.nyc Pre-Register Domain - .nyc Domain Information

New York City is one of the world's leading digital metropolises. New York City has long been a foundation for innovation, enabling entrepreneurs to grow, cultivating generations of students, creating world-class infrastructure, and providing an unparalleled quality of life.

New York City government engages over 25 million people a year through more than 250 digital channels including nyc.gov, mobile applications, and social media. As a pioneer in Open Government, New York City government has unlocked thousands of public records, enabling technologists to build tools that help New Yorkers every day, from finding parking spaces to listening to audio tours of Central Park. One of the nation's most connected municipalities, New York City's digital sector growth propelled it to rank second in venture capital funding in 2010. By every digital index, the City of New York is thriving.

In the spring of 2011, Mayor Bloomberg and the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment published the, "Road Map for the Digital City, Achieving New York City's Digital Future." The Road Map for the Digital City outlines a path to build on New York City's successes and establish it as the world's top-ranked Digital City, through commitments to Internet access, Open Government, citizen engagement, and digital industry growth.


The following excerpt from the Road Map expressed New York City's intention to apply to ICANN for the .nyc gTLD.

The City of New York is currently pursuing the introduction of the .nyc top-level domain, a global milestone that will enable innovation and digital services for residents, and economic advantages for businesses. New York City could be one of the world's first cities to operate its own top-level domain, presenting enormous opportunities. The .nyc domain will be administered by a private vendor to be selected by DoITT. The City is currently reviewing vendor candidates that responded to the City's initial Request for Proposals (RFP), and plans to submit its application for the .nyc top-level domain when the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) opens the application process. ICANN's timeline is expected to be finalized after its official June 21, 2011 meeting, and the City of New York plans to apply when the application period opens. Only the vendor selected by New York City government will have the legal right to administer the .nyc domain.

The Road Map for the Digital City further describes how New York City Government, led by the New York City Economic Development Corporation will, in part through a DoITT led pursuit of the .nyc gTLD, continue to support a vibrant digital media sector through a wide array of programs, including workforce development, the establishment of a new engineering institution, and a more streamlined path to do business.

In summary, the City of New York views the .nyc gTLD as an important enabler to achieve the vision and mission described in the Road Map for the Digital City. Below you will find more details concerning how the .nyc gTLD will be operated in a manner that is aimed at serving the needs of New York City organizations, businesses and residents.

The City of New York ("the City") believes that the proposed .nyc gTLD is consistent with the vision and mission described in its Road Map for the Digital City, and has the potential to enable a variety of benefits to the government, organizations, businesses, and residents. These potential benefits include, but are not limited to:  a source of New York City-specific information and online e-commerce for the millions of people who visit the City; business opportunities, leisure activities, or services for City residents; short and memorable Internet addresses and the increased ability to identify authentic New York City resources, businesses and information. The City also views the .nyc gTLD as a means to: enhance City resident, business and visitor access to government services; enable community communications and collaboration; help local businesses to market and thrive; and promote New York City overall.

18.2.1    What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?
The goal of the .nyc gTLD to is provide New York City government, organizations, businesses and residents an online identity that intuitively associates them with The City of New York.  The City also views the .nyc gTLD as an enabler of community organization, collaboration and communications.

The City, through its selected registry services provider, Neustar, intends to provide a high level of service, and an approach that preserves the integrity of the .nyc gTLD (e.g. nexus requirements and pricing that discourages malicious use).

18.2.2    What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
The City of New York anticipates that the .nyc gTLD will enable a new level of integrity to the current space, providing benefits to New York City-based business, organizations, communities and individuals seeking to exchange information, services and goods specific to the City of New York. Through requirements, regulation and enforcement, the .nyc gTLD will help to identify the local New York City origin of information, services and goods to web consumers.

For local businesses and organizations seeking ways to effectively reach local customers, the .nyc gTLD, as supported by the planned Nexus policy, will provide organizations and businesses a means to identify themselves as being associated with The City of New York.

