[twochar_comments] Objection to the name "it.pizza"

[Rita Forsi]

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am hereby writing to submit an objection to the release of the name “it.pizza” for its registration by the Registry operator of this TLD, Foggy Moon, LLC. (Request R000110 @ https://www.icann.org/resources/two-character-labels).
We have  recently made aware of this application by a third party and not by the Registry Operator filing the abovementioned application. In this regard we would kindly request clarification from your services as regards the implementation of Specification 5 of the current Registry Agreement in paragraph 2, which mentions that “Two-character labels.  All two-character ASCII labels shall be withheld from registration or allocated to Registry Operator at the second level within the TLD.  Such labels may not be activated in the DNS, and may not be released for registration to any person or entity other than Registry Operator, provided that such two-character label strings may be released to the extent that Registry Operator reaches agreement with the related government and country-code manager of the string as specified in the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard.”
Up until today, we have not received formal notification nor have we been approached by the Registry Operator with a view to reach an agreement on the release of the two-character “it” in the domain name “it.pizza” and had we been not informed by a third party of this application we may have not been aware of its existence as it is not within any individual possibilities to actively monitor each and every application which may be filed by Registry Operators.
IT is the country code for Italy and since 2010 “pizza” is a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed  (TSG) of Italy (see Commission Regulation No 97/2010 to this effect).
The combination of our ccSLD with the name of a TSG could lead the online consumers to believe that they are buying a genuine pizza, prepared with ingredients with specific  qualities characteristics and cooked following the original recipe, while there is no current guarantee by the Registry that those requirements would be fulfilled (the entire process is fully detailed in Annex 2, par. 3 of the above-mentioned Regulation)
For this reason, we respectfully submit an objection to this application; request clarifications on your side as regards the proper implementation and process to follow when it comes to Specification 5, paragraph 2 of the Registry Agreement; and request that until the Registry Operator engages into negotiations with the Italian government “it.pizza” remains withheld from registration, so that it can only be assigned to a person, entity or corporation proposed or accepted by Italy (included our ccTLD Registry “.it”).
This would allow the Italian government to ensure third level domain names representing professional pizza makers or pizza restaurants and which have and maintain the right to define their cooked food as genuine pizza to consequently use the respective registered logo.

We would appreciate being informed of the decision taken in regards to our objection, and look forward for prompt clarifications.



Best Regards



Rita Forsi

Italian GAC Representative

Director General

Ministry of Economic Development



v.le America, 201


00144 Roma


tel. +390654442360


fax +390654442020


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