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

Prototypical answer:

Given that many commercial real estate owners and occupiers search for and use CBRE Group and its subsidiariesʹ content online, CBRE believes that the proposed .CBRE gTLD has the potential to offer the following benefits to Internet users and consumers:

-Provide a trusted online information source for the millions of commercial real estate owners and occupiers and other clients that use CBREʹs services;
-Provide CBRE Group and its subsidiaries, affiliates, and business units with the use of short and memorable Internet addresses in order to facilitate increased ease for navigation to CBRE online content and other services;
-Minimize the need for defensive registrations because domain names within the .CBRE gTLD will only be registered by CBRE, Inc. to verified CBRE administrators and qualified subsidiaries, affiliates, and business units of CBRE Group;
-Serve as a secure platform for CBRE online commercial real estate services operations; and
-Incorporate enhanced intellectual property rights (IPR) protection mechanisms.

Also, through the adoption of new gTLDs by the wider Internet user community, consumers at large may benefit from lower incidents of fraud, misdirection, infringement, phishing, malware, or other scams often associated with mistypes of domain names in the .COM space that are owned by cybersquatters and CBRE believes this will be the case for its clients, potential clients and other users, since they will be navigating to domain names in the .CBRE gTLD.

CBRE Group has over 300 offices located worldwide (excluding affiliate offices). As such, CBRE would like to provide a hierarchical and intuitive framework for the .CBRE namespace by using permitted geographical and business line identifiers as second-level domain names. This use of geographical [or business line] identifiers to the left of the gTLD and as part of the domain name itself is believed to have a direct and material impact on search engine algorithms and their corresponding query results. CBRE would like to see if this type of hierarchical and intuitive use of second-level domain names within a gTLD provides increased functionality and innovation.

18.2.1 What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

CBRE, Inc. has filed this application for a .CBRE gTLD in order to provide a secure, trusted, virtual platform to aggregate CBREʹs various commercial real estate services, all consistent with the Purpose. As an operating company with a significant revenue stream in the many billions of dollars, CBRE, Inc. has the financial capability to run a registry and comply with ICANN requirements. Even so, CBRE Group has provided ICANN with a letter setting forth its commitment to ensuring payment of CBRE, Inc.ʹs financial obligations associated with the .CBRE gTLD. As technologies for delivering content and services evolve, CBRE will pursue opportunities to deliver its content and services on a global basis on various platforms, including the Internet and mobile devices. As noted above, CBRE intends to use the .CBRE gTLD as an intuitive means to offer its content and to deepen and broaden its relationship with clients, potential clients, and Internet users in general.

Most importantly, the CBRE content and services will be provided in an online namespace having a significantly lower risk of fraud, misdirection, infringement, phishing, malware, and other scams than other open gTLDs. While CBRE fights to safeguard its employees and clients from fraud and cyber attacks, it could use the .CBRE gTLD to offer to clients a safer and more intuitive means of accessing authorized content from CBRE Group and its qualified subsidiaries, affiliates, and business units.

With regard to service level and reputation, CBRE will operate the .CBRE gTLD in accordance with the corporate values upon which it was built: Respect; Integrity; Service; and Excellence. In 2011, CBRE was the highest ranked commercial real estate services company among the Fortune Most Admired Companies, and achieved the highest brand reputation ranking among all commercial real estate companies in a survey of Wall Street Journal subscribers. CBRE believes the .CBRE gTLD will help protect this reputation.

18.2.2 What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

Two of the factors driving CBRE to seek the branded .CBRE gTLD are differentiation and innovation. CBRE Group is the worldʹs largest commercial real estate services firm, based on 2011 revenue, and it uses existing technology and leverages emerging technologies to deliver content and services to its clients and potential clients. A .CBRE gTLD has the potential to serve as a cornerstone of this online strategy and may truly differentiate CBRE from its competition.

