Last Updated: May 15 2014
Background
-
The .BIO gTLD (also designated as the .BIO domain), is a generic Top Level Domain, generally available to
all
Registrants, and among others, by actors in the fields of agriculture, food and farming.
- The purpose of this Domain Name Policy (“DNP”) is to identify and explain the mechanisms and procedures
required for
registering .BIO domain names.
- This DNP is to be read together with the .BIO Registration Agreement, and words and phrases used in this
document
shall have the same meaning attributed to them in the Registration Agreement unless otherwise specified or
the
context clearly otherwise requires.
- The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (“IFOAM”) is an official Partner of the .BIO
Registry
Operator. Hence, this DNP refers to the Principles of Organic Agriculture (“POA”) as formulated by the IFOAM
(
http://www.ifoam.org/en/organic-landmarks/principles-organic-agriculture).
- The Registry Operator administering the .BIO domain, which is Starting Dot Ltd, shall modify this document
from time
to time, in order to comply with applicable laws and terms and/or any conditions set forth by ICANN. Any
revisions
or modifications to this DNP shall be effective thirty (30) days after the initial date of posting such
revisions or
modifications on the Registry’s website and such amendments shall be binding upon the domain name
registrant.
- USE OF THE .BIO DOMAIN
-
GENERAL ACCEPTABLE .BIO USE POLICY
Any Registrant (i.e., the entity having registered a .BIO secondary level domain name, including
the contact used
when making the registration) that does not fall within the scope of section 1.2 of this DNP
must commit not to
undermine the POA.
- ORGANIC AGRICULTURE COMPLIANCE MECHANISMS
- Specific terms of use apply to Registrant who are producers, transformers and retailers, or
otherwise involved in
the field of agriculture,food and farming when there is:
-
A nexus with the European Union (i.e.: selling, exporting to or trading agricultural
or food
product
in the European
Union) or other relevant markets where the word “bio” may be used to refer to
legally
labeled and
marketed organic,
biological, ecological, biodynamic, or similarly named goods or intending to do so
(“nexus
with the
European
Union”); and
- No nexus with the European Union.
- The Registrant who has no nexus with the European Union must commit to abiding by the POA.
- The Registrant who has a nexus with the European Union must commit to abiding by both:
- The POA; and
- The Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and
labeling
and its
derived
legislation, or any regulations in force in other relevant markets (the
“E.CRegulations”).
- For the best interest of consumers and in order for the Registrant to demonstrate its
commitment to
the POA, it is
recommended to the Registrant to copy and paste on the Registrant’s website homepage a label
provided by the
Registry on its website www.startingdot.com/bio/bio-trust-seal/ (the” the BIO Trust Seal”)
that has
a permanent html
link to a web page hosted by the Registrant providing the following:
- An introduction title demonstrating the Registrant’s commitment to the .BIO DNP,
such as “
(Domain
Name) Commitment
To .Bio Domain Name Policy”;
- An html link to .BIO DNP(www.startingdot.com/bio/policies);
- An html link pointing to the original text of the POA
(http://www.ifoam.org/en/organic-landmarks/principles-organic-agriculture);
- The Registry point of contact for claims and complaints, which is provided by
section 5.3.2
of this
DNP; and
- Information for consumers and internet users relative to the Registrant’s
implementation of
relevant
regulations as
mentioned above, including but not limited to, the reference of the certification
agency(ies)
certifying the
Registrant’s products and a list of the products certified by such certification
agency(ies).
- THE .BIO POLICY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (THE “BIOPAC”)
- The implementation and ex-post control of the .BIO domain use shall be supervised by the
BIOPAC,
which is chaired by
the IFOAM.
- The Registry shall manage the ex-post control of the .BIO domain by verifying:
- The presence of the recommended web page and comparing the information contained on
such
page with the other contents on the related website;
- The absence of any attempt from the Registrant to promote or sell non-organic
products under
the umbrella of other products compliant with the E.C Regulation; and
- The use of the BIO Trust Seal by the Registrant.
- ACCEPTABLE AND PROHIBITED ACTIONS
-
All Registrants must act responsibly in their use of any .BIO domain or website hosted on
any
.BIO domain.
-
The Registrant undertakes to register any labels (i.e., individual words or characters to
the left
of the dot of the
.BIO top-level domain) that are in accordance with:
- This Domain Name Policy;
- ICANN rules and regulations; and
- Statutory provisions of the European Union countries or the statutory provisions of
his
place of
residence or its
place of incorporation.
- The Registrant undertakes not to register any labels that:
- Violate ethical or criminal law principles (included, but not limited to, abusive,
illegal,
violent,
racist,
obscene, ethnically offensive, harmful to minor, offensive terms, terms that violate
morality and
publicorder);
- Violate the rights of others;
- Violate the POA (e.g.: names related to human rights abuses and to organic
agriculture
principles
violation such as
, or
);
- Are abusive, speculative or with an anti-competitive purpose; and
- Plagiarize public body or their affiliates domain names, content or services
- Third Level registrations of .BIO labels are not supported by the Registry.
