gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | .Irish | Dot-Irish LLC | tldassets.com | View |
Dot-Irish LLC
Question 18B
The Irish Diaspora is a community widespread in number, but strong in identity and cultural history. Our research has shown that while there are approximately 6 million people on the island of Ireland, there are nearly 80 million people worldwide that identify themselves as Irish.
With respect to the country-code Dot-Ie (.Ie), we believe it will continue to serve a valuable purpose as the top-level domain specifically for registered businesses and people located in the Republic of Ireland. However, we believe that people will find value in .Irish, both in the Republic of Ireland and throughout the Irish Diaspora.
Our consultations with Irish businesses, political and regulatory officials, charitable and cultural organizations, members of the ICANN community and more have confirmed the demand and appreciation for the concept of .Irish.
“I am excited for the creation of .Irish. I believe there is a widespread demand in Ireland and elsewhere for a TLD that communicates Irishness to the world. I know many of my customers will want one.”
-Michele Neylon,
Managing Director of Blacknight
ICANN Accredited Registrar, Ireland
The .Irish top-level domain will have several benefits to Internet users at its outset and will develop additional uses as time moves forward. As with many new top-level domains, the ability for Irish organizations and companies to register shorter and more meaningful domain names under .Irish will create positive implications for search and simple, easy tools for marketing. Businesses, groups and individuals that associate with being Irish will have the opportunity to clearly identify themselves as such.
“As a director of a major charity organization that operates between the United States and Ireland, I come across business owners, professionals and individuals every day that identify with the brand. I am very excited to be a part of this, and I know a lot of my contacts will want to get involved.”
-Patrick Tully
National Director, American Ireland Fund Young Leaders Society
“In the Irish tourism business, we thrive on promoting heritage, family history and the unique tradition and culture of the Irish people. My company will certainly benefit from the ability to register a domain name with .Irish.”
Keith Charlton
Co- Founder, Bunk Campers
Dot-Irish LLC has identified several compelling initiatives that could become valuable services or technologies in years to come. These opportunities include, but are not limited to social and business networking, genealogy and heritage programs, travel and tourism, charitable initiatives, economic or business services and much more.
Dot-Irish LLC intends to develop, promote and encourage programs that could enhance the connectivity and experiences of Irish peoples. A few of these services may be developed internally or in partnership with other organizations, and we expect many to be created and developed by other people or organizations that recognize the value potential.
Dot-Irish LLC is committed to establishing the .Irish domain space in a way that promotes innovative technologies, services and programs that benefit Irish culture, heritage and people. We intend to continue networking and taking consultations with appropriate people and organizations before and after launch in order to ensure the development of a quality TLD.
REGISTRATION POLICY
Dot-Irish LLC intends to operate the .Irish top-level domain under a coherent, transparent and sustainable process to minimize social costs and maximize the value for its audience and Internet users. The registry will correspond and comply with ICANN to incorporate the best practices and policies available. We will also coordinate with appropriate Irish bodies and organizations to ensure and maintain a quality domain in keeping with Irish culture and heritage. Wherever possible, we will contribute our thoughts, ideas and initiatives in a constructive manner to improve these processes.
ICANN has indicated over time a series of consensus policies for new gTLD applicants to incorporate into their registration policies. It is our intention to monitor and comply with policies set by ICANN, and to contribute to the formation of a fair, professional and transparent process.
It is also our understanding that many of these policies are subject to modifications, particularly as a result of issues that may be generated from the new gTLD application process in 2012. As a potential registry operator, we have reviewed the current public information, and taken numerous professional consultations to ensure that we will be able to comply with these policies in a timely manner at the appropriate stages.
We will also remain open and responsive to prospective registrants and intend to develop initiatives to encourage participation at the appropriate stages. In this regard, our applications have already been compiled or reviewed to varying extents by Loeb and Loeb LLP, attorneys at law, Edward White & Co., LLP, certified public accountants, our registry services provider Afilias and TLD Assets LLC. A number of other former ICANN staff, registries and registrars, companies and consultants in a number of fields have also informally contributed to our understanding of the New gTLD Program and the appropriate policies. Please review below a compilation of policies intended to address the issues referred to in this question.
Below is a preliminary description of policies for Dot-Irish LLC. Dot-Irish LLC plans to take additional consultations and interact with the appropriate governing bodies or service providers as necessary to update registration policies in relation to any potential changes by ICANN.
