2. Principles of Nomenclature

	2.1 The essential principles of virus nomenclature are: (i) aim for stability. (ii) avoid or reject the use of names which might cause error or confusion. (iii) avoid the unnecessary creation of names.
	2.2 Nomenclature of viruses and sub-viral agents is independent of other biological nomenclature. Virus and virus taxon nomenclature are recognised to have the status of exceptions in the proposed International Code of Bionomenclature (BioCode).
	2.3 The primary purpose of naming a taxon is to supply a means of referring to the taxon, rather than to indicate the characters or the history of the taxon.
	2.4 The application of names of taxa is determined, explicitly or implicitly, by means of nomenclatural types.
	2.5 The name of a taxon has no status until it has been approved by ICTV.