registry shall “lock” the domain name, meaning the registry shall restrict all changes to the registration data, including transfer and deletion of the domain names, but the name will continue to resolve. The registry will notify the URS provider immediately upon locking the domain name (“Notice of Lock”).
• If after the Examination in Default case, the Examiner rules in favor of the Registrant, the URS provider shall notify the registry. Upon receiving the official notice from the URS provider, the registry will unblock the name and return full control of the domain name registration to the Registrant.
• If the Determination is in favor of the Complainant, upon receiving the official decision from the URS provider, the registry will suspend the domain name, which shall remain suspended for the balance of the registration period and would not resolve to the original web site. The nameservers shall be re-directed to an informational web page provided by the USR Provider. 
• The Registry will incorporate URS into the Registration policies, as a takedown measures and procedures to minimize abusive registration. 

Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (Trademark PDDRP)
As part of the intended Registry Agreement, VIP Registry agrees to participate in all post delegation procedures and be bound by the resulting Determinations. 

Registry Restriction Dispute Resolution Procedure (RRDRP)
.VIP TLD is a generic use TLD and there is no intention to set out any registration restriction in the Registry Agreement. At such, it is unclear if the RRDRP would apply with VIP Registry. 

Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)
VIP Registry will adopt UDRP within the Registration Agreement and also be adopted by the registrars. Essentially, the UDRP is a policy between a registrar and its customer and is included in registration agreements for all ICANN-accredited registrars. 

Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy (TDRP)
The Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy (TDRP) applies to transactions in which a domain-name holder transfers or attempts to transfer a domain name to a new registrar. The TDRP concerns registrar disputes under the Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy.

VIP Registry will support the TDRP, and the proceedings may be filed with an independent dispute resolution provider (i.e. HKIRC). 

Additional Measures Specific to Rights Protection
Sunrise Program for Registrant Pre-Verification
VIP Registry intends to adopt a Sunrise Program that has the following details:
RPMs 
- Sunrise with three phases:
Phase 1: Sunrise for Governments
Phase 2: Sunrise for registered trade marks
Phase 3: Sunrise for company names

- Schedule ⁄ Length of Sunrise 
Phase 1: 4 weeks
Phase 2: 4 weeks
Phase 3: 4 weeks
Landrush: 2 weeks
General Availability

- Term of Registration
Sunrise: Two years minimum
Open registration: One year minimum, ten year maximum

- Submission Process
a) Via VIP Registry accredited registrars.
b) All applications under each Sunrise phase deemed to have arrived at the same time. Electronic auctions held between eligible competing applicants for the same term. 
c) English auction format selected with highest bidder winning. 
d) Auction will be carried out by outsourcing provider.

- Policies Key term
Comply with terms in Trademark Clearing House

- Character strings
Comply with terms in Trademark Clearing House

- Authentication
All application validated by third party Verification Agent, namely Trademark Clearinghouse appointed by ICANN.

- Amendments & Reconsiderations 
a) Verification Agent could request an Amendment Clarification from applicant to correct a typographical mistake. No additional fee charged.
b) Applicant could apply for Reconsideration within seven days of a rejection on the basis of original application or with the provision of further information.

- Supporting information 
Proof of eligibility such as Certified copy of trade mark certificate could be requested by Verification Agent. Certified translations of such document into English could also be requested.

- Challenge Mechanism 
a) Sunrise Registration Challenge Policy administered by TCH or Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC)
b) During .VIP domain auction, an invited bidder who disputed the entitlement of a competing bidder must notify VIP Registry and initiate a dispute prior to the commencement of the auction. 
c) HKIAC will administer the Challenge Process for Pioneer Names. 

- Disputes 
All registrants agree to be bound by the UDRP. 

- Dispute provider
Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC)

- Auction 
a) Selecting auctions between competing applicants rather than First Come First Served.
b) Pre-validation offer by Validation agent. Pre-validation applications were to assign a code with which permitted instant approval following submission to the registry. 

- Pioneer Program
Pioneer Program allocates desirable names to applicant who competed via a provision of Business Plans stating why they deserved a term. Applications accompanied by a deposit, and shall return to winning applicant when they showed receipts for marketing to the value of the deposit. 

Sunrise Challenge Policy
The Sunrise Challenge Policy shall be applied only during the sunrise period for the .VIP TLD. The challenges under the Sunrise Challenge Policy shall be administered by the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (the “Centre”).