Trademarks & Dispute Resolution
The launch of .Irish will include the operation of a trademark claims service according to the defined ICANN processes for checking a registration request and alerting trademark holders of potential rights infringement.
Dot-Irish LLC will make a formal announcement to notify the public of an upcoming Sunrise period at least 30 days prior to the opening of Sunrise. Exact dates and parameters will be released prior to the beginning of Sunrise. Dot-Irish LLC intends to work with the Trademark Clearinghouse to check and verify registered marks. Dot-Irish LLC also intends to fully comply with Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS), Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Policy (PDDRP), any other rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) and WHOIS requirements throughout the Sunrise and Landrush periods, and after standard registrations begin. Further detail and descriptions of RPMs are given in our response to Question 29.
Sunrise will consist of a period of at least 30 days. Trademark and service mark holders will be able to reserve marks that are an identical match in the .Irish domain. Recurring annual fees will be standardized in accordance with fees set at preregistration levels. Those wishing to reserve marks in the .Irish domain during the Sunrise Period must own a current trademark or service mark listed in the Trademark Clearinghouse.
Notice will be provided to all trademark holders in the Clearinghouse if someone is seeking a Sunrise registration. This notice will be provided to holders of marks in the Clearinghouse that are an Identical Match (as defined in the Trademark Clearinghouse) to the name to be registered during Sunrise.
Each Sunrise registration will require a minimum term of five years.
Dot-Irish LLC will establish the following Sunrise eligibility requirements (SERs) as minimum requirements, verified by Clearinghouse data, and incorporate a Sunrise Dispute Resolution Policy (SDRP). The SERs include: (i) ownership of a mark that satisfies the criteria set forth in section 7.2 of the Trademark Clearinghouse specifications, (ii) description of international class of goods or services covered by registration; (iii) representation that all provided information is true and correct; and (iv) provision of data sufficient to document rights in the trademark.
The SDRP will allow challenges based on the following four grounds: (i) at the time the challenged domain name was registered, the registrant did not hold a trademark registration of national effect (or regional effect) or the trademark had not been court-validated or protected by statute or treaty; (ii) the domain name is not identical to the mark on which the registrant based its Sunrise registration; (iii) the trademark registration on which the registrant based its Sunrise registration is not of national effect (or regional effect) or the trademark had not been court-validated or protected by statute or treaty; or (iv) the trademark registration on which the domain name registrant based its Sunrise registration did not issue on or before the effective date of the Registry Agreement and was not applied for on or before ICANN announced the applications received.
A Landrush period will be held following the Sunrise period. The Landrush period will last at least 30 days. Registration will be open to the general public. However, Dot-Irish LLC will make efforts to publicize the Landrush period, particularly to the Irish Diaspora. Landrush will not consist of a first-come, first-serve basis, and is created primarily to allow the greater Irish community adequate opportunity to register a domain. On a case-by-case basis, multiple applications for the same domain name may be subject to dispute resolution mechanisms or an auction. The Landrush period may be extended beyond 30 days. Terms and conditions will be set by Dot-Irish LLC prior to the launch of Landrush.
Abusive conduct will not be tolerated during preregistration or at any time, and an abuse point of contact will be maintained at all times. Additional information on abusive conduct and terms of use can be found in response 18C.
After the completion of Sunrise and Landrush periods, standard registrations will begin, and domains will be awarded to registrants on a first-come first-serve basis.
Reserved Names
Dot-Irish LLC will also maintain a reserved list. Some of these names will be reserved for regulatory or informational purposes. ICANN has already determined several of these on behalf of registry operators. Examples can be found in Specification 5 of the sample New gTLD Registry Agreement provided by ICANN in the Applicant Guidebook. Dot-Irish LLC intends to fully comply with this list and any additions that may be made in the future.
Dot-Irish LLC will continue to take consultations in an effort to maintain this list and the .Irish domain in a sensitive and respectful manner to the global Irish community. Dot-Irish LLC will reserve the right to disqualify registrants or their agents from making or maintaining any registrations or reservations in the .Irish TLD if these registrants are found to have repeatedly engaged in abusive registrations, in its sole discretion.
Some premium names will also be put on a reserved list and will be reserved for auction. Some premium names may be awarded to individuals or companies through a transparent process in the interest of developing key services or initiatives under the .Irish domain. For example, Dot-Irish LLC may host a “Founders Program,” whereby people may apply for a premium name and demonstrate a valuable use. This will be done within reason and on a limited basis.