In addition, in collaboration with community-based organizations, the City of New York will reserve selected .nyc community-related names to provide a framework for authentic, local civic engagement. These reserved names will provide a structured, trusted, scalable means for finding and sharing community-related information, events, activities and services across the five boroughs of the City of New York.

The current domain name system has shown that it is vulnerable to malicious abuses due to registration of domain names which seek to exploit consumer confusion. The City will address some of these vulnerabilities by maintaining an active domain name abuse monitoring program that will include the takedown of abusive domain names, the enforcement of a meaningful Nexus policy and measures to promote Whois accuracy as further described in the City's response to Question 28. In addition, since those involved in malicious behavior often seek domain names in gTLDs with low pricing, the City believes its pricing strategy will help to discourage such use.

18.2.3    What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
The .nyc gTLD will enhance user navigation by providing an identifier that closely identifies a website with The City of New York. In addition, short memorable .nyc domain names will enable users (including, but not limited to, tourists planning a trip to the City, citizens seeking government information or services, businesses seeking suppliers or partners, researchers looking for information related to the City) to more easily remember the Internet address or intuitively navigate to a relevant website.

18.2.4    Provide a complete description of the applicant's intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.
The City intends for registrations in the .nyc gTLD to be limited to individuals, businesses, or organizations with a substantive and lawful connection to the City and with a primary residence or genuine physical presence in New York City. In furtherance of this policy, the City, through its selected registry services provider, shall implement the following registration policies:
1. .nyc Nexus Policy
2. Acceptable Use Policy
3. Reserved Names
4. Rights Protection Mechanisms
5. ICANN Consensus Policies

1. .nyc Nexus Policy
The City desires to have only those individuals or entities having a substantive and lawful connection to the City be permitted to register for .nyc domain names ("Nexus Policy"). Nexus compliance is a critical element in ensuring the integrity and reliability of the .nyc gTLD. Each registrant will be required to certify compliance with at least one of the Nexus categories before the domain is ever registered.

All .nyc Registrants must either be:
(i) a natural person whose primary place of domicile is in the City of New York; or
(ii) an entity or organization that has a bona fide presence in the City of New York. Factors that will be considered in determining whether an entity or organization has bona fide presence in the City will include, without limitation, whether such prospective registrant:
(A) regularly performs lawful activities within the City related to the purposes for which the entity or organization is constituted (e.g. selling goods or providing services to customers, conducting regular training activities, attending conferences), provided such activities are not conducted solely or primarily to permit it to register for a .nyc domain name;
(B) maintains an office or other facility in the City for a lawful business, noncommercial, educational or governmental purpose, and not solely or primarily to permit it to register for a .nyc domain name; and
(C) regularly performs lawful activities outside of the City; provided that such activities relate to, or are primarily directed towards residents, tourists, businesses and organizations within the City (e.g. online content related to the City).

In addition, the City will conduct random spot checks of .nyc domain names to determine whether their owners satisfy the applicable Nexus Category.

Domains will be manually reviewed for accuracy of the WHOIS information, and any domain found to contain patently inaccurate information or where there is a high likelihood of a nexus violation will be flagged for further investigation. The sponsoring Registrars of these domain names will be notified of the investigation and the registrants will be required to provide additional evidence that they meet the Nexus requirements.

The City will also provide a mechanism through which the public can submit complaints of abusive .nyc ownership.

Thirty days after forwarding the complaint to the registrar, the current WHOIS data for names that were alleged to be inaccurate will be examined to determine if the information was corrected, the domain name was deleted, or there was some other disposition. If the Registrar has failed to take any action, or it is clear that the Registrant was either unwilling or unable to correct the inaccuracies, the City will have the right to suspend the applicable domain name(s) until such time as the registrant is able to cure the deficiencies.