A third-party (the “Challenger”) is required to submit to a mandatory administrative proceeding to seek cancellation, transfer or other changes to a domain name registration, in compliance with the rules that:
• Phase 1: Sunrise for Governments
The corresponding government body objects to the right the applicant claims or fails to acknowledge the application.
•Phase 2: Sunrise for registered trade marks
o The applicant is not the owner, co-owner or assignee of the corresponding registered mark.
o The registered mark was not registered in full force and effect at the time of application of the domain name.
o The applied-for domain names is not a exact match or acceptable match to the textual or word elements of the registered mark which the application of the domain name is based on.
o The registered mark was not registered with a trademark office or trademark registry that corresponds to one of the states or other entities set out in the WIPO Standard ST.3 code.
• Phase 3: Sunrise for company names
o The applied-for domain name does not correspond with the name of the registered entity.
o The applied-for domain name is not an exact match or acceptable match to the textual or word elements of the name of the registered entity which the application of the domain name is based on.

All challenges under this Policy must be submitted to the Centre no later than 120 days after the conclusion of the proposed Sunrise Period. The first challenge to be filed will be granted priority by the Centre if there are multiple challenges for the same domain name. The Centre’s challenge is of an administrative nature and shall be final. The Centre shall not be required to state reasons for its decision.

The fees for the submission of a challenge and its response shall be decided by the Centre prior to the start of the Sunrise Period.

VIP Registry shall not participate in the administration or conduct of any proceeding before the Centre under this Policy. VIP Registry shall also not be liable as a result of any decisions rendered by the Centre.

The Centre shall notify the challenger and VIP Registry of all its decision made under this Policy. If the Centre rules in favor of the challenger and the domain name is to be transferred to the new registrant, the Centre shall provide an authorization code provided by the Registry to transfer the domain name to its preferred registrar and update all the WHOIS information within 30 days that the authorization code is provided.

Abusive Use Policy
VIP Registry does not tolerate the abusive use of its domain name, which causes security and stability issues for the registry, registrars and the general Internet community. VIP Registry defines abusive use as the wrong use of power, position or ability and includes but is not limited to the following:
- Illegal or fraudulent actions;
- Any form of spam i.e. email spam, messaging spam etc;
- Phishing which involves the use of bogus websites to obtain personal information;
- Pharming which involves redirecting unknowing users to fraudulent websites to obtain personal information;
- Wilful dissemination of malware;
- Fast-flux hosting which involves the use of DNS to frequently change the location of a website to hide its location or host illegal activities; and
- Botnet command and control.

In regards to abusive use as defined above, VIP Registry reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration and lock or place any domain name(s) on hold that it deems necessary in its discretion to protect the integrity and stability of the registry and comply with any applicable laws, government rules, requests of law enforcement, or any dispute resolution process. 

Resource Plan
VIP Registry will have a management staff (i.e. Operations Manager) to spearhead the compliance to ICANN policy matters, and enforce our policies for RPMs are adhered by the Registrars and Registrants. An Administrative Executive will be hired to assist the Operational Manager for the policy matters, shall the workload increase. 

During the Sunrise periods, the RPM mechanisms are outsourced to the respective outsourcing partners, namely Trademark Clearing House, URS provider, PDDRP provider, and UDRP providers, Registry backend service provider and legal professionals. Our internal resources are deployed for the following areas:
- Coordination with the providers;
- Liaison with ICANN for the compliance issues;
- Communication with registrars and registrants (where necessary);
- Public relation; and
- Development of new policies. 

During the implementation phase, the software developer of Qinetics shall configure the reserve words based on input by the operations manager and ICANN default reserve list. The developer shall perform the configuration of the sunrise, landrush and general availability phases into the SRS between sunrise cooling periods. 

Upon the completion of the implementation phase, the Test Engineer of Qinetics will perform rigorous testing procedures to ensure that the system performs according to specifications. Once the testing phase is completed, the configuration shall be hand-over to System Administrator to be deployed to the production environment. A Project Manager is assigned to perform project management and overall control during the implementation phase. The Project Manager will conduct training for the registry users on the sunrise, landrush and general availability handling in the system. The setup shall be completed in stages according to the sunrise process. The configuration in each stage shall be completed in 2 weeks.
 