Dot-Irish LLC will not intentionally attempt to put trademarked names on the premium section of the reserved list, and will cooperate with any appropriate rights protection mechanisms. Premium domains will be established prior to launch.
Trademark “frontrunning,” the process of registering trademarks for valuable domain names that have not been released to the general public for the sole purpose of securing the domain at a lower price, is deemed to be abusive to the registry and will not be recognized.
Finally, certain geographic names will be reserved and handled in accordance with procedures delegated by ICANN. For more detail on this section, please refer to Question 22.
Data Collection and Use Policy
So that registrants can understand how their personal data might be used, Dot-Irish LLC will notify registrars of the purposes for which personally identifiable data is collected and used, and Dot-Irish LLC will not use that data in ways that are incompatible with the notice provided to registrars. (See Article 2.17.) Dot-Irish LLC will create a data collection and use policy that anticipates all the data that the registry can collect, and the ways it may want to use it.
Publication of Registrant Data; Measures for Protecting the Privacy or Confidential Information of Users
Dot-Irish LLC will have several measures for protecting the privacy of confidential information of registrants or users.
As per the New gTLD Registry Agreement, Dot-Irish LLC will make domain contact data (and other fields) freely and publicly available via a Web-based WHOIS and a port 43 server. (See Specification 4 for details.) This default set of fields includes the mandatory publication of registrant data. The Registry-Registrar Agreement will require that registrants consent to this publication.
As per the requirements of the new gTLD Registry Agreement (Article 2.17), Dot-Irish LLC shall notify registrars regarding the purposes for which data about any identified or identifiable natural person (“Personal Data”) submitted to the Registry Operator by such registrar is collected and used, and the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data. (This data is basically the registrant and contact data required to be published in the WHOIS.) Dot-Irish LLC will require each registrar to obtain the consent of each registrant in the TLD for such collection and use of Personal Data. The policies will be posted publicly on the registry operator’s web site. As the registry operator, Dot-Irish LLC shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars.
Specifically, those policies will include the following:
• As registry operator, Dot-Irish LLC does not plan on selling bulk WHOIS data. Dot-Irish LLC will not sell contact data in any way. Dot-Irish LLC will not allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations.
• Dot-Irish LLC may use registration data in the aggregate for marketing purposes.
• DNS query data will never be sold in a way that is personally identifiable.
• Dot-Irish LLC may from time to time use the demographic data collected for statistical analysis, provided that this analysis will not disclose individual Personal Data and provided that such use is compatible with the notice provided to registrars regarding the purpose and procedures for such use.
As the registry operator, Dot-Irish LLC shall take significant steps to protect Personal Data collected from registrars from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Question 30 (“Security Policy”) and Question 38 (“Escrow”) contain further information regarding security policies and procedures used to protect the registry system and the data contained there from unauthorized access and loss.
Please see Question 26 (“WHOIS”) regarding “searchable WHOIS” and rate-limiting. That section contains details about how Dot-Irish LLC will limit the mining of WHOIS data by spammers and other parties who abuse access to the WHOIS.
Dot-Irish LLC plans to impose certain operational standards for registrars. In order to gain and maintain accreditation for .Irish, we will require registrars to adhere to certain information technology policies designed to help protect registrant data. These will include standards for access to the registry system, and password management protocols. Please see Question 30 (“Security Policy”) for details.
Dot-Irish LLC will allow the use of proxy and privacy services, which can protect the personal data of registrants from spammers and other parties that mine zone files and WHOIS data. Dot-Irish LLC is aware that there are parties who may use privacy services to protect their free speech rights, or to avoid religious or political persecution.
gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | .movie | dot Movie Limited | famousfourmedia.com | View |
Q18b
How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit Registrants, Internet users, and others?
The Applicantʹs primary intention is to provide a favorable ecosystem for the growth and evolution of the sector. The key to achieving this aim are significant provisions for brand integrity and protection of intellectual property. The Applicant intends to push the boundaries of what can be done through innovative design of the new top level domain, including technologies that capitalize on the sectorʹs needs. A close relationship with the sectorʹs stakeholders is essential to this purpose, and will enable .movie to grow in response to both Registrant and user needs. The gTLD also contains significant opportunities as a next generation organizational scheme for online content, including provisions for abuse prevention to defend users against malicious registrations. The gTLD has been meticulously designed by a team of industry leaders from an array of different fields. This has enabled the creation of an airtight financial strategy, an inspired technological development plan as well as a close and dynamic relationship with the sector community - all critical needs on the path to the enduring success of the gTLD.
