.sex Pre-Register Domain - .sex Domain Information

Applicant's parent company, ICM Registry LLC ("ICM"), brought into existence the Internet's only existing adult-targeted top level domain (".XXX"). .XXX is a sponsored top level domain ("sTLD"), whose sponsoring organization is the International Foundation for Online Responsibility ("IFFOR"). ICM was entrusted to certify that each of its registrants adopt responsible business practices designed to combat child abuse images, facilitate user choice and parental control regarding access to online adult entertainment, as well as protect privacy, security and consumer rights.

Applicant, a wholly owned subsidiary of ICM, will leverage ICM's experience and consumer trust by providing the proposed gTLD at a more competitively priced offering.
Applicant will utilize the best practices, expertise, relationships, resources, and goodwill the parent company has generated throughout the decade it has been focusing on the sensitivities, opportunities, and responsibilities inherent in operating an adult-targeted TLD. In doing so, Applicant strives to empower entities around the globe, spur innovation, facilitate trade and commerce, and enable the free and unfettered flow of information while ensuring the protection of minors, respecting the free speech rights of the adult industry, increasing brand protection for non-adult brands and facilitating user choice for Internet users who are not interested in accessing adult content on the new gTLD.

In light of .XXX's unparalleled exposure through its multi million dollar marketing campaigns and significant first mover advantage as the adult domain extension of choice for the global adult entertainment industry ("AEI"), Applicant believes that the .XXX TLD is and will likely continue to be universally recognized as the pre-eminent TLD for the AEI. Applicant believes that .XXX will maintain its status as the first choice adult-targeted TLD because the protections offered on each .XXX website, such as daily malware scanning and automated family safety tagging, as well as the other benefits that accrue to .XXX registrants and consumers as a result of IFFOR's polices, are impossible to replicate in a lower cost TLD.

That said, throughout ICM's successful pursuit and launch of .XXX, Applicant learned that there are members of the AEI who chose not to, or were unable to, participate in .XXX, whether on the basis of price, inability to satisfy the sTLD membership criteria, or a general unwillingness to adopt or implement the policies promulgated by IFFOR. ICM learned that these constituencies within the AEI maintain a philosophical skepticism about, or an outright rejection of, granting a third party organization, i.e. IFFOR, the authority to create TLD policies that they perceive as potentially interfering with their own business policies and practices.

Applicant notes that while some constituents within the AEI have expressed the above -mentioned concerns regarding IFFOR's policy making authority with respect to .XXX, Applicant itself believes that the multi-stakeholder approach embodied in the IFFOR policy making process, which includes a formal and transparent Policy Development Process ("PDP") resulting from community-based participation, is ultimately a safer and more trustworthy process for policy making than the proposed lack of process available to all registry operators under the new gTLD Registry Services Agreement. Under the new gTLD Registry Services Agreement, registry operators are authorized to establish policies and TLD registration criteria without any of the oversight required under the Sponsoring Organization model. Applicant believes there is a potential risk under the new gTLD Registry Services Agreement that registry operators, especially unscrupulous registry operators who are not held accountable to a PDP-like process, may have more flexibility and less restraint required when making and imposing policies that impact their TLDs. These potentially unscrupulous registry operators, with unfettered limitations, may elect to impose new policies over their registrants that impact not only registrants, but also end-users and Internet stakeholders-at-large, without the benefit of the commentary, representation, or transparency that inherently exists in a sponsored TLD model, like .XXX. Applicant is, however, not currently aware of any existing AEI commentary regarding registry operators unrestricted policy making freedom available under the new gTLD program (as contrasted with the concerns Applicant is aware of by some constituents regarding the IFFOR policy making process).

In light of these concerns, certain AEI constituents have elected not to register .XXX names and thus Applicant believes that this new, competitively priced gTLD will provide these AEI constituents an opportunity to obtain adult-related TLD names without the IFFOR-related opportunities for policy making authority that they have expressed concerns regarding. Essentially, Applicant has listened to the concerns expressed to ICM by these constituencies and wishes to offer a new, alternative, adult targeted TLD that operates at a lower price point and does not have the same qualifying and operational requirements as those that exist in a sTLD like .XXX. Applicant's mission and purpose is to expand the pool of adult-targeted TLDs and to provide the AEI an adult-targeted gTLD that clearly identifies their products and services to end-users, without certain perceived barriers to entry expressed by certain constituents within the global adult entertainment industry.