While some of ICANNʹs new gTLDs have previously been the subject of claims regarding increased spam and phishing activities, .CBRE from its launch will be a trusted online source of CBRE information and services. CBRE Group and CBRE, Inc. follow established good business practices.

CBRE, Inc. believes that the success of the gTLD will not be measured by the number of domain names registered, but rather by the level of recognition and trust that is placed in the .CBRE gTLD. Using this benchmark, CBRE strives to build recognition and trust that rise to the level of that found in the .EDU and .GOV gTLDs.

18.2.3 What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

In addition to providing a trusted ecosystem experience for its clients who use its content and services, CBRE will minimize potential fraud, misdirection, infringement, phishing, malware, and other scams because CBRE plans that domains will only be registered to CBRE Group and its qualified subsidiaries, affiliates, and business units or those having the Required License.. As a leading commercial real estate services company, CBRE believes that it can be a pioneer in bringing innovation in client choice to this new Internet medium.

18.2.4 Provide a complete description of the applicantʹs intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

CBRE is fully committed to implementing all of ICANNʹs consensus policies and other Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) identified in the Applicant Guidebook. Moreover, based upon CBREʹs commitment and established track record in providing a safe ecosystem for consumers, CBRE intends to provide meaningful safeguards that will evolve over time.

Because the domains within the .CBRE gTLD are currently intended to be registered exclusively to CBRE Group and its qualified subsidiaries, affiliates, and business units, any registration and use requirements are more appropriately vested in the corporate-subsidiary and corporate-affiliate agreements, or corporate policies and practices, and not in a domain name registration agreement. Should select third parties be allowed at some future point to register second level domain names, each must have the Required License within which registration and use requirements will be set forth.
18.2.5 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.

As a leading commercial real estate services company, with an extensive global online presence, CBRE has a vested interest in making sure that accurate and current WHOIS information is readily available in connection with each .CBRE domain name. For the .CBRE gTLD, all private and confidential information will be protected.

CBRE Inc. will ensure that the operation of the .CBRE gTLD will be consistent with applicable laws and regulations as interpreted and applied.

In addition, CBRE, Inc. intends to incorporate contractual language in its Registry-Registrar Agreement (RRA) modeled after language that has been included in the template Registry Agreement and that has been successfully utilized by existing ICANN gTLD Registry Operators.

The template Registry Agreement states, ʺRegistry Operator shall (i) notify each ICANN-accredited registrar that is a party to the registry-registrar agreement for the TLD of the purposes for which data about any identified or identifiable natural person (ʺPersonal Dataʺ) submitted to Registry Operator by such registrar is collected and used under this Agreement or otherwise and the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data, and (ii) require such registrar to obtain the consent of each registrant in the TLD for such collection and use of Personal Data. Registry Operator shall take reasonable steps to protect Personal Data collected from such registrar from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. Registry Operator shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars.ʺ

18.2.6 Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

CBRE sees the potential for the .CBRE gTLD to play a meaningful role in the companyʹs future online strategy. While the extent of likely benefits is currently uncertain due to questions of marketplace adoption of new gTLDs generally, and the response from search engines in the marketplace, both of which will influence the communication and usage strategies for the gTLD, CBRE anticipates a phased-in approach to using and promoting the .CBRE gTLD.

At first, CBRE plans to start using .CBRE domains initially as redirects to existing .COM domains and other domains that CBRE currently operates. Subsequently, CBRE expects to initiate a targeted rollout using select gTLD domains as primary addresses and, after a careful review and analysis of this rollout and of the release of new gTLDs by others, the response from search engines to .BRAND gTLDs, and the perceptions of clients and prospective clients, CBRE may engage in a broader initiative, should the results be satisfactory and in accordance with the companyʹs overall strategic goals. As the marketplace evolves, the actual usage of the gTLD will dictate what outreach and communication is needed to ensure that consumers continue to interact with CBRE content in this new namespace. All such outreach will be undertaken in the ordinary course of CBREʹs general marketing efforts.

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