18(b)(i) What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?
Specialty
The Applicant’s key specialty goal is to enable a secure and stable gTLD dedicated to providing global Internet users with a targeted space for subject matter of interest. This gTLD will serve as a home for both Registrants and end-users who feel an affinity with this sector and its associated content. Consequently they will prefer to register domain names, create and post content and seek information in a highly targeted manner.
Allowing users the ability to create a targeted, unique space within the new gTLD will enable them to customize their online offering and presence. The .movie gTLD will by itself clearly signal the nature and purpose of such websites to Internet users.
The applicant intends to actively promote gTLD specific vertical searching in the gTLD for the benefit of Registrants, end-users and other stakeholders. This specialization through Vertical Search will also benefit Internet users seeking authentic online information and products or services as they will no longer have to wade through content completely unrelated to their desired results.
As the gTLD is sector specific it will provide a better context for second level strings allowing for a much higher number of relevant and more conscise domains. This more targeted environment will simplify the user experience across multiple platforms specifically with smartphones and tablets where minimal input is favoured.
Service Levels
The goal of the gTLD Registry is to offer domain name registration services of the highest level, exceeding both ICANN requirements and current sector norms. To achieve these goals, the Applicant has contracted with well established, proven service providers offering the highest possible level of quality in Registry and Registrar services. The expertise of the service providers will ensure that the security and quality of the gTLD will be uncompromised.
The Applicant will further provide the highest level of service to trademark, legal rights owners and second-level domain owners. To achieve this goal the Applicant will be implementing a range of Abuse Prevention and Mitigation policies and procedures. The Applicant is also firmly committed to the protection of Intellectual Property rights and will implement all the mandatory Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) contained in the Applicant Guidebook. Aswell as these The Applicant will further protect the rights of others through the implementation of additional RPMs. The RSPʹs experience will ensure that the gTLD provides this high level of service to trademark and other legal rights owners to combat abusive and malicious activity within the gTLD.
The Registry will respond to abuse or malicious conduct complaints on a 24⁄7⁄365 basis, respond to requests from governmental and quasi-governmental agencies and law enforcement in a timely manner, and promptly abide by decisions and judgments of UDRP and URS panels, in accordance with ICANN consensus policies.
The Applicant will also provide fast and responsive (24⁄7⁄365) customer support to both Registrars and end-users in a number of languages to assist with general enquiries as well as complaints of abusive or malicious conduct.
Service Levels related to Registry Backend Services
The Applicant will work with Neustar Inc. (hereinafter “RSP”) whose extensive experience spans more than a decade. This will ensure delivery of the protected, trusted, and permanently-running Registry infrastructure necessary to reliably host and operate a gTLD. The Applicant will also work with its Registrars to ensure that consumers receive secure, fast, and reliable domain name registration services with a high-level of customer service.
The global DNS network that will be utilised for the resolution of domains in this gTLD has already been operating for over 10 years. It currently delivers DNS resolution for several TLD customers and provides low latency query responses with a 100% DNS uptime service level agreement.
The Applicant will further leverage the RSP’s existing DNSSEC infrastructure, capabilities, and experience to provide a robust and standards compliant implementation that ensures DNSSEC services are always available as part of the DNS.
The Shared Registry System (“SRS”) to be used for the Applicantʹs gTLD is a production-proven, standards-based, highly reliable and high-performance domain name registration and management system that has been designed to operate at the highest performance levels. The Applicantʹs RSP has been able to meet or exceed their SLA requirements nearly every month since itʹs inception. Their Registry has achieved a 99.997% success rate in meeting SLAs since 2004.
The Applicantʹs RSP has extensive experience providing ICANN and RFC-compliant WHOIS services for each of the gTLDs that it operates as a Registry Operator for both gTLDs and ccTLDs. The RSPʹs thick WHOIS solution is production proven, highly flexible, and scalable with a track record of 100% availability over the past 10 years.
The Applicant will comply with all the data escrow requirements documented in the Registry Data Escrow (“RyDE”) Specification of the Registry Agreement and has a contract in place with Iron Mountain Intellectual Property Management, Inc. (“IM”) for RyDE Services. The Applicant and its RSP will in conjunction with Iron Mountain work to ensure that the escrow deposit process is compliant 100% of the time.