2. nyc Acceptable Use Policy
The City will adopt an Acceptable Use Policy that clearly defines the types of activities that will not be permitted in the .nyc TLD and will reserve the right of the to lock, cancel, transfer or otherwise suspend or take down domain names violating the Acceptable Use Policy. Each ICANN-accredited registrar must agree to pass through the Acceptable Use Policy to its resellers (if applicable) and ultimately to the gTLD registrants. The Acceptable Use Policy, which is further set out in the City's response to Question 28, prohibits malicious and abusive domain name activities such as phishing, pharming, dissemination of malware, fast flux hosting, hacking, botnetting, child pornography and other fraudulent and illegal activities.

3. Reserved names
The City will have a "reserved names" program aimed at ensuring the value of specific names are realized in terms of utility and revenue generation. The reserved names list will include names that the City believes will: assist residents in locating City government information and services; help businesses and organizations to thrive; facilitate community organization, collaboration and communication; promote tourism and economic development; and prevent user confusion. The City, with the assistance of Neustar, will conduct community outreach to assist with the creation of the final list prior to entering into the agreement with ICANN.

The types of names the City will reserve fall into four distinct categories:
A) names reserved by ICANN for the stability and security of the Internet;
B) names permanently reserved for use by the City or related entities;
C) names reserved for marketing and business development; and
D) names that match, contain misspellings of or are recognizable variations of any of the seven words identified in Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978).

A. Names Reserved by ICANN. The City will comply with Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement requiring it to reserve (i.e., not register, delegate, use of otherwise make available such labels to any third party, but may register such labels in its own name in order to withhold them from delegation or use) certain names. These include:
* The label ʺEXAMPLEʺ
* All two character labels will be initially reserved. Provisions for the release of these names is further described in relation to Question 22: Protection of Geographic Names.
* Tagged domain names (labels with a hyphen (ʺ-ʺ) in the third or fourth positions), which will only be allowed if they represent a valid internationalized domain name (IDN) in their ASCII encoding.
* Second level names for registry operations, defined by ICANN as: NIC, WWW, IRIS, and WHOIS.
* Country and territory names listed on the following internationally recognized lists will be initially reserved:
1. the ISO 3166-1 list including the short form and long form English versions;
2. United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and
3. the list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names

B. Names permanently reserved for use by the City or related entities. Prior to the launch of .nyc, the City will establish a list of reserved second-level domain names to reserve for its own use or disposal. These include names corresponding to: (i) City, State and Federal Government agencies and institutions located within the City; (ii) geographic names and neighborhood names within the City (e.g., Queens.nyc, Brooklyn.nyc, Manhattan.nyc, Staten Island.nyc and, Bronx.nyc); (iii) City trademarks, logos and slogans; and (iv) certain generic domains for use by the City for the benefit of its residents, local businesses and organizations as well as the millions of tourists and vacationers that visit the City each year (e.g., buses.nyc, trains.nyc, subway.nyc, taxi.nyc and weather.nyc). Some of these names will be set aside with the intention of developing them into websites for the benefit of the .nyc local Internet community.

C. Names reserved for marketing and business development. The City will reserve a number of domain names that are to be used by the City and its registry service provider to provide services to domain name registrars and registrants. These will include, but will not be limited to such names as getmy.nyc, about.nyc and buy.nyc. Premium, higher value names, may also be reserved for allocation to registrants using direct brokerage of names to registrants, an RFP process, auction(s) or other means. In each case, per ICANN policy, each of the reserved names that become registered will be registered through an ICANN-accredited registrar.

D. Restricted Names. Names that match, contain misspellings of, or are recognizable variations of, any of the seven words identified in Federal
Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978). This is discussed further in the City's response to Question 28.

4. Rights Protection Mechanisms
The City is committed to following all ICANN rules regarding protecting third party intellectual property rights within the .nyc gTLD. The City plans to implement all Rights Protection Mechanisms ("RPMs") as required by ICANN. These RPMs include the following, which are further explained in the answers to Question 18 Part C and Question 29.
* Trademark Clearinghouse;
* Sunrise and Trademark Claims Processes;
* Implementation of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy; and
* Implementation of the Uniform Rapid Suspension mechanism.