Goal of Proposed gTLD

Applicant's proposed gTLD will offer new opportunities to the global adult entertainment industry ("AEI") while bringing best practices to Internet stakeholders-at-large, including without limitation automatic labeling services for adult entertainment websites in the proposed gTLD. Through such best practices, Applicant will support AEI self-regulation and responsible business practices which increases the AEI's reputation within the Internet stakeholder-at-large community. In implementing these best practices, both end-user consumers and Internet stakeholders-at-large will feel more confident accessing products and services offered by the new gTLD registrant websites, or avoiding such products and services, if they so wish.

Applicant will also increase competition in the current TLD space by offering an additional adult-oriented TLD at a price that is less than .XXX, while simultaneously offering additional consumer protections in the new TLD that are not currently built into more mainstream TLDs, like .com or .mobi. Applicant will promote consumer choice to both adult industry registrants and their end-users. AEI registrant consumers will be able to obtain domain names in an adult-targeted TLD string that they may perceive as more relevant to their brand and economic viability, if they perceive the current TLD options are not. In addition, with lower entry-price points for registrants, new gTLD end-user consumers will have even more adult-oriented products and services to choose from at potentially reduced retail costs. Ultimately, Applicant's proposed TLD spurs innovation and facilitates additional trade and commerce.

Promote Consumer Trust
By mitigating certain risks involved in launching an adult targeted TLD, the new gTLD will promote consumer trust to non-adult industry registrants as well as to other entities that choose to participate in Applicant's registry reserved programs. In doing so Applicant reduces the risk of consumer confusion that might otherwise occur if an unrelated third party were to launch this adult related TLD. If an unrelated third party were to launch the proposed gTLD, Internet stakeholders at large may experience confusion about which adult-targeted TLD offers which benefits, which can be trusted, etc. Applicant believes it is best qualified to effectively ensure a high level of consumer trust. Since its launch of the .XXX sTLD in 2011, Applicant's parent company, ICM Registry LLC ("ICM"), manages approximately 220,000 domains from 144 countries. Approximately thirty percent (30%) of those are names that were "blocked" by non-members of its Sponsored Community and placed on ICM's registry-reserved list. This "blocking" occurred predominately under ICM's innovative and well received Sunrise B program that allowed reservants, for a low cost, one time fee, to seek permanent removal of .XXX domian names matching their trademarks from the general pool of names available for registration. In light of the fact that an historical number of non-adult industry reservants entrusted Applicant's parent company to protect their brands, through the unprecedented success of the .XXX Sunrise B Blocking program, Applicant believes it is a strong indicator of the trust such stakeholders will place in Applicant's ability to also protect their brands in the proposed TLD.

Grandfathering .XXX Names for Consumer Protection

Applicant is cognizant of the fact that existing .XXX reservants and registrants from within and outside the AEI do not want to incur additional expenses to protect their brands in a new adult targeted gTLD. In light of that consumer concern, Applicant intends to automatically "grandfather" all existing .XXX names into the applied for gTLD at NO cost. To better understand the impact of Applicant's grandfathering plan it is important to understand ICM's domain name reservation and registration programs, as those are the names that will become automatically grandfathered into Applicant's applied for TLD. Prior to the launch of .XXX, ICM pro-actively selected .XXX domain names for reservation, at no cost to the interested or requesting parties. Prior to general registration, .XXX also offered a one-time Sunrise reservation program that provided reservation and brand protection to trademark owners for a one-time cost (known as "Sunrise B"). ICM's pro-active consumer protection reservation programs ensured that .XXX domain names corresponding to specific names or brands would be reserved from third party registration; ICM provided these consumer protection reservation programs for a variety of groups including without limitation, Culturally Sensitive Names submitted by GAC, names submitted by global child protection services, etc. All of the names designated by ICM for its pro-active consumer protection reservation programs (including its Sunrise B program) will remain registry-reserved names by ICM throughout the duration of its Registry Services Agreement with ICANN.

