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

Prototypical answer:

(i)
* A Niche TLD as Specialty *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD and its .VERSICHERUNG domain names are solely dedicated and thereby specialized to create content, facilitate communication and foster business in connection with insurance topics between all parties involved in the insurance business in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The highly regulated insurance community and its commercially oriented members are a clear defined niche.

* Registrant validation as Service Level *

The most important service level of the .VERSICHERUNG namespace is the validation of each registrant of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name if he is a valid member of the .VERSICHERUNG community. The validation will take place directly after registration of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name and the domain name will only become active if the validation was successful. Therefore .VERSICHERUNG domain names will only resolve in the DNS after a registrant is successfully validated.

* Reputation gained by Validation *

Due to its eligibility requirements and the validation procedures the .VERSICHERUNG TLD is a namespace with support of leading organizations and stakeholder from the insurance community in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. It is our aim that such a secure namespace will gain quickly substantial reputation among the insurance community and also customers.

(ii)
* Highly competitive domain names *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD will enhance competition in the global domain name business by introducing a dedicated namespace for the insurance community in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The new .VERSICHERUNG domain names are a valuable alternative to the established national ccTLDs such as .de or .ch and generic TLDs like .com and .net, especially for members of the insurance community. The most important and intuitive domain names in the TLDs (.de, .at, .ch, .com) which are relevant for the insurance business are already taken. Many of those domain names have been registered just to be sold for high prices on the secondary domain name market.

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD will create new business opportunities and foster the development of innovative services for the benefit of the insurance community. With .VERSICHERUNG domain names, the community will have the ability to enhance their search engine rankings by delivering more relevant search results for members and customers. This will lead to more active websites, benefit the whole namespace and increase the position of community members in the global online business. From a user perspective this will result in a quicker and easier way to find relevant information online.

* Differentiation by a unique string *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD and its .VERSICHERUNG domain names are clearly differentiated to existing TLDs, not only due to their descriptive nature which has a clear meaning and value to the targeted community but also due to its restrictions for eligible registrants.

* An innovative quality seal *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD and its .VERSICHERUNG domain names are innovative especially by the quality seal which is offered to all validated domain names (and its registrants). No other TLD so far has added such a high quality and validation seal which gives trust to consumers.

Since only authorized insurance companies, insurance agents and insurance intermediaries are able to register .VERSICHERUNG domain names, the successfully registration of a .VERSICHERUNG is therefore automatically a quality stamp for the registrant.

(iii)
*Namespace fulfills user expectations*

Users searching for content related to Insurance topics have to decide whether the search results really offer content they are looking for. If users are in doubt, they have to click on each search result to check whether the website offers the expected content or not. With .VERSICHERUNG domain names users searching for content related to Insurance topics will experience domain names and related websites that fulfill their expectations.

*Trusted namespace*

Since non-eligible registrants won’t be able to register domain names under .VERSICHERUNG, users will get the certainty that only members of the community will be able to register and operate a .VERSICHERUNG domain name. They can trust .VERSICHERUNG domain names due to eligible registrants and their validated eligibility according to the restrictions of the insurance industry.

*Easy to find*

Furthermore the intuitive and descriptive domain names under a “speaking TLD” like .VERSICHERUNG will enable consumers to navigate and search more easily for insurance information on the Internet. It is also expected that search engines will give ranking preference to .VERSICHERUNG domain names compared to other TLDs. This will increase the visibility along with the marketing efforts for .VERSICHERUNG by insurance community members.

*Clear meaning*

The string VERSICHERUNG will clearly differentiate itself from many specialized existing and new niche TLDs because of its memorability. .VERSICHERUNG has a clear and unique meaning to German speaking registrants and Internet users worldwide.

(iv)
Beyond the provisions of the New gTLD Agreement the following policies are imposed: The .VERSICHERUNG TLD has the mission to serve the insurance community in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

* Eligibility *

According to the .VERSICHERUNG registration policies, the following entities can register a second-level domain name under .VERSICHERUNG. The entity must be based in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein or Switzerland:

- Governmental organizations regulating the insurance industry
- Organizations and individuals (sole proprietors) that are recognized and registered members of the insurance industry community:
- - Primary insurers, reinsurers and social insurers with an authorization within the legal framework for the insurance industry in the respective countries.
- - Insurance agents and intermediaries with an authorization within the legal framework for the insurance industry in the respective countries.
- - At an official public register registered associations and educational institutions of the insurance industry.

The eligibility will be determined by a validation of the registrant of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name. It will be checked in the official and public registers of insurance intermediaries if the registrant is a member of the insurance community.

* Name selection *

The registration policies state that any types of second-level names may be registered in the .VERSICHERUNG name space. In detail the second-level domain names are defined as:
- Not being restricted on the second-level (no restrictions like .co.uk).
- A second-level domain consists of numbers (0-9), hyphens, Latin characters (a-z) or the extended European Latin character set.
- A second-level domain must not have a hyphen at the 3rd and 4th position at the same time.
- Large and small characters are not different.
- The length of a second-level domain varies between minimal 1 and maximal 63 characters.

Initially reserved and excluded from registration are all second-level domain names defined in Spec 5 of the Draft New gTLD Registry Agreement of the Applicant Guidebook (Version 11.1.2012).
The registrant agrees not to register domain names that violate ethical or criminal law principles (illegal, violent, racist, ethnically offensive, harmful to minors, indecent, offensive or domain names that violate morality and public order) or may hurt the reputation of the .VERSICHERUNG namespace. In addition, domain names are not permitted that use the words or parts of words that could generally perceived as offensive. These include insulting, abusive or agitational words or words or word elements, which could violate the ethical, religious or moral sensibilities of Internet users.

