gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.LLC	Dot Registry LLC	hotmail.com	View

DOT Registry plans to serve the Community of Registered Limited Liability Companies. Members of the community are defined as businesses registered as limited liability companies with the United States or its territories. Limited Liability Companies or (LLC’s) as they are commonly abbreviated, represent one of the most popular business entity structures in the US. LLCʹs commonly participate in acts of commerce, public services, and product creation.

Limited Liability Companies (LLC) are a relatively new business structure for the United States, the first LLC was validated in the state of Wyoming in 1977 and in 1996 the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws adopted the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act; providing for both the definition of an LLC and the governmental standards under which an LLC may be formed. It was through the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act that a standard set of policies were created to define, validate, and monitor the operations of LLC’s, thus creating a unique and accountable business community in the United States.

An LLC is defined as a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions. LLC’s are a unique entity type because they are considered a hybrid, having certain characteristics of both a corporation and a partnership or sole proprietorship. LLC’s are closely related to corporations in the sense that they participate in similar activities and provide limited liability to their partners. Additionally, LLC’s share a key characteristic with partnerships through the availability of pass-through income taxation. LLC’s are a more flexibile entity type than a corporation and are often well suited for businesses owned by a single owner.

Common advantages to forming an LLC include:

1) Flexibility in tax reporting, LLC’s may choose if they would like to be taxed as a sole proprietorship, partnership, S Corporation, or C Corporation. This is the only business entity form in the United States that allows for taxation flexibility.
2) LLC’s have much less administrative paperwork and reporting requirements then corporations.
3) Unless the LLC elects to be taxed as a C Corp, LLC’s enjoy pass through taxation.
4) Limited liability, meaning that owners of an LLC, called “members” are protected from some or all liability acts and debts of the LLC.

LLC’s have become increasingly popular in the United States because their formation provides owners with the protection of a corporation and the flexibility of a partnership.

With the number of registered LLC’s in the United States totaling over five million in 2010 (as reported by the International Association of Commercial Administrators) it is hard for the average consumer to not conduct business with an LLC (popular LLC’s in the United States include: AOL and BMW). Through the creation of DOT Registry’s .LLC string, consumers can quickly validate that they are working with a member of the Community of Registered Limited Liability Companies, providing consumers with brand reassurance and peace of mind. DOT Registry believes that it is essential to identify limited liability companies online in order to expand on their creditability and further highlight their privilege to conduct business in the US. Proper representation of this community would allow consumers to make educated choices in choosing businesses to patronize and support.
LLCʹs can be formed through any jurisdiction of the United States. Therefore members of this community exist in all 50 US states and its territories. LLC formation guidelines are dictated by state law and can vary based on each state’s regulations. Persons form an LLC by filing required documents with the appropriate state authority, usually the Secretary of State. Most states require the filing of Articles of Organization. These are considered public documents and are similar to articles of incorporation, which establish a corporation as a legal entity. At minimum, the articles of organization give a brief description of the intended business purposes, the registered agent, and registered business address.
LLC’s are expected to conduct business in conjunction with the policies of the state in which they are formed, and the Secretary of State periodically evaluates a LLC’s level of good standing based on their commercial interactions with both the state and consumers. DOT Registry or its designated agents would verify membership to the Community of Registered Limited Liability Companies by collecting data on each Registrant and cross-referencing the information with their applicable registration state. In order to maintain the reputation of the “.LLC” string and accurately delineate the member to consumers, Registrants would only be awarded a domain that accurately represents their registered legal business name. Additionally, DOT Registry will not allow blind registrations or registration by proxy, therefore DOT Registry’s WHOIS service will tie directly back to each member’s state registration information and will be publicly available in order to provide complete transparency for consumers.
Entities are required to comply with formation practices in order to receive the right to conduct business in the US. Once formed an LLC must be properly maintained. LLC’s are expected to comply with state regulations, submit annual filings, and pay specific taxes and fees. Should an LLC fail to comply with state statutes it could result in involuntary dissolution by the state in addition to imposed penalties, taxes and fees.
While state statutes vary, the majority of states have adopted the following guidelines in regards to the formation of LLC’s:

(1) The name of each limited liability company must contain the words ʺLimited Liability Companyʺ or the abbreviation ʺL.L.C.ʺ or the designation ʺLLCʺ.

(2) In order to form a limited liability company, one or more authorized persons must execute the Articles of Organization. Which shall contain: the name of the limited liability company; the address of the registered office and the name and address of the registered agent for service of process required to be maintained; and any other matters the members determine to include therein.
(3) A Limited Liability Company may be organized to conduct or promote any lawful business or purposes, except as may otherwise be provided by the Constitution or other law of this State.
All entities bearing the abbreviation LLC in their business name create the assumption that they have been awarded the privileges associated to that title such as: the ability to conduct commerce transactions within US borders or territories, the ability to market products, solicit consumers and provide reputable services in exchange for monetary values, and finally to provide jobs or employment incentives to other citizens.
Membership in the Community of Registered Limited Liability Companies is established through your business entity registration. In order to maintain your membership to this community you must remain an “Active” member of the community. Active” in this context can be defined as any LLC registered with a Secretary of State in the United States and its territories, that is determined to be authorized to conduct business within that State at the time of their registration. Registrant’s “Active” status will be verified on an annual basis as described above in question 18 in order to ensure the reputation and validity of the “.LLC” gTLD.
Since LLC’s are not currently delineated on the Internet, the creation of this string would mark a unique advancement in consumer security and confidence in the United States. Essentially, this will create the first ever, clear delineator for the Community of Registered Limited Liability Companies.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.taxi	Taxi Pay GmbH	taxi.eu	View