All of the .XXX domain names that were designated as registry-reserved names (both the domain names in ICM's Sunrise B program as well as the domain names designated as reserved by ICM as a part of its other pro-active consumer protection programs) will be automatically placed on Applicant's registry-reserved list and will remain on Applicant's registry-reserved list throughout the duration of Applicant's Registry Services Agreement with ICANN. This will be done by Applicant at no additional cost to those reservants and entities. No further action need be taken by any party to ensure this. This unprecedented consumer protection is a part of Applicant's unique ability to address the sensitivities inherent in operating an adult related TLD.

With regard to the .XXX names registered as a part of ICM's pre-launch registration programs and general availability registration, these registered names will also automatically become registry-reserved in the new gTLD at NO cost to the registrant. Only those registrants who wish to enjoy new traffic opportunities available in the new gTLD or develop new online properties they feel are more relevant and appropriate to the new gTLD string may elect to actually register their "grandfathered" matching name with Applicant in the new gTLD. In such event, the new gTLD registrations will be offered at a price substantially lower than the current .XXX registration price. Registrants will have the complete discretion and flexibility on whether or not, and when, to register their corresponding .XXX grandfathered name in the new gTLD. This option will be available to them throughout the duration of their underlying .XXX registration and Applicant's Registry Services Agreement with ICANN; there is no other deadline associated with this option.

For all .XXX registered names that are grandfathered into the new gTLD where the registrant does NOT wish to register those .XXX corresponding names in the new gTLD, Applicant will securely reserve all of those names on its registry-reserved list, at NO cost. No third parties will be able to register those new gTLD registry-reserved names throughout the duration of the underlying .XXX registration and Applicant's Registry Services Agreement with ICANN.

Applicant believes its programs in the new gTLD will promote consumer trust to each of the following users and stakeholder groups:

Existing .XXX Registrants: As stated above and in further detail in Applicant's answer to question #18c, all existing .XXX names will be reserved from registration in the new gTLD and only registrants of that .XXX name will be given the opportunity to initially register that corresponding .XXX name in the new gTLD. If the .XXX registrant elects to register the name in the new gTLD, this can be done for a low annual fee. If the .XXX registrant does not elect to register the name in the new gTLD, then the new, matching, gTLD name will be reserved on Applicant's registry-reserved list at NO cost. This provides protection to .XXX registrants who will be assured that their .XXX registered name will not be registered by a different registrant in the new TLD. For as long as the .XXX registrant maintains its underlying .XXX registration of the name, the name in the new TLD will be removed from the general pool of available names unless and until that .XXX registrant elects to register it in the new gTLD.

Non-Adult Industry Reservants: All existing blocked names under the .XXX Sunrise B program, along with all other .XXX registry-reserved names like the Culturally Sensitive Names submitted by GAC, as well names blocked in .XXX upon the request of global child protection services, together with certain celebrity names, capital cities, world leaders, etc. will not need to take any action to have those same names blocked in the new gTLD. All of these matching names will be automatically reserved from registration in the new TLD, free of charge.

New and Unique gTLD Registrants: Entities who wish to register new and unique names (names not "grandfathered" into the new gTLD), will be able to register names from the remaining pool of available (non reserved) names at a low cost during Applicant's Sunrise period and the subsequent general availability open registration period.

Internet Stakeholders-At-Large: Applicant has a commitment to this stakeholder group, including without limitation international governmental bodies and quasi-governmental entities dedicated to the protection of minors. Given the long history of controversy the parent company faced in its ultimately successful endeavors to launch .XXX, Applicant feels it would be remiss if it did not address those concerns in the new gTLD as well. Applicant is aware that any new TLD with an adult targeted theme or connotation brings with it special considerations that may not be applicable to most other generic TLDs. As such, balancing the needs of all stakeholder groups is vital to ensure a responsible and acceptable approach. Applicant will institute a best practices commitment with this important stakeholder group in mind.

