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
.med	DocCheck AG	doccheck.com	View

a-classification
With this application, DocCheck AG is applying for and committing to serve the medical and healthcare community. It consists of both medical and healthcare organizations and individuals worldwide (a detailed definition is given for the target group definition in question 18(a)). For all profession categories listed hereafter, both organizations providing such services and individuals filling such positions may be treated equally as domain registrants. Following is a list of the six profession categories that DocCheck AG primarily considers to form the community: Medical, Scientific-Technical, Nursing⁄Assisting, Pharmacy, Collegiate, and Business⁄Publishing. For a detailed description of the professions included in all named subgroups please refer to question 18(a). Finally, also other individuals with a verifiable root in the before-mentioned professions may be targeted, such as employees of laboratories. Concluding, it should be noted that the list of profession categories given above is not regarded as a criterion for exclusion. Consequently, any group of medical professionals dedicated to the medical and healthcare system and hence being verified through an accredited concession is considered an eligible registrant as long as all regulations of the registration agreement are met. This covers individuals, organizations of people, public and private institutions, and resources delivering health care services to meet the health needs of the population.

b- Delineation
There are several delimitable factors that delineate community members from internet users in general. At first, the membership and therefore the belonging to the medical and healthcare community is directly dependent on one’s belonging to the medical and healthcare professions (as an organization or individual). Access to such professions is most likely limited and controlled by governmental organizations or similar institutions like cooperatives. One does only get access granted if one can prove to the described organizations when fulfilling several criteria. An individual should have successfully completed a scientific or professional education program; an organization should be able to meet predefined criteria in its corporate practice. This usually involves the receipt of some kind of certificate, or award by the individual or the organization. After successful completion of an educational track or the receipt of a license or concession, in almost all cases an automatic acceptance and integration into the community is granted. Therefore, it can be said that the membership of the community is restricted and not open to the public or all internet users. As said before, the community membership not only binds a member to a certain profession but also predefines the industry one is engaged in. For the medical and healthcare community, the relevant industries are obviously medical services, pharmaceutics, biological⁄chemical⁄physical technologies, and related services (please refer to the definition of professions in question 18(a) for details). At last, also language differences can be determined when looking into the medical and healthcare community. Especially those professions have developed a complex system of technical terms and phrases that an ordinary person can hardly understand (i.e. their own dictionaries such as the Pschyrembel Clinical Dictionary for German-speaking countries or the Stedmanʹs Medical Dictionary for English-speaking countries).

c- Structure
Although the global medical and healthcare community clearly fulfills all criteria that define a community, a single and overarching constituent part does not yet exist. Every comparable community part such as international umbrella organizations faces some restrictions that disqualify said organization to act as the constituent part of the community. That is, for example, because only a single occupation or a special area of the medical and healthcare community are represented. Even worse, most organizations are intentionally limited to national coverage. In almost every country, a multitude of organizations and associations exists, each being divided by professions and in most cases even by specialty of the profession, all forming an independent entity. Additionally, the medical community is subdivided by subject-specific, administrative and⁄or policy-motivated groups. These organizations are normally characterized by long decision-making cycles and widely ramified hierarchy in its structures as well as operations. Even though there are cooperation tendencies between such organizations and associations visible, defining them as constituent parts would exaggerate the cause. Nevertheless, a community like this should sooner or later establish an adhesive force that guarantees an overall communication and organization network. The DocCheck service with its more than 800,000 members today could be considered to be a first step in this direction. Hence, DocCheck AG is aiming at representing the interests of all organizations and individuals belonging to medical and healthcare professions no matter of their exact occupation or origin in order to encourage cross-professional collaboration.

d- Establishment and history
The establishment of the community was a process in flux throughout history and dates back several millenniums. The roots of the medical and healthcare community go as far back in the past as to the Egyptian high culture and the civilization of ancient Greece, when the guilds of healers were evolving. Therefore, it can be considered being one of the oldest communities worldwide. Since even a brief historical summary of the activities in the medical and healthcare community over time would exceed the scope of this application, only some of the most important milestones will be provided.
- The Hippocratic Oath requires a new physician to swear upon a number of healing gods that he will uphold a number of professional ethical standards.
- In the Middle Ages mostly monks practiced medical knowledge, and by doing this in monasteries, the first hospitals were established. The first pharmacy opened in London in 1345.
- At the beginning of modernity, as science and technology developed, medicine became more reliant upon medications; also pharmacology was becoming increasingly sophisticated.
- Most of the organizations and associations have been established after the World War II, respectively the World Health Organization in 1948 and the World Medical Association in 1947
- Contemporary medicine conducted within healthcare systems. Legal, credentialing, and financing frameworks are established by individual governments, augmented on occasion by international organizations. The characteristics of any given health care system have significant impact on the way medical care is provided.
- Current trends in this field include telemedicine and a new form of interdisciplinary collaboration of patients and treating doctors on the basis of innovate communication technology (like DocCheck network)
e- Size
With regards to the size of the community to geographic extent and membership, the official statistics of the WHO have been taken into account. On the basis of several subsequently explained assumptions, the exact size has been identified. The geographic extent relies on the assumptions laid out in question 20(d). Therefore, the relevant set of countries represented in the community consists of all countries in the world apart from China and Japan. Accordingly, the WHO states that there are roundabout 57 million (http:⁄⁄www.who.int⁄whr⁄2006⁄annex⁄06_annex4_en.pdf) so-called “health workers” on the globe. As China and Japan are deducted, the figure accumulates to roundabout 47 million. It should be noticed that this is a conservative estimate, as the base applies aless comprehensive target group definition and excludes all national and international medical and healthcare organizations.