Reputation
The Applicant will ensure that the Registry enjoys an excellent reputation through its core focus on creating a secure, sustainable, and specialized gTLD, thus supporting ICANN’s primary goals for the new gTLD program in promoting consumer trust, consumer choice, competition and innovation.
The Applicant will strive to become a reputable and successful new gTLD by providing secure, fast and reliable customer service throughout the registration life cycle of all domains in the gTLD.
The Applicant will endeavour to ensure that only non-fraudulent Registrants have domain names in the gTLD via a WHOIS that is searchable, thick and reliable and by being highly responsive to complaints from legal rights owners. The Applicant will further implement an industry leading range of Abuse Prevention and Mitigation policies and procedures as well as RPMs.
The Applicant will provide the financial and operational stability to protect Registrants and ensure the reputation of the Registry. The Applicant has estimated the maximum costs of the critical functions for a three year period by taking the largest single year cost estimate (year 5) and multiplying this by 3. If the calculation used a lower figure the costs estimate would not be at the potential highest amount during the 5 years and the COI instrument would be too small in order to fund the costs of the 5 critical functions for at least 3 years.
The Applicant has decided to commit to providing the highest level of protection to Registrants and Stakeholders by providing ICANN with a COI for the maximum amount as recommended by ICANN in its COI Guidance. This ensures the Registry is reputable, remains conservative and mirrors ICANN’s core objectives. In a worst case scenario where the Applicant will not receive any revenue Registrants will be protected not only by the COI, but also by the fact that the Applicant has enough capital to operate for over 3 years.
Question 18(b)(ii) What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
It is expected that .movie will provide significant competition for existing and forthcoming gTLDs. The .movie gTLD will provide a blank canvas of second level domains that will inevitably lead to increased consumer choice and significant innovation from the sector. It will allow Registrants to seek new and varied ways to separate themselves from the competition.
Competition
The Applicant will enhance competition by allowing new Registrants to create new online products and services serving the global marketplace and connecting geographically diverse Registrants and users with a common affinity for the specialized subject matter exemplified by the new gTLD. The new gTLD process and its resulting gTLDs are likely to incentivize top-level domains to improve the security and quality of their online products and services as well as introducing new ones. Thus, this gTLD will benefit consumers by increasing the likelihood of new innovative online products and services.The addition of a new gTLD such as .movie will also increase competition between existing registries.
The Applicant will promote competition to the benefit of the Registrants by amongst other things:
- Building a healthy growth trend of domain registrations to validate the specialty space
- Promote the migration of sector relevant content from other TLDs
- Maintaining competitive pricing of domains
Differentiation
Currently, there is no gTLD available on the Internet that signifies the specialized products, services, and subject matter encompassed by this gTLD. The gTLD string itself will give a clear indication to website visitors that the site has content relevant to the sector. This will result in the gTLD becoming globally recognizable and viewed as a trusted source of goods, services and information.
Innovation
The gTLD will demonstrate innovation through cutting edge RPMs.
Firstly the Applicant considers the Protection of Intergovernmental Organization (ʺIGOʺ) names to be very important. The Applicant will use strings registered as second level domains in the .int gTLD as the basis for this protection. To register in the .int domain, the Registrants must be an IGO that meets the requirements found in RFC 1591. The Applicant will reserve these strings and only allow for their future release if an IGO on the “reserve list” wishes to make use of the protected string in the gTLD and provides the Applicant with sufficient documentation.
Secondly, the Applicant will require that Registrants agree to the Registry’s “Abuse and Rights Protection” Terms and Conditions as part of the registration process for the second-level domain, which includes displaying the APM Seal on the homepage. The APM Seal will provide users and legal rights holders with a direct link to an Abuse Prevention and Mitigation Report Website which will provide instructions on how to report abusive conduct to the Registry and law enforcement.
Finally if a Registrant during sunrise and landrush applies to register a domain name identical to a capital city name of a country or territory listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard it will receive a Capital City Claims (“CCC”) notification stating this. Subsequently they will have to reply unconditionally agreeing to comply with requirements to protect the reputation of the capital city and any further terms.