COMMUNITY DELIANATION
The community the applicant is committing to serve is the global taxi community, including its four main community groups: Firstly, the core taxi industry with taxi drivers, taxi offices, and individual taxi entrepreneurs, all of which can be clearly identified based on their taxi licenses, as well as a certificate of registration, i.e. a trade register excerpt. Secondly, the taxi community includes the members of the immediate surrounding industry, such as hardware and software suppliers, recruiting and training companies, auto shops, automotive suppliers, insurances and pertinent press all with a very strong if not exclusive focus on the just described core taxi industry. This particular community group is identified through trade register excerpts. Thirdly, the community includes superordinate organizations, such as governmental organizations, public authorities and institutions and committees with the purpose of establishing relevant policies for the core taxi industry, as well as non-governmental organizations with the purpose of advocating taxi-related issues towards the public sector, the general public and relevant taxi industry representatives on a municipal, regional, national and international level. This group verifies its affiliation to the taxi community through a written, official and verified statement by its superordinate authority or a certificate of a verified register of associations. Fourthly, the taxi community includes affiliated businesses, such as owners of trademarks with a special interest in the products and services of the core taxi industry, such as major places of public interest (i.e. hospitals) or major events of public interest (i.e. Oscar Academy Awards). All just described member groups of the taxi community cater to internet users in general, as the ladder represent a large percentage of potential clients. Hence, there is a clear delineation based on the verification through a certificate of registration or a similar written statement ultimately identifying members of the four groups as members of the taxi community, and excluding the general group of internet users from this very community based on the non-existence of such a certification. Anyone not being able to verify his⁄her affiliation to the community based such a certification cannot register a second level domain under the gTLD .taxi.

STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE TAXI COMMUNITY
Although the global taxi community fulfills all given criteria that define a community, a single and overarching constituent part does not yet exist. Every vaguely qualified community organization faces some restrictions that disqualify said entity to fulfill this role. That is, for example, because only a limited region or number of countries are represented. Another reason lies in the scope of the content of an organization’s coverage. For example, many organizations focus their advocacy endeavors on different means of transportation at once (i.e. public transportation, car hiring companies and taxis), making it increasingly harder to access information exclusively focused on the taxi community. Even worse, most organizations are intentionally limited to regional coverage only – furthering the gap in-between individual members of the community. In almost every country, a multitude of organizations and associations exists, each being divided by different regional interests and greatly varying membership numbers. Additionally, the taxi community is subdivided mostly in small companies in a very traditional environment most importantly based on personal relationships and offline networks characterized by long decision-making cycles and widely ramified hierarchy in its structures as well as operations. Nevertheless, a community like this should eventually establish an adhesive force that guarantees an overall communication and organization network. Hence, TaxiPay GmbH is aiming at representing the interests of all organizations and individuals belonging to direct or indirect taxi professions in order to encourage increasing collaboration within the community itself.

COMMUNITY ESTABLISHMENT
As mentioned before, the community is largely based on values like hierarchy and personal relationships. One reason for this is the traditional nature of the service itself, but also the age of the community itself. The taxi community has its roots in the 17th century, where sedan chairs were first used to publicly transport persons of interest from point A to point B in Paris, France (1617) and Berlin, Germany (1668). Even at the beginning of the personal transport business, the price was dependent on the time it took to transport a person to the desired place of interest, only using an hourglass instead as taximeter. With the progressing industrialization, the taxi industry was increasingly established to the point of the first electric hackney in Berlin in the years of 1900. Only seven years later, in 1907, the first organization to regulate the taxi business and foster the exchange amongst drivers, the “Verein der Kraftdroschkenbesitzer” (Association of Owners of electric Hackneys) was founded in Berlin.

SIZE OF COMMUNITY, MEMBERSHIP & GEOGRAPHIC EXTENT
Today, the taxi industry is one of the most developed industries in terms of availability of its services and its perception as a basic means of transport in the developed world. Though widespread, the taxi industry also proves to be one of the most fragmented industries in the world. Strictly speaking, a taxi is defined as a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. This vehicle may very well be a middle class car, but can also be a horse carriage, bike, motorbike or even a pedicab, depending on the state of a country’s development. Thus, the actual current size of the taxi community can only be estimated. Due to the absence of a worldwide taxi organization, official numbers on the global size of the community do not exist, and are only partially existent for individual countries or regions. Therefore, TaxiPay GmbH has undertaken a calculative estimate on its own, and has verified the hypotheses and numbers with its immediate supporters (see question 20(f)). The basis for the calculation of the size of the community is the size of the world population, as announced by the United States Census Bureau in 2011, in the amount of approximately 7.005 billion people. Already taking into account differences between developed, emerging and developing countries, as well as urban and rural areas, TaxiPay GmbH believes that there is an average of 0.2 taxis per 1,000 world citizens. Concluding, there are about 1.5 million taxis worldwide. The geographical reach, as TaxiPay GmbH perceives it, spans as far as the word “taxi” can be understood or associated with the taxi industry itself. This includes all languages related to English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Russian. It also includes all North, Middle and South American countries, all of the Anglo-Saxon and Francophone African continent, Europe including Russia as well as most Asian counties, especially countries with former bonds to the Commonwealth. Recent activities of the taxi community include the discussion on the level of centralized regulation of the various international taxi sectors, the preparation for the upcoming mobile revolution by developing smartphone applications for ordering and sharing taxis in large urban areas, as well as the initiative of increasing the percentage of green taxis operated on biofuel.