.pizza Pre-Register Domain - .pizza Domain Information

The .pizza TLD is intended to serve pizza producers, restaurants, retailers and consumers.
Pizza, a traditional food of Italian tradition, is very popular worldwide. Pizza shops - the primary intended customers for the .pizza TLD - are located in almost every country with new shops opening every year. In many locations, especially in the US, a local version of pizza has been created over the years (e.g. Chicago-style Pizza, New York-style Pizza). Take away are also wide spread. One reason of this popularity of this food is surely related to the fact that pizza is an economical food and its taste can be personalised with local toppings.

One characteristic of the word pizza is that it doesn't change in other languages but the term itself has been adopted by several dictionaries as neologism. This characteristic is very important for the diffusion of the concept of a gTLD.

Besides pizza shops, the pizza industry represents a huge business especially in the frozen segment. Multinationals like Nestle and Dr. Oetker group are focusing on the frozen pizza business.

Another use of second level domains would be related to the location of pizza shops, so domains like nyc.pizza or london.pizza would help Internet users to easily find a shop or a take away in their location, through the creation of specialised web portals.

This domain is also suitable for restaurants, especially Italian restaurants that offer pizza in their menus, even if pizza is not their main dish. In fact this word is only five letters long and its typing is quite immediate due to the fact that it contains a double letter and that position of letters is ideal on qwerty keyboards.
The alternative .restaurant is very long and difficult to write on keyboards.

(i) The .pizza TLD will focus, on the one hand, on the pizza production and distribution industry - restaurants, pizzerias, take away shops, frozen pizza producers etc. On the other hand the end-users for the information distributed via .pizza TLD will be the pizza consumers, i. e. the general public.

.pizza will pay special attention to trademark holders as we believe an important share of our target customer base comes from that group.

(ii) .pizza as a new TLD will increase the supply of digital identifiers and therefore provide a wider consumer choice. .pizza will compete with generic Top Level Domains by providing a highly available, focused namespace that will generate most convenient and short internet addresses for its target audience.

.pizza will be the first Top Level Domain dedicated to people's loyalty and devotion with a specific focus on the material world.

(iii) We hope that .pizza will first of all be a good source of intuitive, self-explanatory and easy-to-remember internet addresses. Applicant will pay special attention on serving trademark holders so they can claim their brands as domain names.
Besides we commit to provide a flawless TLD registry service to registrars, registrants and end users. 100% DNS availability, protection against security threats via DNSSEC, highest standards of technical and support services for registrars are our priorities in terms of user experience.

(iv) .pizza TLD will be rolled out in several phases. During the first phase, Sunrise Period, trademark holders will be provided an opportunity to exercise their priority rights for their intellectual property. Sunrise Period will be run according to the ICANN requirements. Applicant will support the Trademark Clearinghouse and will accept registration requests from parties that have pre-validated their trademarks through the Trademark Clearinghouse. Full details about the Sunrise procedures and policies are available in section 29.
Applicant believes that its core registrant base are trademark holders and will therefore pay special attention to informing potential Sunrise customers about the .pizza Sunrise Period.
The second registration phase will be Landrush where all interested parties will be able to register a .pizza domain name (not allocated during Sunrise) by paying a premium price. Possible options for Landrush period include:
- auctions
- premium price first come first served registration
- requests for proposals
- tiered pricing for different classes of domain names
Applicant will conduct a market research to determine the best method of distribution of .pizza domain names during Landrush. One or more options mentioned above may be implemented.
After the end of Landrush period the General Availability phase will start. Registrations will be provided on a first come first served basis at a normal price.
Besides the phased launch policies Applicant will adopt a comprehensive Acceptable Use Policy that will set forth the limits of acceptable use of .pizza domains and the procedures the Registry will apply in case of violations of applicable laws or policies, including takedown procedures. The initial proposed Acceptable Use Policy is provided in section 29.

(v) Applicant in its capacity of a TLD registry operator does not intend to provide any special services for protecting privacy or confidential information of registrants or end-users apart from those required by applicable laws, policies, agreements or technical standards. Some registry services include as their integral part, protection of usersʹ confidential information. Examples of such services are:
- SRS (protecting confidentiality of the EPP transfer authorisation codes)
- Dissemination of TLD zone files (protecting confidentiality of zone file FTP accounts credentials)
All registry services, including those described above, will be provided in accordance with the ICANN requirements and specifications to the Registry Agreement. The data security measures adopted by the Applicant are described in detail in the answer to question 30 ʺSecurity Policyʺ.

(i) As mentioned above, our priority will be ensuring that trademark holders receive the preferential treatment for their trademarks as established by the intellectual property laws and regulations. .pizza Sunrise will be run with special care as Applicant expects to see its important registrant base among trademark holders.
Normally the amount of contending Sunrise applications is minimal, but in case of multiple Sunrise applications for the same domain name they will be processed on a first come first served basis.

Applicant recognises there may be increased interest in registering .pizza domain names once the TLD opens up for the general public and is prepared to deal with the launch effect through a special Landrush phase. Possible options for Landrush period include:
- auctions
- premium price first come first served registration
- requests for proposals
- tiered pricing for different classes of domain names
Applicant will conduct a market research to determine the best method of distribution of .pizza domain names during Landrush. One or more options mentioned above may be implemented.

During the General Availability phase registrations will be provided on a first come first served basis.

(ii) Applicant is considering various marketing incentives, including bulk registration discounts and co-marketing programs, but at this stage it would be premature to commit to certain marketing initiatives as a comprehensive market research is need to determine the optimal strategy.

(iii) .pizza domains will be made available for periods from 1 to 10 years, in accordance with the ICANN requirements. Applicant will not be making any contractual commitments regarding price changes, but will comply with the corresponding provisions regarding notice periods in the new TLD registry agreement.

Applicant has considered the relevant provisions of the new TLD Registries Agreement, the GAC Advice ʺGAC Principles Regarding new TLDsʺ and the procedures adopted by other gTLD registries and intends to use the procedure described below with regards to protection of geographic names in the TLD.

Prior to its launch Applicant will compile a list of country and territory names that are subject to reservation on the second level. Pursuant to the specification provided in ICANNʹs Applicant Guidebook, the list will include country and territory names based on the following internationally recognized lists:

* the short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166-1 list;
* the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and
* the list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names;

As the above documents get updated from time to time, the exact list of reserved names will be compiled shortly before the TLD launch to account for any updates. The list of reserved names will be published on the Registry website.

Reservation of specific country and territory names may be released to the extent that Applicant reaches agreement with the applicable government(s).