These functions will enhance Internet stability, security and will demonstrate to Registrars, Registrants, and end-users of the Registry that abusive or malicious conduct will not be tolerated. They will further contribute significantly to the integrity of the gTLD enabling an environment where stakeholders can innovate with confidence.
Question 18(b)(iii) What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
The Applicant’s goals for the new gTLD are to provide a trusted, secure, and user friendly environment whereby domain names and content relating to its specific affinity group can flourish.
The Applicant believes that the success of the gTLD will be determined by the sector’s key stakeholders globally. The Applicant believes that stakeholders should have the opportunity to influence the gTLD and the way it is governed. Accordingly, the Applicant is establishing a Governance Council (“GC”), to serve as an advisory body.
.movie will be developed with consumer trust, choice and satisfaction in mind and after the initial 2 years, the Applicant will conduct a survey to analyse the gTLDʹs success in these areas to help further improve the user experience.
To ensure a high level of service the Applicant will further measure:
- Service Availability Targets for the Critical Registry Functions
- The number of abuse incidents and takedowns
- ICANN Compliance
- Rights protection incidents (i.e. UDRP and URS)
- WHOIS data accuracy
The Applicant intends to promote consumer choice by providing the following:
- Highly available and geographically diverse Registrar distribution channel;
- Effective sunrise and trademark services.
Question 18(b)(iv) Provide a complete description of the applicantʹs intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.
Registration Policies
The purpose and goal of the Applicant’s policies are to ensure competition, fairness, trust and reliability for Registrars, Registrants, the user community, and other stake holders, while maintaining security and stability for the gTLD.
General Policy
Aside from certain start-up mechanisms, all domain names will generally be registered on a first-come, first-served basis. A Trademark Claims service will be offered for the first 90 days of general registration, with the intent of providing clear notice to potential Registrants of the existing rights of trademark owners with registered trademarks in the Trademark Clearinghouse.
Registration Policies
As per ICANN’s requirements, the Applicant will be operating both a Sunrise and Landrush period ahead of general availability for the gTLD.
Governance Council
The Applicant is establishing a the GC, to be comprised of key sector stakeholders that will serve as an advisory body. Each GC will elect its own Board of Directors, which will be responsible for self-governance, the recommendation of sector-specific registration policies,the formulation of guidance on intellectual property and other best practices related to the gTLD.
The Applicant aims to develop an Abuse Prevention and Mitigation Working Group in conjunction with the GC. It will give the Applicant’s team advice on abuse preventions and mitigation and how this may effect registration policies. The group will meet to regularly discuss the latest trends in domain name abuse and the most effective way to prevent and remedy them.
Question 18(b)(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.
Data and Privacy Policies
The Applicant shall comply with all the Data, WHOIS, and Privacy requirements in the Applicant Guidebook required by ICANN. The Applicant will take all possible steps to maintain the security and privacy of information or data that it may collect in connection with the planned function and usage of names domains, and will remain in compliance with all confidentiality and security regulations in relevant jurisdictions. This data will be held by the Applicant in accordance with the Registry Agreement that the Applicant will execute with ICANN.
The Applicant has further ensured that its suppliers also understand that keeping information secure and private is of crucial importance and will take all available steps to maintain the security and privacy of information collected from the Applicants in the Sunrise, Landrush and General Availability Phases.
Question 18(b) Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.
The Applicant plans on making the gTLD the premier gTLD where individuals and organizations can register, build and maintain websites relating to their specific interest area. Thus, communication with the public and development of an outreach campaign are important goals in connection with the gTLD.
During the gTLD evaluation process, the Applicant plans to conduct a two-to-three month communications campaign aimed at reaching sector stakeholders and informing them of the gTLD’s mission and the opportunity to participate in the GC. The communication outreach will include email communications to hundreds of leading sector organizations. It will also be accompanied by the launch of a website for communicating information about the gTLD and allowing interested members of the related sector to express interest in serving on the GC. Other communications efforts, including but not limited to, press releases and social media campaigns may all be initiated to raise further awareness regarding the gTLD.
Shortly after completing the evaluation process and being awarded the gTLD, the Applicant will institute marketing and outreach efforts to inform the public about the new gTLD, its launch schedule, and its intended affinity group. The Applicant will use different outreach and communications methods and venues to get the new gTLD mission and message out to the public, including but not limited to the following: online and print press releases, communications with various media outlets, domain name sector groups, mobile apps and various social media platforms. The GC will be used as a further means of outreach and communication to the Internet community.
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