5. ICANN Consensus Policies
The City is aware of and understands all current ICANN consensus policies listed at http://www.icann.org/en/general/consensus-policies.htm, and is committed to comply with all policies during its time as the registry operator for .nyc.

18.2.5    Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.
The City recognizes firsthand that this is an evolving area of law in which there is no single international standard. However, the City has a vested interest in ensuring that accurate and current domain name information is readily available in connection with each .nyc domain name. .nyc will employ a variety of physical, electronic, contractual, and managerial safeguards to protect personal and confidential information within its premises and on its websites.  The City will take similar precautions to protect registrant and user data associated with the .nyc gTLD.

The City will ensure that the operation of the .nyc gTLD will be consistent with the City's privacy policy found at http://www.nyc.gov/privacy.

In addition, the City intends to incorporate contractual language in its Registry-Registrar Agreement modeled after language which has been included in the template Registry Agreement and which has been successfully utilized by existing ICANN gTLD Registry Operators.

The template Registry Agreement states "Registry Operator shall (i) notify each ICANN-accredited registrar that is a party to the registry-registrar agreement for the TLD of the purposes for which data about any identified or identifiable natural person ("Personal Data") submitted to Registry Operator by such registrar is collected and used under this Agreement or otherwise and the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data, and (ii) require such registrar to obtain the consent of each registrant in the TLD for such collection and use of Personal Data. Registry Operator shall take reasonable steps to protect Personal Data collected from such registrar from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. Registry Operator shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars.ʺ

18.2.6    Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.
To achieve the desired benefits, the City of New York will engage local community groups and organizations to to raise awareness,solicit input and
collaboratively develop a plan for community use of reserved .nyc gTLD names. Extensive marketing and communications will take place to ensure widespread awareness of .nyc and the associated benefits. The program may include, but will not be limited to, press releases, direct mail, email, online and traditional media advertising, and events.

As further detailed in its response to Questions 28 and 29 of the Applicant Guidebook, The City of New York ("City") believes that the best way to minimize negative consequences/costs imposed on consumer is having a strong prevention and mitigation strategy against abusive and malicious domain name registration program as well as ample useful rights protection mechanisms. The City and its Registry Service Provider, Neustar, are in full agreement that a registry must not only aim for the highest standards of technical and operational competence, but also must act as a steward of the space on behalf of the constituents of the City (residents, local businesses, organizations, visitors) as well as ICANN and the broader Internet community in promoting the public interest.More specifically, the following safeguards, which have previously been referenced, include but are not limited to: the existing UDRP; enhanced rights protection mechanisms (i.e., trademark clearinghouse, sunrise and trademark claims processes, the Uniform Rapid Suspension Policy); an abuse point of contact; WHOIS inaccuracy reporting portal; periodic sampling of WHOIS data for nexus/accuracy compliance; nexus requirements and enforcement; and nexus administrative dispute processes. 

How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come/first-serve basis?

The City and its selected registry services provider, Neustar, have given extensive thought and consideration to the launch of the .nyc gTLD and currently anticipate launching the nyc gTLD through a three-phased process as described below:

Phase 1
The City anticipates commencing Phase 1 within sixty (60) days after delegation of the .nyc domain by IANA. Phase 1, which shall last approximately forty-five (45) days, shall be open to the following types of registrants:
* Government (City, State and Federal offices providing services in the City);
* City-based non-profits (entities that provide services within the City and that are registered with the State of New York as not-for-profit corporations);
* City concessionaires (private entities using City-owned property under contract with a City agency);
* City franchisees (private entities using inalienable City-owned property to provide a public service under contract with a City agency);
* retail service licensees (private retail establishments licensed by a City agency to conduct such business);
* food service licensees (private establishments licensed by the Cityʹs Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to provide food service);
* NYC & Co. Members (members of NYC & Company (a not-for-profit membership organization that serves as the Cityʹs promotional arm and which operates under a concession agreement with the City));
* Business Improvement Districts (entities formed by local property owners and tenants to promote business development and quality of life and which operate pursuant to the New York State General Municipal Law and local laws authorizing private not-for-profit corporations to provide supplemental services to particular geographic areas of the City and which operate under contract with the Cityʹs Department of Small Business Services for such purpose);
* City digital startups (private entities satisfying the following criteria: (a) their primary business objective is to bring to market products or services that are built from or whose functionalities are fulfilled using digital technology; (b) they have a physical presence in the City; and (c) they have registered with NYC Digital as a New York City digital company); and
* City vendors (private entities from whom the City procures goods and/or services and are registered with the City's Mayorʹs Office of Contract Services).