The system will be in maintenance mode after the System is deployed. The Operation Manager and the Administrative Executive of VIP Registry will monitor the registration and WHOIS data daily for any potential trademark issues. They will process the trademark cases and complaints according to policy set by the operations manager. The Operation Team of VIP Registry shall participate in various workgroups to be updated on any new trademark infringement scenarios and best practices. They shall perform policy review and refinement from time to time so that the rights protection policy can cover as many cases as possible. The application support engineer of Qinetics is tasked to maintain the reserve list according to instructions given by the Operation Team of VIP Registry.

Summary of Security Policies
VIP Registry adopts standard registration policies without any specific services related to e.g. financial services. As such Criterion 5 is not applicable to VIP Registry. VIP Registry outsource the technical backend registry service to Qinetics. VIP Registry will deploy Security Policy and Security Measures as adopted by Qinetics. 

The policies established provides a comprehensive approach as highlight below, to identify and prevent unauthorized access, intrusion, loss of information and software error. Qinetics has wide experience on security implementation with successful implementation of ISO27001 in .HK registry system.

• Physical Security
Physical security is provided by data center. Only authorized personnel are allowed to enter the premises of the data center. Below are standard policies set:
o Data Center Access Policy
o Equipment Policy
o Site Visits Policy

• Network Security
This layer protects all equipment in the network from hacker or malicious attack. Another layer of sniffer (IPS) is put in place as second layer of screening. Security alarm will be triggered if there are abnormal activities in the network. Standard policies applied:
o Firewall Policy
o Denial of Services Policy
o System Monitoring Policy

• Host Security
At the server level, governance policy is required to establish control over access to the servers and movement of servers. Below are the standard policies to achieve control over these parameters:
o Server Access Policy

• Application Security
Security is built within the applications running on the servers. The applications are built using the well known Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) security policy 

• General
Other that the above policies, general policies below applied across the network, server, application and data center to ensure system and registrants are well protected:
o Password Policy
o Data Integrity Policy
o System audit Policy
o Security Patch Policy
o Security Response Policy
o Acceptable Use Policy

Security Assessment
Qinetics has engaged independent 3rd party auditor to perform product assessment which is inclusive of security assessment as 1 of the core assessment. The Malaysia MSC Product Assessment & Rating Standard was developed by TUV Rheinland Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., in collaboration with Macrofirm Technology Sdn. Bhd., under the commissioning of the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC). TUV Rheinland Malaysia is a member of TÜV Rheinland Group, a global leader in independent testing and assessment services. The TÜV Rheinland Group was established in 1872, and has offices located in over 490 locations in 61 countries on all five continents. 

Existing software quality evaluation standards were used as the basis for the development and endorsement of the software quality criteria and sub-criteria to be assessed in MSC Malaysia Software Product Assessment and Rating Standard. This is also referred to as the “As-is Situation”. The standards used as the basis for development of this assessment standard are as follows:
• CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) Ver. 1.3 Dev 
• ISO⁄IEC 9126 (Software Engineering – Product Quality) 
• ISO⁄IEC 14598 (Information technology - Software product evaluation) 
• Common Criteria (CC)

In the product assessment, a total of 13 main requirements or criteria, divided into 6 process-related criteria (criteria in which the process of development of the software product is assessed) and 7 product-related criteria (criteria in which the developer’s methods to manage and ensure the actual performance of their software product is assessed), were identified for inclusion in the Standard. These criteria in turn were divided into a further 44 process-related sub-criteria and 32 product-related sub-criteria to make a total of 76 sub-criteria.

Evaluation Report
This evaluation report is based on the findings of the MSC Malaysia Product Assessment & Rating on-site product evaluation. As a supplement to the awarded rating, this report provides recommendations to improve the company’s methods of ensuring product quality.

The MSC Malaysia Product Assessment & Rating rates the product on 13 main criteria which are divided into:
1) Six (6) Process-related criteria, ie. criteria in which the process of development of the software product is assessed.
2) Seven (7) Product-related criteria, ie. criteria in which the developer’s methods to manage and ensure the actual performance of their software product itself is assessed.

Results of the evaluation are as below:
Overall % Compliance 97%
Process-Related Requirements:
- Requirements Management 95%
- Technical Solution 100%
- Product Integration 100%
- Validation 98%
- Verification 100%
- Support 100%

Product-Related Requirements:
- Functionality 100%
- Reliability 100%
- Security 91%
- Usability 92%
- Maintainability 100%
- Portability 96%
- Architectural Principles 97%

A copy of the Product Assessment Evaluation and Rating Report and Product Assessment Certificate is attached.