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

Prototypical answer:

18.2

Given that many businesses search for Dealer.com’s content online, Dealer.com believes that the proposed .DEALER gTLD has the potential to offer the following benefits to Internet users and consumers:

-Provide a trusted online marketplace for the businesses that use Dealer.com’s services;

-Provide Dealer.com and its partners and affiliates with the use of short and memorable Internet addresses in order to facilitate increased ease of navigation to Dealer.com’s online content and other services;

-Minimize the need for defensive registrations because domain names within the .DEALER gTLD will only be registered by Dealer.com to verified Dealer.com administrators and partners and affiliates of Dealer.com, at least for the first three years of operation;

-Serve as a secure platform for the distribution of copyrighted material to consumers; and

-Incorporate enhanced intellectual property rights (IPR) protection mechanisms.

Also, through the adoption of new gTLDs by the wider Internet user community, businesses may benefit from lower incidents of fraud, misdirection, infringement, phishing, malware, or other scams often associated with mistypes of domain names in the .COM space that are owned by cyber squatters, since they will be navigating to domain names in the .DEALER gTLD.

Dealer.com currently offers its platform to franchise dealers, independent dealers and dealer groups across the United States. Given this widespread service offering, Dealer.com believes that a .DEALER gTLD can provide an online single source-identifying location for its current and future customers.

Dealer.com would like to provide a hierarchical and intuitive framework for the .DEALER namespace by using geographical identifiers as second-level domain names. This use of geographical identifiers to the left of the gTLD and as part of the domain name itself is believed to have a direct and material impact on search engine algorithms and their corresponding query results. Dealer.com would like to see if this type of hierarchical and intuitive use of second-level domain names within a gTLD provides increased consumer functionality and innovation, as premised by ICANN.

(i.)
Dealer.com has filed this application for a .DEALER gTLD in order to provide a secure, trusted, virtual platform to aggregate Dealer.com’s already well-known and prestigious content and other solutions and services. As technologies for delivering content and services evolve, Dealer.com will pursue opportunities to distribute its content and services to consumers in the U.S. on various platforms, including the Internet, mobile devices, and video-on-demand. As noted above, Dealer.com intends to use the .DEALER gTLD as an intuitive means to offer its content and to deepen and broaden its relationship with audiences and viewers.

Most importantly, the Dealer.com content and services will be provided in an online namespace devoid of fraud, misdirection, infringement, phishing, malware, and other scams. While Dealer.com fights to protect its valuable intellectual property from piracy on the Internet, it would use the .DEALER gTLD to offer to consumers a safe and intuitive means of accessing authorized content from Dealer.com and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates.

With regard to service level and reputation, Dealer.com will operate the .DEALER gTLD in accordance with its corporate philosophy:

The primary focus at Dealer.com is our dealer clients. We recognize that dealers are on the front lines of the automotive industry, talking to and servicing customers everyday. Our goal is to make selling easier, more efficient, and more profitable for dealers by providing them with the most innovate technological tools and services available so they can do what they do best - sell and service their customers.

We place as much importance on our team as we do our clients. We pride ourselves in working hard, working smart, and being the most technically advanced and innovative company in online automotive. None of that can be done without employees that thrive on being at work. Our culture attracts and encourages motivated people that want to make a difference in the industry and the world around them.

(ii.)
As a .BRAND gTLD, the primary factors driving Dealer.com to seek the .DEALER gTLD are differentiation and innovation. Dealer.com is a leading online marketing solutions company, and it uses existing technology and leverages emerging technologies to deliver content and services to its thousands of automotive dealership customers. A .DEALER gTLD has the potential to serve as a cornerstone of this online strategy.

While some of ICANN’s new gTLDs have previously been the subject of claims regarding increased spam and phishing activities, .DEALER from its launch will be a trusted online source of Dealer.com information, solutions, and services. Dealer.com will follow its own established good business practices in working with law enforcement to create a marketplace with safeguards designed to minimize fraud and other illegal activity.