All registrations during Phase 1 will be conducted on a first-come-first-served basis. In addition, each registrant during Phase 1 shall be authenticated to ensure that it meets the eligibility criteria.

Phase 2
Shortly after the end of Phase 1, the City shall commence the acceptance of Phase 2 domain name registrations. Phase 2 shall be limited to businesses, organizations or legal entities that: (a) have a physical address in the City; and (b) have paid City taxes within its most recent fiscal year. Registrants during this phase will be required to self-certify as to their eligibility to meeting the Phase 2 as well as nexus requirements (described in the City's response to Questions 18(b) and 28).

Phase 2 will begin with a sunrise period for Phase 2 entities that hold a qualifying trademark registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse in accordance with the requirements set forth in the final ICANN Applicant Guidebook ("Sunrise Period"). The Sunrise Period will last a minimum of thirty (30) days and will be limited to second-level .nyc domain names that exactly match applicable trademark registrations. In the event that there are multiple applicants for the same domain name during the Sunrise Period, the City may conduct directly, or through a third party, an auction to determine the registrant of such domain name.

Following the Sunrise Period, the City will accept domain name registrations from any City-based businesses, organizations or legal entities through a ʺLandrush Process." During the Landrush Process, the City reserves the right to charge higher wholesale fees to accredited registrars than it will during Phase 3 (general availability, described below). It is currently anticipated that the City shall administer the Landrush Process in the manner set forth below; provided that such process may be amended by the City.

If only one application is received for a specific domain name, at the conclusion of the Landrush Process, such name shall be allocated to the associated registrant through their designated registrar. If more than one application is received for a specific domain name, an auction shall be conducted, and the highest qualified bidder shall be allocated the domain name upon payment of the applicable fees. Such names shall be allocated to the associated registrant through their designated registrar.

Phase 3
Phase 3 will be the final launch phase that commences normal first-come, first-serve operations for all prospective registrants who fulfill the applicable nexus policy. All registrations during Phase 3 will be conducted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Premium Names
In addition to the phased launch process described above, the City shall implement a "premium name" program that may commence during Phase 3. The premium name program will consist of: (a) live or online domain name auctions; and/or (b) business development activities that result in the allocation of premium names to registrants in exchange for a negotiated payment, or in exchange for use of the premium names in a manner that that raises awareness of the .nyc gTLD such as advertising- and marketing-related activities. Similar programs have been launched in .biz, .co, .tel, .info, .pro, .asia, .name, .xxx and a number of other gTLDs and ccTLDs. Each registrant of a premium name must comply with the nexus requirements.

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

Promotional programs involving discounting or co-marketing dollars will be implemented in order to drive increased volumes of registrations. Promotions typically involve registrars and may be in exchange for volume commitments or promotional consideration. Promotional activities and associated discounts may also involve third party partnerships. In each case, domain name registration will take place through ICANN-accredited registrars. Bulk discounting of domain registrations is also likely to be implemented.

Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.

