18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

Prototypical answer:

”GmbHʺ is the acronym for “Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung”, which is a special form of a limited liability company. While limited liability companies exist in numerous jurisdictions, the acronym GmbH is officially used in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland only. Despite differences in the legal systems, there is more than enough common ground to justify a dedicated namespace for companies that have been incorporated as GmbHs.
In all countries, there are statutory formal requirements for the establishment of such companies, and certain information on the companies has to be filed with public registers (Öffentlichkeitsregister, Firmenbuch, Handelsregister).
The minimum stock capital of a GmbH amounts to:
EUR 35,000 (approx. USD 45,750) in Austria;
EUR 25,000 (approx. USD 32,700) in Germany;
CHF 30,000 (approx. USD 32,650) in Liechtenstein; and
EUR 12,500 (approx. USD 16,300) in Luxembourg
CHF 20,000 (approx. USD 21,800) in Switzerland.
(Note: In Luxembourg, Sociétées à responsabilité limitée can choose to use the German translation “Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung” and be entered in the commercial register as a GmbH, and only the companies that have chosen this option are referred to in this application).
As a consequence, there is a significant level of trust in companies set up as GmbHs. They are perceived to be more robust than other legal forms (RECHTSformen), which can be incorporated with negligible liable equity.
While many - if not most - GmbHs operate their own websites today, they cannot fully benefit from their status as a GmbH because (i) many of them do not include the “GmbHʺ part of their company name in their domain name in order to keep it shorter and (ii) users cannot tell whether a company calling itself GmbH actually exists judging from the Whois data, since such data may be inaccurate. Additionally, with almost 15,000,000 domain names registered in the “.de” ccTLD only, it is difficult for companies to register “their” company name as a domain name.

Thus, the mission of the proposed .gmbh gTLD is
A. to establish a trusted namespace for GmbHs with validated registrants;
B. to provide unique content and⁄or added value information about GmbHs or relevant to GmbHs via domain names operated by validated registrants (e.g. register.gmbh or search.gmbh);
C. to help forge trust in e-commerce; and
D. to provide for a safer and more secure surfing experience and reduce the risk of users being deceived by illegitimate offers, and so mitigate the risk of users becoming victims of abusive behaviour and malicious conduct.
The applicant is an InternetWire Communications GmbH (hereinafter referred to as INW) group company. INW is a registrar in Germany which has a broad reseller base in the target markets for the .gmbh gTLD. INW is a well-established registrar with an excellent reputation, little customer turnover, renewal rates exceeding 85% and negligible UDRP rates. INW is known for its good customer support.

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