Dealer.com believes that the success of the gTLD will not be measured by the number of domain names registered, but rather by the level of consumer recognition and trust that is placed in the .DEALER gTLD. Using this benchmark, Dealer.com strives to build consumer recognition and trust that rise to the level of that found in the .EDU and .GOV gTLDs.

(iii.)
In addition to providing a trusted ecosystem experience for its millions of customers who use its content, solutions, and services, Dealer.com will minimize potential fraud, misdirection, infringement, phishing, malware, and other scams because domains will only be registered to Dealer.com and its partners and affiliates, at least for the first three years of operation. As a leading online marketing solutions company, Dealer.com believes that it can be a pioneer in bringing innovation in consumer choice to this new Internet medium.

(iv.)
Dealer.com is fully committed to implementing all of ICANN’s consensus policies and other Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) identified in the Applicant Guidebook. Moreover, based upon Dealer.com’s commitment and established track record in providing a safe ecosystem for consumers and vendors, Dealer.com intends to provide best-in-class safeguards that will evolve over time.

At the time of completing this application, Dealer.com has identified a Rights Protection Mechanism (RPM) that will allow trademark owners to challenge domain names initially reserved by the registry (e.g., generic and geographic names identified in Section 18.1.2). This process will be modeled after the dotAsia Pioneer Policies adopted by dotAsia in connection with its launch, see http:⁄⁄www.wipo.int⁄amc⁄en⁄domains⁄gtld⁄asia⁄.

Because the domains within the .DEALER gTLD are currently intended to be initially registered exclusively to Dealer.com and its partners and affiliates, any registration and use requirements are more appropriately vested in the corporate-partner and corporate-affiliate agreements, or corporate policies and practices, and not in a domain name registration agreement.

(v.)
As a innovative marketing solutions company, with extensive online operations, Dealer.com has a vested interest in making sure that accurate and current domain name information is readily available in connection with each .DEALER domain name. For the .DEALER gTLD, all private and confidential information will be protected.

Dealer.com will ensure that the operation of the .DEALER gTLD will be consistent with Dealer.com’s Privacy Policy, available here: http:⁄⁄www.dealer.com⁄privacy.htm.

In addition, Dealer.com intends to incorporate contractual language in its Registry-Registrar Agreement (RRA) modeled after language that has been included in the template Registry Agreement and that has been successful utilized by existing ICANN gTLD Registry Operators.

The template Registry Agreement states, “Registry Operator shall (i) notify each ICANN-accredited registrar that is a party to the registry-registrar agreement for the TLD of the purposes for which data about any identified or identifiable natural person (“Personal Data”) submitted to Registry Operator by such registrar is collected and used under this Agreement or otherwise and the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data, and (ii) require such registrar to obtain the consent of each registrant in the TLD for such collection and use of Personal Data. Registry Operator shall take reasonable steps to protect Personal Data collected from such registrar from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. Registry Operator shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars.ʺ

Dealer.com sees the potential for the .DEALER gTLD to play a meaningful role in the company’s future online strategy. While the extent of likely benefits is currently uncertain due to questions of consumer recognition, the adoption of new gTLDs, and the response from search engines in the marketplace, all of which will influence the communication and usage strategies for the gTLD, Dealer.com anticipates a phased-in approach to using and promoting the .DEALER gTLD.

At first, Dealer.com plans to start using .DEALER domains initially as it redirects to existing .COM domains and other domains that Dealer.com currently operates. Subsequently, Dealer.com expects to initiate a targeted rollout using select gTLD domains as primary addresses and, after a careful review and analysis of this rollout and of the release of new gTLDs by others, the response from search engines to .BRAND gTLDs, and the perception of consumer, Dealer.com may engage in a broader initiative, should the results be satisfactory and in accordance with the company’s overall strategic goals. As the marketplace evolves, the actual usage of the gTLD will dictate what outreach and communication is needed to ensure that consumers continue to interact with Dealer.com content in this new namespace.

Similar gTLD applications: (3)