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

Prototypical answer:

The Applicant, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (“BMW”) a publicly-held stock corporation located in Germany and is one of the most successful manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles in the world. The BMW Group (referring to BMW’s corporate umbrella name and BMW’s network of subsidiaries worldwide) designs and produces premium vehicles under its 3 flagship brands, BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce, each of which is a leader in its respective segment of the automotive industry.

As a global company, the BMW Group operates 25 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network consisting of subsidiaries, authorized importers and authorized dealers in more than 140 countries. In 2011, the BMW Group sold about 1.67 million cars and more than 113,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2011 for the BMW Group was EUR 7.4 billion on revenues amounting to EUR 68.8 billion. At 31 December 2011, the BMW Group had a workforce of approximately 100,000 employees.

The success of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as integral parts of its strategy. As a result of its efforts, the BMW Group has been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last seven years.

To continue and further improve on its current success, BMW is focusing on product substance, innovation and customer orientation in order to set itself apart from the competition.


A.1 The BMW brand

BMW owns and maintains trademark registrations for the BMW name and roundel logo in over 140 countries worldwide. BMW, as no other brand, stands for sheer driving pleasure and efficiency in equal measure.

In use since 1917, the BMW mark enjoys unquestionable fame as a result of extensive and long use and advertising, and favorable public acceptance and recognition worldwide. Indeed, the BMW mark has become one of the most recognized brands in the world. Recently, the BMW mark was ranked 15th of the “Top 100 Brands” and valued at more than $24 billion by Interbrand in 2011. The 2011 Reptrak study ranked BMW as the 4th most reputable brand in the world, the highest rank for any automotive brand.

Along with manufacturing, selling, and distributing an array of automobiles and motorcycles under the BMW brand, BMW also provides numerous services under the BMW trademark, including banking and financing services, leasing, insurance, maintenance, repair and mobility services. In addition, BMW uses and licenses its BMW name and mark on a wide variety of lifestyle and merchandising products such as clothing, watches, sunglasses and leather goods.

Under the BMW brand, BMW is also involved in organizing and sponsoring a wide variety of cultural initiatives and is engaged in supporting modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music, as well as architecture and design. BMW is also involved in the sporting world, with its activities ranging from participating in and organizing motorsport events, to sponsoring sporting events on a global and national level, such as marathons, tennis tournaments and international skiing events, as well as the upcoming London Olympic Games.


B. BMW and the Internet

BMW extensively promotes its products and services under the BMW mark on the Internet.

BMW has long established a strong Internet presence through its many domain registrations in the existing TLD spaces. Since as early as 1996, BMW has used its websites as worldwide information channels for its business. BMW’s main website, accessible via the domain name BMW.COM, receives many millions of hits each month. It has created countless national websites on ccTLDs to support its sales and distribution at a local market level, and early on it made use of TLDs that have other non-geographic purposes, such as its website on BMW.TV, used to make videos available to the public on its own online channel long before YouTube became popular.

BMW is also very active and successful in social media channels. Its global Facebook community, for example, currently has more than 8 million followers, the largest following of any automotive brand in the world. In 2011, the social media consultancy Sociagility ranked BMW’s social brand value (measuring a brand’s popularity, receptiveness, interaction, network reach and trust) 18th overall, the highest ranking of any automotive brand.

Furthermore, with the latest innovations from its BMW ConnectedDrive concept, BMW contributes in a unique way to driving pleasure by connecting drivers to their vehicles and the environment, not only through GPS but also through the Internet and mobile phone applications. BMW, for example, was the first automobile manufacturer to offer its drivers Google Internet access from an on-vehicle computer. BMW is also the first automobile manufacturer to provide on-vehicle computer access to Facebook and Twitter through its BMW mobile phone app, BMW Connected. BMW is constantly creating new ways to keep its drivers and customers connected.


C. BMW and dotBrand:

With this application for the gTLD “.BMW,” BMW seeks to underline its position as a digital leader and innovator within the automotive industry.

The “.BMW” top-level domain will enable the company to communicate with all of its dealers, partners, affiliates, customers, investors and the general public, and to display information about the BMW brand, in a secure and unified manner. The “.BMW” top-level domain will further provide a single location where customers may research product information or learn about new models and features, and where authorized dealers or affiliates may advertise in a BMW-endorsed, authenticated space.

The “.BMW” space will provide the company and its agents with a single, multi-functional and well-maintained forum through which to communicate to their clients and prospective consumers, thus providing BMW with a new medium for communication and customer orientation. Additionally, Internet users will have the comfort and peace of mind that comes with knowing they are interacting with the company in a safe online space, and that the information they are viewing is authentic and up-to-date.

The “.BMW” Registry Service Provider will manage the Internet space under the direct control of BMW. This will allow the distribution and exchange of information between BMW, their subsidiaries, official importers, dealers, customers, and other relevant parties by means of, but not limited to, websites, social networks, email and other technologies that will reside within the “.BMW” domain name space.

BMW envisages the TLD to follow a single-registrant model, wherein all registrations within the space are held by the BMW company itself. Appropriate corporate divisions, subsidiaries, authorized importers and dealers, and other authorized or affiliated entities may apply to the trademark department of the Applicant company to request authorization to license the use of such registrations. BMW shall review such requests and, in its sole discretion, may grant such licenses on a case-by-case basis. In all cases, BMW shall monitor the use of all “.BMW” domain names to ensure that the content of the associated websites remains current and appropriate to the
“.BMW” space.

Additional TLD web page hierarchy will be developed through the creative use of second-level domains and URL-shortening. For example, “USED.BMW” might offer a starting page for authorized resellers, or such domains may be creatively used in connection with international marketing campaigns, e.g. “2ORIGINALS.BMW” (rather than 2ORIGINALS.COM).

Similar gTLD applications: (227)