* Registration Agreement *

The contract for the registration of a .VERSICHERUNG domain is entered into between the registrant and a registrar who is accredited by ICANN. The registry has no contractual relationship with the registrant. With the completion of the registration agreement the registrant commits to the registrar for the recognition of all ICANN consensus policies and registration policies and ensures that they are complied with from then on.

* Content⁄Use *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD has both content and use restrictions:
- Content: .VERSICHERUNG domain names must only be used for purposes solely dedicated to insurance topics.
- Use: The registrant must use the .VERSICHERUNG domain name within six months after the initial registration, whereas use is defined in the .VERSICHERUNG registration policies.

* Transfer of Domain Names *

Domain Names can be transferred only to entities who are eligible to register .VERSICHERUNG domain names. As far as the allocation of .VERSICHERUNG domain names is not subject to the universal, but one of the special registration procedures, the initial registration and transfer may be subject to special conditions.

* Enforcement *

The dotversicherung-registry GmbH will have a team of legal personnel in place solely dedicated to the validation of the owners of registered .VERSICHERUNG domain names and the enforcement in the case that an owner validation fails. Our validation procedure has been developed in connection with ICANN accredited registrars and the dotversicherung-registry GmbH advisory board, whose members represents the community. The validation will take place directly after registration of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name. The domain name will only get an active status if the validation was successful (first level of enforcement). Further levels of enforcement include appeals under the .VERSICHERUNG Eligibility Requirement Dispute Resolution Policy (ERDRP) as well as court appeals under URDP, URS or PDDRP or national courts. Our anti-abuse policies are described in detail in our response to the technical questions.

* WHOIS *

The administrative contact of a .VERSICHERUNG domain name shown in the WHOIS database (Admin Contact) has to be a natural person who as an agent for the domain owner (Registrant Contact) has the right and obligation to make binding decisions on all matters concerning the domain. For each .VERSICHERUNG domain only one administrative contact can be named. Domain registrant and administrative contact can be one and the same natural person. The consent of the registrant to publish ICANN compliant registrant data in the WHOIS database will be granted with the approval of the registration policy.

* Start-up Schedule *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD will have a straight forward start-up schedule with the phases noted below:

Phase 1 – Reservation and blocking of names for defined interest groups of the insurance community including
- names of insurance companies in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland
- names for the representation of the interests of the insurance (associations, etc.)
- names for the TLD operation, namespace management, marketing and purpose of the TLD
- names according to ICANN specification 5 (2-letter, country names, others)
- premium names
- blocked names

Some categories of reserved names may be released for registration between entry of the TLD in the IANA root and the start of the Sunrise.

Phase 2 – Sunrise under the Trademark Clearinghouse rules, eligible are all registrants whose trademark was validated by the TMCH, eligibility restrictions to community members only, 30 days duration, First come – First serve allocation.

Phase 3 – Landrush, eligibility restrictions to community members only, First come – First serve allocation

Phase 4 – Auction of premium domain names at a later stage, eligibility restrictions to community members only.

(v)
Since .VERSICHERUNG domain names can only be registered by eligible members of the insurance community the .VERSICHERUNG TLD will not offer or allow privacy of confidential information of registrants to ensure that only eligible registrants hold a .VERSICHERUNG domain name. Due to the validation of each .VERSICHERUNG domain name it is essential that the WHOIS data of each registrant are visible to the public, although a captcha module prevents from automated inquiries. Bulk access to WHOIS data will not be allowed according to ICANN specifications. In addition dotversicherung-registry GmbH will establish an abuse point of contact.

(vi)
* Outreach to the community *

The .VERSICHERUNG TLD is supported by a well-defined insurance community with a clear geographical reach in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Already around 2 years before the new TLD application window opened, we started the outreach to discuss our concept, with the goal to unite a reasonable part of the community for discussions and feedback on our project and supporting our application. As a result of our outreach the .VERSICHERUNG TLD has already gained relevant awareness within the insurance community including leading press publications, congresses and other communication events of the insurance branch. We will continue to communicate the benefits of .VERSICHERUNG domains names within the community. We believe that the broad outreach program, which is part of our marketing efforts, will help us to achieve the projected benefits of .VERSICHERUNG. (See also our press releases: http:⁄⁄www.dotversicherung.de⁄aktuelles⁄pressejournal)

* Management belongs to the community *

In addition the managers of the dotversicherung-registry GmbH belong to the community themselves. The CEO, Axel Schwiersch, started his career more than 25 years ago as an apprentice of an insurance agent and since then works in the insurance industry. He worked for different stakeholders like insurance companies, insurance agents and insurance brokers, and set-up his own business in the insurance community more than 10 years ago.

* Outreach via existing relations of registry backend provider *

Nic.at, the parent company of our registry back-end provider TLD-BOX GmbH, operates the ccTLD “.at” since more than 10 years. Nic.at has established contacts and relations to most registrars in the geographic region which relates to the .VERSICHERUNG community. According to nic.at, more than 400 registrars are connected to nic.at. They know the SRS, systems and staff of nic.at. Therefore we are confident that nic.at will support our outreach activities, especially to German-speaking registrars. Furthermore nic.at started already with outreach about .VERSICHERUNG as a potential new namespace through their own communication activities.

Similar gTLD applications: (0)