16 Describe the applicant's efforts to ensure that there are no known operational or rendering problems concerning the applied-for gTLD string

Prototypical answer:

William Morris Endeavor (WME) has carefully examined the applied-for string “WME” and found that deployment of it will not cause adverse operational, rendering issues, or general user-confusion issues due to visual similarity with existing TLDs⁄ISO3166 lists⁄ICANN reserved list of names & list of ineligible strings.

WME particularly observes the following:
- The string is represented in standard ASCII characters and follows relevant technical, operational and policy standards;
- The string length is within lengths currently supported in the root and by ubiquitous Internet programs such as web browsers and mail applications;
- There are no new standards required for the introduction of this TLD; and
- No onerous requirements are being made on registrars, registrants or Internet users.

As discussed in the ICANN program for Universal Acceptance of new gTLDs, some issues may arise, as has been the case historically, concerning application software not being consistent in their functionality across TLDs.

Additionally issues exist concerning resolution of IDNs as second-levels under .WME. While WME does not expect a large volume by any means of IDN registrations, WME will contact browser developers to get the .WME TLD included in whitelists and other means to ensure address-bar display of the U-label, as expected by the user. It is noted that regardless of the display of A-label or U-label that the resolution functions and the user is directed to the right site. For more on this subject see response to question #44; noting that WME will not have a variant or confusability issue in internationalized second-levels due to the very low volume and case-by-case manually reviewed domain name registration (as explained in response to question #18).

Jointly these issues results in non-consistent user-experience across applications. Some are historic and simple information will help solve them; the issue with TLDs longer than 2 or 3 characters that was a big issue in the 2000-01 new TLDs but now largely eliminated; other has to do with trust in the TLD Policies.
WME takes full responsibility for any such issues and will work jointly with the gTLD stakeholders to enable general global acceptance of all TLDs.

WME has conducted due diligence in comparing the string “WME” toward any existing TLDs, future ccTLDs, 3-character country codes per the ISO list, reserved and otherwise ineligible strings per the ICANN Applicant Guidebook, and against any country- or territory names.

As mentioned .WME is represented in standard ASCII, fulfills technical standards and due to the length, construction, and meaning of the string, we have found that it is not conflicting with any of the restrictions placed by ICANN. We have also found that the string does not relate confusingly to a country⁄regional⁄geographic name.

As a result the TLD is safe for delegation and will not create adverse effects for registrants and users of the domain name under it.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)