- The Registry will not tolerate neither a violation of this DNP in registration
of a
label nor that such
content is found on a website hosted on a .BIO domain.
- The Registry reserves the right, in its sole discretion and without notice to
any other
party, to take
appropriate actions (whether administrative, operational or otherwise) to:
- Protect the integrity and stability of the Registry;
- Comply with any applicable laws, government rules or requirements, ICANN
regulations, requests of law
enforcement, or any dispute resolution process;
- Avoid any liability, civil or criminal, on the part of Registry as well as its
affiliates, subsidiaries,
officers, directors, and employees;
- Comply with the terms of the registration agreement, the Registry-Registrar
Agreement,
the Registry
Agreement, or any other binding commitments, whether written or otherwise;
- Correct mistakes made by the Registry or any Registrar in connection with a
domain name
registration;
- Allow for the resolution of a dispute of any sort whether or not the dispute
appears to
be unmerited
orunsubstantiated;
- Respond to complaints of abusive behavior on websites hosted on .BIO domains; or
- Otherwise implement the Acceptable Use Policy.
-
ILLEGAL USE AND COMPLIANCE
- The Registry shall identify an infringement to this DNP by any means, including
without
limitation, a
private complaint, public alert, government or enforcement agency outreach,
ICANN
notification, and
on-going monitoring by the Registry or itspartners.
- At its discretion, the Registry or its designee shall review any website hosted
on a
.BIO domain through
an automated system or otherwise, for the purpose of identifying an infringement
of this
DNP.
- Conduct in violation of this DNP includes, but is not limited to phishing,
domain name
or domain theft,
botnet command and control, distribution of malware, fast flux attacks/hosting,
hacking,
pharming, spam,
piracy, counterfeiting, child pornography, cybersquatting, front- running, gripe
sites,
deceptive and⁄or
offensive domain names, fake renewal notices, crossgTLD registration scam, name
spinning, pay-per-click,
traffic diversion, false affiliation, domain kiting⁄tasting, fast-flux, 419
scams or if
the domain name
is being used in a manner that appears to threaten the stability, integrity or
security
of the Registry,
or any of its Registrar partners and⁄or that may put the safety and security of
any
registrant or user
at risk.
- All complaints should be addressed to: abuse.bio@startingdot.com.
- In case of failure to comply with clause 1.4. and 1.5. of this DNP, the Registry
(or its
designees)
reserves the right, at its own discretion, to:
- Alert any relevant Registrar about any identified threats and shall work with
the
Registrar to resolve
such issues;
- Utilize such other methods in compliance with applicable laws and ICANN
policies, as it
deems
appropriate;
- Bring the offending sites into compliance using any of the methods described in
this
Domain Name Policy,
or others whether or not described in this Domain Name Policy;
- Stop registrations of labels;
- Remove the registered labels; and
- Revoke a domain name.
- INTERNATIONALIZED DOMAIN NAMES(IDNs)
- The Registry offers IDN labels in compliance with RFCs 5890, 5891, 5892,
5893 and
their successors
as referred to in the ICANN IDN Guidelines located at
http://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/implementation-guidelines. The ICANN IDN
Guidelines may be
amended, modified, or superseded from time to time.
- The Registry will publish and keep updated its IDN tables and IDN
registration
rules in the IANA
repository of IDN practices as specified in the ICANN IDN guidelines.
- RESERVED NAMES
- The Registry shall reserve (i.e. withhold from registration or allocate to
itself),
restrict, or block a
number of specified domain names from registration (the “.BIO Reserved Domain
Names”).
- The Reserved Domain Names are found on a list which is visible on the Registry
website
at
www.startingdot.com/bio/reserved/ (the “.BIO Reserved NameList”).
- .BIO Reserved Domain Names shall generally consists of:
- Reserved for Registry operations and other purposes, including without
limitation,
certain premium names
retained for use by Registry’s strategic partners;
- Reserved following ICANN requirements such as, but not limited to, Specification
5 of
the New gTLD
Registry Agreement; and
- Designating origin and geographical indications protected in the EU in
accordance with
Council
Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007, including singular and plural variants with and
without
hyphen, provided
that such names are withheld from registration or allocated by the Registry
Operator to
the applicable
origin and geographical indication authority.
-
The Registry shall add or remove .BIO Reserved Domain Names from the .BIO
Reserved Name List at any time.
- Activations of .BIO Reserved Domain Names shall be provisioned via an ICANN
accredited registrars.
- The .BIO Reserved Name List provided in this section of the Domain Name Policy
is subject to the .BIO Launch Plan Registry Policy. Hence, .BIO Reserved Domain Names will be set
“on-hold” during both the .BIO Sunrise Phase and Landrush Phase. Consequently, no .BIO Reserved
Domain
Names will be allocated before the end of the Sunrise Phase and of the Landrush Phase. The holder of
a
trademark that has been previously verified by the officially mandated ICANN Trademark Clearinghouse
and
which fulfill the eligibility requirement set out in this Domain Name Policy (the “Trademark
Holder”) will prevail over a .BIO Reserved
Domain Name found in the .BIO Reserved Name List. In this case, the .BIO
Reserved Domain Name will be
removed from the .BIO Reserved Name List. All .BIO Reserved Domain Names are
subject to claims for ninety (90) days after the end of the Sunrise Phase.
