.saarland

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Status:	Online
country:	Germany
Manager:	dotSaarland GmbH
Registry Provider:	KSregistry GmbH
Type:	GeoTLD
Priority #:	1603
Key People
Alexander Siffrin, CEO of DotSaarland GmbH

.saarland is a new GeoTLD accepted by ICANN's new gTLD expansion program on the request of dotSaarland GmbH. The company is a member of the dotSaarland eV [1], a non-profit organization based in St. Ingbert. The application for the .saarland string is supported by the Federal State of Saarland. The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 02 April 2014. The TLD is online since 30 October, 2014 (nic.saarland).

KSregistry GmbH, a subsidiary of Key-Systems GmbH provides the back-end registry solutions for the TLD.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

"dotSaarland GmbH, the company behind .SAARLAND, is committed to provide a platform that will: serve the needs of the regional community of the Saarland, provide a common internet address to the community, and promote the region and its people, services and regional attractions to all who share an interest in it.

The term “Saarland” refers to a federal state within Germany and is a regional identifier for a community consisting of those who live, have lived, work or have spent time in the Saarland region, those who want to promote the different cultural or economic aspects of the Saarland online, and⁄or those who want to address their online communications to that community. The Saarland is one of Germany's forerunners in the areas of economic growth and the concentration of apprenticeship training positions. Vehicle construction, mechanical engineering and the local steel industry are the core areas of economic activity. Complementing these sectors is an active mixture of research institutes and spin-offs from all areas of IT and nanotechnology. In addition, Saarland is a major site of European industrial culture, including a UNESCO World Heritage site, the “Völklinger Hütte”. The Saarland is located at the heart of “Saar-Lor-Lux” region, an economic metropolitan area including parts of France, Germany and Luxemburg with classic industrial locations; the federal state Saarland is a leading IT research location in Germany. The mission of the Applicant, dotSaarland GmbH, is to provide a secure Internet space for the region that will facilitate the distribution and exchange of information among Saarland stakeholders by means of for example websites, social networks, email and other technologies that will reside within the .SAARLAND domain name space. In addition, and as technology needs advance and change, ancillary services may be provided in relation to registration of domains within the TLD, including but not limited to website hosting, SEO, marketing and consulting services. With .SAARLAND, online content can be targeted directly at the Saarland community: The .SAARLAND TLD will act as an identifier for regional content, enabling local businesses, organizations, and individuals to present their content in a fashion that makes it easy to discover and locate for Internet users seeking content and information related to the region. With .SAARLAND, all Saarland people, communities, organizations, companies, and many more will find a common space in the virtual world, enabling them to register domain names which are currently not available in current gTLDs and ccTLDs such as .com with over 90 million registrations and .de with more than 13 million registrations. .SAARLAND domain names will help them establishing their online life or business using attractive 2nd level domain names. Starting in April 2008, the founders of dotSaarland GmbH have been involved with the local government in talks about creating a specific TLD for the Saarland region. The dotSaarland association was founded in 2009 as a supporting organization to facilitate the launch of .SAARLAND, to generate public interest in the creation of the regional TLD and to create a forum for the local community to be directly involved in the proposed policies and uses. The dotSaarland GmbH (limited liability company) was founded in 2011 to apply for and later operate the TLD. The dotSaarland registered association is represented through a permanent seat in management board meetings according to the company statutes to ensure that the operator and the community coordinate their efforts to the benefit of the regional community. .SAARLAND corresponds perfectly with the high ranking, politically supported campaign „Umbrella Brand Saarland“ (see http:⁄⁄www.saarland.de⁄6867_87814.htm). The government initiative to strengthen the marketing capacities of local brands through providing a state aided platform to increase employment and attract experts. Thus providing a means of communication and the possibility to use .SAARLAND will support the umbrella brand Saarland as well as attracting further users for the name space. The .SAARLAND association is an active part of the political, social and public life in the federal state and the domain extension .SAARLAND is eagerly awaited by many players and citizens in various fields. ..

.SAARLAND domain names can be registered by everyone just like most current gTLDs are open and unrestricted. We believe that any restriction of the circle of eligible registrants will in all likelihood limit the potential for innovation in the use of domain names in this TLD. Bad faith registrations violating third party rights and other illegal uses will not be tolerated and handled according to the respective policies.

The dotSaarland GmbH and Association will provide a fair delegation process for all .SAARLAND domain applications. To guarantee a transparent and structured domain allocation, the launch plan for .SAARLAND schedules four different phases. The time frame set for the whole launch process is 89 days.

To encourage the public attention for .SAARLAND, a Founders Program will be carried out. This gives prospective founders the opportunity to register a premium .SAARLAND domain by presenting a binding concept for the use of the domain name. As these domains will be delegated first and are connected to a promising utilization, they will help to promote the idea of .SAARLAND among all Saarland citizens and friends.

We will furthermore reserve a number of domain names for the exclusive use of the state government and its local divisions. Domain names with a high potential for illegal use or abuse will be blacklisted and not be made available for general registration. We will also reserve several domain names for exclusive registry use. We are working with the state government of the Saarland to ensure that all domains which need to be reserved or blocked are defined prior to the .SAARLAND launch window."

Contract Signed

On 12 December 2013 dotSaarland GmbH received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .saarland after passing all the required processes needed to become a Registry Operator for the string.

Delegation and Availability

.saarland was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on 02 April, 2014, completing the successful application for the string. Since 30 October, 2014 (general going live) the TLD is available for the internet community.