Proposed gTLD's addition to the Current Space

The full scope and size of the global AEI online presence is hard to define because AEI entities are not generally publicly listed entities. However, in trying ascertain statistics regarding the AEI, Applicant would like to reference a compilation of statistics purported to be generated from respected news and research organizations located at the following link: http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html

As noted in the above-referenced link, studies reveal that as of 2006, there were 414 million webpages containing the keyword "sex" and 88.8 million webpages containing the key word "porn". Applicant is not however aware of the breakdown of adult-related webpages per TLD. From the above-mentioned source, as of 2006, there were 4.2 million AEI websites and 420 million AEI webpages and 68 million daily AEI-related search engine requests. It was claimed that 40 million adults in the United States regularly visited AEI-related websites; 72% male and 28% female. AEI consumers are divided rather evenly by age, but not by income. Those making more than $75,000 a year represent 35% of those purchasing adult entertainment. Adult entertainment is consumed mostly by 35 to 44 year olds at a rate of 26%, and least likely by 18-24 year olds at a rate of 14%.

The information located at the above-referenced link claims that top worldwide AEI revenues are derived from China, South Korea, Japan, United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Philippines, Taiwan, Germany, Finland, Czech Republic, Russia, Netherlands and Brazil. The link asserts that producers of AEI vary widely in size and are located around the world; the top worldwide AEI producers are derived from United States, Brazil, The Netherlands, Spain, Japan, Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

Applicant asserts that the proposed gTLD adds differentiation to the global AEI by offering a TLD targeted towards the adult industry, at a registration price that is substantially less than the currently existing, premium, AEI TLD (i.e., .XXX). As further described in Applicant's response to question #18a, the new gTLD increases competition by allowing registrants to enter the adult-oriented TLD space at a lower registration price than the current premium AEI TLD, without having to agree to IFFOR-policy making authority.

In addition, Applicant's distinction, as compared to other potential Applicants for the same new gTLD, is in offering a more competitively priced TLD focused on adult entertainment while also building into the new gTLD a variety of best practices and protocols, e.g. content labeling at source which helps user empowerment tools and technologies to detect and avoid adult-oriented content, pioneering registry-abuse reporting systems to ensure that any reported child abuse images in the new gTLD get routed to child protection organizations like the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE). In addition, Applicant's grandfathering plan, wherein names corresponding to .XXX names that were reserved by ICM from requests by child protection advocates, IP rights holders, and other .XXX reserved names will be automatically reserved from registration in the new gTLD is a distinction only Applicant can offer the space. This ensured continuity and protection further distinguish Applicant's new gTLD.

Applicant's Goals related to User Experience

Applicant's inclusion of the above-mentioned best practices increases consumer trust and promotes commerce because adult consumers of the products and services offered in the new gTLD can have the peace of mind knowing that those new gTLD websites are being offered in an environment that supports responsible business practices. Applicant will also facilitate consumer confidence through its pioneering abuse reporting; Applicant will provide consumers accessing sites in the new gTLD mechanisms to report suspected child abuse content, if encountered. Applicant will also institute internal policies and protocols that strive to ensure consumer confidence regarding Applicant's responses to abusive registrants in the new gTLD. Additionally, Internet stakeholders-at-large can feel more secure knowing that they are able to avoid websites they do not wish to access because of the clarity of the nature of those websites which is established by the name of the new gTLD string itself, as well as the added user empowerment tools and technology Applicant intends to provide.

Applicant's Registration Policies in Support of Goals

In furtherance of Applicant's above-stated goals, Applicant's intended registration policies will incorporate many of the best practices established for .XXX registration; particularly the goals related to increasing the reputation of the AEI within the Internet stakeholder-at-large community. As more fully described in Applicant's response to questions #28 and #29, all new gTLD registrants will agree, via the registry-registrant agreement incorporated into each new gTLD registration, to a variety of self-regulation best practices including consenting to the automatic labeling of their domain names as adult related as well as offering Applicant's Rapid Evaluation Service ("RES") in addition to the other rights management programs Applicant will be providing.

All registrants in the new gTLD whose registrations are grandfathered into the new gTLD will have already been required to comply with .XXX registration policies and procedures as a part of obtaining their .XXX registrations. .XXX registration policies are amongst the Internet's most rigorous standards to date and include verification of registrant's telephone number, email, and mailing address (where possible). As such, it correlates that for the registrants in the new gTLD whose names were grandfathered into the new gTLD from their .XXX registrations, these new gTLD registrants will have had their contact information verified as well.

