18(b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

Prototypical answer:

.Design will have an open registration policy targeted to all types of designers, from the bottom, most practical aspects of design to the artistic or aesthetic aspects. It will be available to both individuals and companies small and large; websites could be anything from an individual designerʹs resume and gallery of their work, to an established design companyʹs corporate website.

We hope to quickly become a reputable and desired TLD for designers by working with prominent design firms, designers, and design schools to ensure that they feel comfortable with the space and are ready and excited about creating their primary online presence within the .design TLD. We will be working with these groups throughout the coming months ahead of our launch, and hope to secure prominent endorsements its influential members. However, we firmly believe that while these endorsements may help our marketing efforts, what ultimately matters most is the reputation created within the relevant industries themselves, and not with specific important members. Thus, we will focus on creating a safe and secure space that is targeted at all relevant users and not some sections thereof; we believe that pursuing this bottom-up model is not only in the best interest of the productive development of the .design TLD, but also that it further underscores the importance of the bottom-up, multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance.

ii.) What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of areas of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
It is our goal at Top Level Design, LLC to create a competitive, specified alternative to the popular but exceedingly generic TLDs available today. It is a commonly accepted notion that the .com TLD is reaching a point of saturation, and that the best, most marketable domains were registered years ago. We believe that implementing a .design TLD will bring greater attention and market success to these businesses. At Top Level Design, LLC, we believe that the .design TLD is an innovative top-level domain that represents a progressive development in how end-users utilize and identify via the root zone. .Design is both generic and specific: calling it “niche” fails to recognize exactly how wide of breadth designers are, and calling it “general” simplifies the way in which it is targeted towards a specified industry or subset of several industries. Design is a creative, collaborative, and innovative process that is unique among other professions, and the .design TLD clearly denotes the creative and innovative aspects of this specific market unlike any other current or possible TLD.

We do not expect that all design-related sites will want to move to a .design extension. Many individual designers or design companies may think that their business is better served by .com, or that they would prefer to stick to their old .net, or that they feel more attracted to one of the other new gTLDs to come about as a result of the New gTLD Program. However, by adding a .design to the root zone, ICANN will be improving existing TLDs by allowing them to become more focused on their intended significance, while simultaneously providing a differentiated and specific extension for those who want to clearly label themselves as designers. This will certainly facilitate more TLD competition, and allow the current offerings to become significantly more differentiated than they currently are.


iii.) What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
By creating a .design TLD we hope to be creating a space where a creative center can come together and showcase their diffuse talents. We have noted the size and breadth of what “design” encompasses, and by creating a design-targeted gTLD we will be creating the first top-level space that transcends the line between generic and niche. That is, there will be no uniformity as to the type of design that is represented, and the creative nature of the registrants will be the primary attribute that binds them together. We believe that the .design TLD will be welcomed by both content creators and end-users as a way to more clearly facilitate targeted and intentional web-surfing and digital and commercial interaction. Once we have established ourselves as a reputable space for designers, users can be sure that the TLD denotes a dedication to the productive dissemination and discussion of design-related material. We also believe that designers that are currently operating websites on sub-par domains, which were chosen out of constraint and necessity rather than passion, will be able to finally have a marketable and attractive domain.

We will create a safe and secure TLD, and believe that this is the most important way to ensure that our users have positive experiences when using .desgin.

iv.) Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

Given the wide breadth of who and what can qualify as design, we intend to implement an open registration policy offered through ICANN-accredited registrars. There will be no proof of legitimacy required for registration, although we will encourage that the domains be used for something conceptually related to design. Through targeted marketing efforts and niche pricing levels, we expect to see that a large majority of the domains registered will be by those with plans to develop relevant sites. In this way, we are insuring that the .design TLD will be open to all types of designers and design companies while still maintaining a strongly delineated space.

We will fully implement the requirements made by the ICANN Board with regards to the Trademark Clearinghouse, the URS, Trademark PDDRP, the RRDRP, and the UDRP. We believe the these measures have been suitably developed to prevent defensive registrations, bad faith registrations, and other malicious registrations.


v.) Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

As per the current requirements in Section 4 of the Registry Agreement, we will implement all necessary thick WHOIS services. We recognize how imperative it is for each registry and ICANN-accredited registrar to be in full compliance with ICANN’s current WHOIS standards, and we plan to update our policy in accordance with any future measures taken by the ICANN Board in regard to the continuous work by the GNSO’s WHOIS Task Force and other recommendations from the SOs. We have no plans to implement any privacy or confidential measures other than fully implementing any and all such measures required by ICANN.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)