The City is committed to providing domain name registrations in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Registry Agreement. This means that the City will offer domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar selected by the domain name registrant.  In addition, the City, through its selected registry services provider, shall provide a minimum of thirty (30) days notice prior to increasing the price of a new domain name registration and no less than 180 days notice prior to changing the price of a domain name renewal in accordance with Section 2.9 of the Registry Agreement. The City's registry services provider, Neustar, has been operating top level domain name registries for well over a decade and fully understands the market dynamics associated with both increases as well as decreases of domain name registration and renewal pricing. Although no additional contractual commitments will be made to registrants regarding the magnitude of price increases or decreases, all pricing changes are controlled to a large extent by market conditions. The City is also aware of the negative impact that would be associated with very large increases that would impact renewals for registrants who may invested in website development and branding since the initial registration, and will not engage in what might be construed as price gauging.

22.1 NYC's Commitment to the Protection of Geographic Names at the Second Level
As one of the most well-known city governments in the world, the City of New York ("the City") is keenly aware of the struggles that many local, city, state and national governments face in seeking to protect their geographic identifiers from misappropriation and/or misuse by third parties. The City, which vigorously enforces a broad range of intellectual property rights, including but not limited to trademarks, service marks, logos, and trade names of the city (collectively the Marks), understands firsthand the economic benefit that the licensing of these rights can bring, and the ability of government to invest these resources back into the community.

In preparation for answering this question, the City (in connection with its selected back registry services provider, Neustar) reviewed the following relevant background material regarding the protection of geographic names in the DNS, including:
-ICANN Board Resolution 01-92 regarding the methodology developed for the reservation and release of country names in the .INFO top-level domain (see http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/minutes-10sep01.htm);
-ICANN's Proposed Action Plan on .INFO Country Names (see http://www.icann.org/en/meetings/montevideo/action-plan-country-names-09oct01.htm); -"Report of the Second WIPO Internet Domain Name Process: The Recognition and Rights and the Use of Names in the Internet Domain Name System,ʺ

Section 6, Geographical Identifiers (see http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/processes/process2/report/html/report.html);
-ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Principles Regarding New gTLDs, (see https://gacweb.icann.org/download/attachments/1540128/gTLD_principles_0.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1312358178000); and
-ICANN's Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Reserved Names Working Group - Final Report (see http://gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/final-report-rn-wg-23may07.htm).

22.2 Initial Reservation of Country and Territory Names
The City is committed to initially reserving the country and territory names contained in the internationally recognized lists described in Specification 5 of the proposed New gTLD Registry Agreement contained in the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook at the second level and at all other levels within the .NYC gTLD at which domain name registrations will be provided. More specifically, the City will reserve:
-The short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166- 1 list, as updated from time to time, including the European Union, which is exceptionally reserved on the ISO 3166-1 list, and its scope extended in August 1999 to any application needing to represent the name European Union (see http://www.iso.org/iso/support/country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists/iso-3166-1_decoding_table.htm#EU);
-The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and
-The list of United Nations member states in six official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names.

22.3 Protection of Regional and Local Geographic Names for Misleading Use
In addition to ICANN-required geographic names, the City also intends on reserving certain regional and local geographic names to ensure that such names are used for the benefit of the regional and local internet communities . Although the City's reserved names list has not yet been finalized due to the City's continued outreach efforts on this subject, the City does intend to reserve the names of each of its five boroughs, including Brooklyn.nyc, Bronx.nyc,
Manhattan.nyc, Queens.nyc and Statenisland.nyc.

22.4 Potential Future Release of Initially Reserved Country and Two Character Names
As stated above, the City shall initially reserve (i.e., it shall not register, delegate, use or otherwise make available) all two-character strings and Country and Territory Names at the second level within .nyc. Although the City does not have immediate plans to make use of these initially reserved names at the second level within .nyc, the City recognizes that there have been numerous successful and non-misleading use of two character second level names in gTLDs. These names, including ge.com, ck.com, ie.com and ua.com, to name a few, are used by legitimate businesses that cannot be said cause confusion with corresponding country codes. In fact, many of these businesses have prominent locations within New York City. Therefore, in the event that the City, as a geographic top-level domain, wishes to use the two character strings for businesses or organizations located within the City, the City shall propose the release of such strings in a manner designed to avoid confusion with the corresponding country code.