Applicant's registration policies will also incorporate the fair and equitable treatment of registrars, including without limitation policies regarding reasonable wholesale pricing that has already been vetted amongst Applicant's target market. As Applicant has further described in its response to question #27, a typical registration lifecycle will provide no burden on registrars or registrants. Moreover, Applicant's WHOIS polices, as further defined in its response to question #26, will further Applicant's policy goals. At all times, Applicant will adhere to all ICANN Consensus Policies.

Collectively, these registration policies increase consumer confidence and further Applicant's goal regarding AEI reputation enhancement and self-regulatory business practices.

Proposed gTLD Privacy and Confidentiality Protection

The proposed gTLD will protect the privacy and confidential information of registrants, IP rights holders and members of the Internet stakeholders-at-large community who elect to reserve names in the new gTLD. Firstly, Applicant will allow new gTLD registrants to use registry-approved proxy services, thus providing privacy protection to registrants. (Applicant's approved proxy service standards will permit only proxy services that relay communications to their consumers within one (1) business day of the proxy service's receipt of the communication.) Secondly, through its unique "grandfathering" allocation programs, Applicant will ensure the privacy of all grandfathered reservations (as opposed to registrations) by listing Applicant's own information on the WHOIS information associated with all new gTLD reserved names. Lastly, the proposed gTLD will comply with all legal obligations and will incorporate state-of-the-art privacy and security policies and practices regarding the use and disclosure of end-user and registrant personal information, as required.

Outreach and Communications to Achieve Projected Benefits
Applicant's parent company engages in global outreach and communications with a variety of stakeholder groups, including the adult industry, child protection agencies, government organizations, technology development companies, and a wide range of global service providers. If the proposed gTLD is approved, these efforts and messages will also include the benefits of the proposed to gTLD. By way of example, the parent company has recently met with, participated in, or contributed to the following stakeholder groups: International Trademark Association (INTA); National Center for Missing or Exploited Children (NCMEC); Internet Watch Foundation (IWF); German Family Ministry; UK's Office of Claire Perry MP: Chair, Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Child Protection; the EU Coalition to Make a Better and Safer Internet for Children, under the direction of Vice president Neelie Kroes - providing technical expertise at the working meetings of the Coalition in Brussels; and ATVOD's Role in Consumer and Child Protection. If Applicant's new gTLD is approved, this level of commitment will expand to include the benefits of the proposed gTLD. By engaging in this outreach and these communications, Applicant will further its goals related to adding credibility regarding industry self-regulation and responsible business practices, thus increasing the reputation of the AEI.

Resolving Multiple Applications for a Particular Name

Applicant will adopt a variety of operating rules to eliminate or minimize social costs. Applicant will implement a Sunrise period and a Trademark Claims service during the start-up phases and initial launch period, as prescribed in the Applicant Guidebook. During the Sunrise period if there are multiple applications for a particular and available domain name, the parties will proceed to auction. In general registration available names will be allocated on a first-come/first-serve basis.

Cost Benefits: Applicant's Grandfathering Program

Without any fee to registrants or reservants, Applicant will automatically grandfather into the new gTLD, and designate as registry-reserved, all directly corresponding .XXX registered and reserved names (at the time of this application, approximately 220,000). All new gTLD second level names that directly correspond to both registered and reserved .XXX names will not be made available to the general public and will not be part of the general pool of available names offered by the Applicant.

All .XXX registry-reserved names will automatically be designated as a registry-reserved name in the new gTLD, for no additional fee. This continuity of reservation dramatically minimizes social costs. In particular, the social costs to IP rights holders who have already paid a one-time fee to participate in ICM's innovative Sunrise B program will receive a windfall benefit of a parallel reservation in Applicant's new gTLD, at no cost to them. Internet stakeholders-at-large, like child protection advocates, GAC reserved names, capital city names, certain celebrity names and certain world leader names, for example, will not have to experience any concern about the potential release of those corresponding names in the new gTLD; those names will remain registry-reserved without any additional activities required by those parties (and as stated, Applicant will not charge any fees for this service). This truly benefits the Internet stakeholder-at-large community, particularly non-profit organizations and governments around the world who may not have the resources to monitor and protect those names in this new gTLD.