- WHOIS
- The data collected by Registrars during domain name registration will be
published in the .BIO WHOIS database at . This information will provide the
public with the ability to
contact a domain name holder for any reason.
- In addition, the Registry will require Registrars to post privacy policies
that
provide clear and
complete notice to Registrants about:
-
the type of data that will be collected and maintained by the Registry;
- the use of such data in operating the registry service (including display
through
the WHOIS
service); and
- the Registrant’s right to access and correct data maintained by the Registry
Operator.
Clear consent to such data collection policies is a prerequisite to the
submission
of a domain name
registration request.
- The Registry will be compliant with all the security, WHOIS, and privacy
requirements required by
ICANN.
- The Registry will comply with all confidentiality and security regulations
in its
jurisdiction of
residence. The Registry has further ensured that its suppliers will take all
reasonable measures to
maintain the security and privacy of information collected from the
Registry.
- ENFORCEMENT, TERMINATION AND DELETION
- ACTION THE REGISTRY MAY TAKE
- The DNP includes enforcement procedures and processes, in addition to those procedures that
have been established in accordance with Consensus Policies such as the Uniform Dispute
Resolution Policy:
- Verification of entitlement of the Registrant at the time of registration of a
domain name, and at any other time on a random basis; and
- Ongoing verification throughout the term of the domain name registration, where
necessary.
- The Registry shall take actions, including but not limited to:
- Conduct random quarterly controls on a sample basis of .BIO Registrants;
- Verify whether a Registrant fulfill the General Acceptable Use Policy, the
Organic
Agriculture
Compliance and⁄or meets domain name restrictions on the basis of public
information,
such as the
information displayed on the registrant’s website, as well as other sources;
- Contact the Registrant and the Registrar with the request to provide proof
that the Registrant is meeting such requirements within a reasonable timeframe when
in doubt;
- Deny attempted registrations from repeat violators;
- Cancel, transfer or take ownership of any domain name, either temporarily or
permanently; and
- Lock down a domain name preventing any changes to the contact and name sever
information associated with the domain name.
- The Registry shall also take preventative measures at its sole discretion,
including
but not limited
to:
- DNSSEC deployment which reduces the opportunity for pharming and other man-
in-the-middle attacks;
- Removal of orphan glue records; and
- Place upon registry lock, hold or similar status a domain name during
resolution of a dispute.
- If, following the investigation of a complaint or an ex-officio review of
the
registrant’s
compliance with the Registry Operator’s policies, or insufficient proof is
provided
by the
Registrant that all policy requirements have been complied with, the
Registry shall
be entitled to
put the domain name on hold or even revoke the domain name. Registry shall
notify
registrar within
twenty-four (24) hours via an EPP poll message of the domain name being put
on hold
or revoked.
Furthermore, the Registry shall inform the public that the domain name has
been
previously used
contrary to its registration policies.
- Without prejudice to further legal rights, as part of abusive rules required by ICANN for
gTLD, the
Registry can under certain circumstances, remove a domain name and its technical data from
the name
servers for the .BIO top-level domain, change the contact data, or delete a domain name.
- In addition, name servers that are found to be associated with fraudulent
registrations may be added
to a local blacklist, and any existing or new registrations that use such
fraudulent NS record may be investigated.
- Anyone can check compliance with the registration requirements by initiating
an
extrajudicial
dispute resolution procedure (“.BIO Eligibility Requirements Dispute
Resolution
Policy –
.BIO ERDRP”).
- POSSIBLE ACTIONS BY THE PARTIES
- The Registry is not bound to adjudicate any dispute between parties, and
cannot, and
does not,
accept any responsibility for any loss or damage a domain name Registrant or
anyone
else may suffer
as a result of any action or omission by the Registry or by anyone else
under this
Domain Name
Policy.
- Any abuse-related issues with which the Registry is unable to assist should
be
resolved through an
appropriate dispute resolution forum. In such circumstance, the Registry
shall act
following
provision of:
- The final determination of an internationally recognized dispute resolution
body or
a court of law,
resolving the inter-party dispute or otherwise mandating the Registry’s
action;
- Any requirement of ICANN or other recognized authority which demands
actionor
response; or
- In the case of a wrongful transfer of a domain name, a Registrant may also
provide
written agreement
of the Registrar record and the gaining Registrar sent by email, letter or
fax that
the transfer was
made by mistake or procedural error or was unauthorized.
-
THE REGISTRY COMPLAINTS POINT OFCONTACT
- The Registry Complaints Point of Contact shall handle any complaints in relation to
a .BIO domain name registration, including where the claimant alleges that a particular
Registrant does not meet the General Acceptable Use Policy provided by section 1.1 of
this Domain Name Policy, the Organic Agriculture Compliance Mechanism provided by section
1.2 of this Domain Name Policy or domain name restrictions provided by in this Domain Name
Policy.
- All notices should be served by mail to the following address:
complaint.bio@startingdot.com.