Likewise, if a .XXX registrant does not wish to register their corresponding name in the new gTLD, then, for as long as that underlying .XXX registration continues, that corresponding new gTLD name will remain on Applicant's registry-reserved list for the duration of Applicant's Registry Services Agreement with ICANN, without any cost to that registrant. Again, this minimizes the social costs to the adult industry who may not wish to expend the resources it would otherwise take to defensively register these new gTLD names. By providing this automatic reservation (i.e. "block"), Applicant has addressed the social concerns related to the fear of an un-ending need to apply for defensive registrations in its new gTLD.

The only registrant who will be eligible to initially register a corresponding .XXX name as a new gTLD name is the exact same .XXX registrant who also wishes to become a registrant in the new gTLD; third parties will not be eligible or authorized to initially register any of the existing .XXX registrations into new gTLD registrations. In the event an eligible new gTLD registrant wishes to register a name in the applied for gTLD, such registrant simply needs to indicate their interest in registering that name in the new gTLD and Applicant will facilitate the registration of that name via the usual registrar channels.

Once any new gTLD name is actually registered in the new gTLD (as opposed to being in Applicant's registry-reserved status), that new gTLD registrant will have the full right in and to that new gTLD name and may elect to use, transfer, delete, etc. the name, in their sole discretion without further reference to, or association with, the underlying .XXX registration. Registered new gTLD names can be sold, transferred and used independent of the corresponding .XXX name and are not considered a "bundled" name in any regard.

Contractual Commitments Regarding Price Escalation

Applicant will provide the automatic grandfathering activities described above free of charge. Applicant will make appropriate contractual commitments to new gTLD registrants and reservants in its launch policies and procedural documents regarding the duration of this free service (e.g., for as long as Registrant maintains its underlying .XXX registration and for as long as Applicant maintains its Registry Services Agreement with ICANN, etc.).

Applicant will also offer new and unique gTLD registrants the opportunity to register new names in the new gTLD. Applicant's pricing for these registration services will reflect AEI commentary the parent-company has received with regard to its pricing.

Per the ICANN Registry Agreement, Applicant will use only ICANN-accredited registrars and will provide non-discriminatory access to registry services to those registrars. Applicant is committed to working with ICANN and giving registrars notification of any reasonable price escalation; however, Applicant does not have any price escalation built into its forecasts and does not intend to implement price escalation.

We will protect names with national or geographic significance by reserving the country and territory names at the second level and at all other levels within the TLD, as per the requirements in the New TLD Registry Agreement (Specification 5, paragraph 5).

We will employ a series of rules to translate the geographical names required to be reserved by Specification 5, paragraph 5 to a form consistent with the ʺhost namesʺ format used in domain names.

Considering the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice "Principles regarding new gTLDs", these domains will be blocked, at no cost to governments, public authorities, or IGOs, before the TLD is introduced (Sunrise), so that no parties may apply for them. We will publish a list of these names before Sunrise, so our registrars and their prospective applicants can be aware that these names are reserved.

We will define a procedure so that governments can request the above reserved domain(s) if they would like to take possession of them. This procedure will be based on existing methodology developed for the release of country names in the .INFO TLD. For example, we will require a written request from the country's GAC representative, or a written request from the country's relevant Ministry or Department. We will allow the designated beneficiary (the Registrant) to register the name, with an accredited Afilias Registrar, possibly using an authorization number transmitted directly to the designated beneficiary in the country concerned.

As defined by Specification 5, paragraph 5, such geographic domains may be released to the extent that Registry Operator reaches agreement with the applicable government(s). Registry operator will work with respective GAC representatives of the country's relevant Ministry of Department to obtain their release of the names to the Registry Operator.

If internationalized domains names (IDNs) are introduced in the TLD in the future, we will also reserve the IDN versions of the country names in the relevant script(s) before IDNs become available to the public. If we find it advisable and practical, we will confer with relevant language authorities so that we can reserve the IDN domains properly along with their variants.

Regarding GAC advice regarding second-level domains not specified via Specification 5, paragraph 5: All domains awarded to registrants are subject to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute.

Resolution Policy (UDRP), and to any properly-situated court proceeding. We will ensure appropriate procedures to allow governments, public authorities or IGO's to challenge abuses of names with national or geographic significance at the second level. In its registry-registrar agreement, and flowing down to registrar-registrant agreements, the registry operator will institute a provision to suspend domains names in the event of a dispute. We may exercise that right in the case of a dispute over a geographic name.