gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.LLC	LLC Registry, LLC	fairwindspartners.com	View

18.2 How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

LLC Registry believes that the proposed .LLC gTLD has the potential to offer the following benefits to Internet users and consumers:

-Establish a trusted online marketplace for consumers seeking businesses and related services;
-Provide short and memorable domain names that will facilitate the ease with which consumers can locate information online; and
-Minimize potential incidents of phishing and malware often associated with infringing domain names in the .COM space by incorporating enhanced intellectual property Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs), as set forth in the Applicant Guidebook, and including a post-registration reporting mechanism to take down non-bona fide registrations.

All domain names registered within the .LLC gTLD will be required to comply with the following tapestry of policies which increase the safety within the .LLC namespace. The first is a Registrant Eligibility Policy that will ensure that only those companies organized as LLCs, or those with a bona fide intent to organize, are be able to register domains in the .LLC gTLD. Second is the Name Selection Criteria Policy which will require that entities only register domain names that correspond with their business names. The third is an Acceptable Usage Policy that will be implemented to ensure that registrants use domains registered in .LLC namespace are for bona fide business purposes. In addition to these policies, LLC Registry will hardcode into the registry architecture enhanced EPP Data Fields that will require registrants to provide additional information during the registration process (jurisdiction⁄business identification). These additional EPP data fields will empower third parties to report non-compliant registrations to the registry.

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

The primary mission and purpose of the .LLC gTLD is to provide a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive online marketplace for the aggregation of information, goods, and services across a range of industries. LLC Registry believes that the .LLC gTLD has the potential to provide a virtual platform that offers interactive features to enhance registrants’ relationships with future consumers and Internet users.

The .LLC namespace will be specifically targeted at business owners seeking to register their corresponding company names or related generic terms in the .LLC space. Given the preference for many new business owners to register their businesses as Limited Liability Companies, it is envisioned that this .LLC namespace will provide these new business owners with the opportunity to register their business name or category term in an Internet medium specifically designed for LLCs. This will be ensured by .LLC Registry’s requirement that registrants satisfy the multifaceted compliance policy outlined above: Registrant Eligibility, Name Selection Criteria, and Acceptable Usage Policy. An added level of security will be provided through the public availability of the additional EPP data fields (jurisdiction⁄business identification) collected from registrants and available via public WHOIS. The availability of these additional fields will empower third parties to investigate and report to the registry for investigation potential non-compliant domain name registration.

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

It is anticipated that the .LLC gTLD will be a namespace targeted at a specific group of individuals and entities, primarily owners and operators of LLC businesses. Thus, LLC Registry believes that the .LLC gTLD will offer these parties the ability to register domain names that corresponds to their businesses in an intuitive namespace more specific to their business goals, instead of in the current commercial namespace that must be relied upon by all. In addition, business owners and entities that are not able to register their preferred names in the .COM space, for any number of reasons, will have another, more intuitive option. This will both differentiate these entities’ domain names from their competitors, and allow multiple businesses with the same or similar corresponding company names to register their names in a differentiated namespace.

LLC Registry intends to follow good business practices in dealing with law enforcement to create a marketplace with safeguards designed to minimize fraud and other illegal activity, e.g., its multifaceted compliance policy, including Registrant Eligibility, Name Selection, and Acceptable Usage, as well as the collection of additional EPP data fields from registrants to help with increased validation and compliance efforts. More specific information regarding the scope and implementation of these policies are set forth in the responses to Questions 28, 29, and 30 of this application.

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

LLC Registry believes that the .LLC gTLD can provide a single trusted ecosystem experience for the millions of LLC business owners and consumers. The .LLC gTLD will allow Internet users to access trusted content via its online, mobile, and social platforms. By providing the foundation of this trusted ecosystem, all domain name registrants in the .LLC gTLD will be able to share in the benefits of this collective resource. LLC Registry believes that it can be a pioneer in bringing innovation in consumer choice to this new Internet medium, the .LLC gTLD.

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

LLC Registry is fully committed to implementing all of ICANN’s consensus policies and other RPMs identified in the Applicant Guidebook. Moreover, LLC Registry intends to provide best-in-class safeguards that will evolve over time.

Registrant Eligibility will ensure that only those entities organized as LLCs, or those with a bona fide intent to organize, will be able to register domains in the .LLC gTLD.

Name Selection Criteria will ensure that entities only register domain names that correspond with their business names. This will minimize instances of phishing, malware, and cybersquatting in the .LLC gTLD registry.

Acceptable Usage Policies will be implemented to ensure that registrants use domains registered in .LLC for bona fide business purposes.

Enhanced EPP Data Fields will serve as a means for registering entities to provide additional information during the registration process (jurisdiction⁄business identification) to empower third parties to report non-compliant registrations to the registry.

LLC Registry intends to model the definitions of bona fide use and intent, as well as registration restrictions and enforcement on the Registration Restrictions set forth for the .BIZ registry. See: http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄about⁄agreements⁄registries⁄biz⁄appendix-11-08dec06-en.htm.

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.

LLC Registry recognizes that this is an evolving area of law for which there is no international standard. Nonetheless, the protection of privacy and confidential information of registrants and users is of paramount importance to LLC Registry, and thus registrants and users will comply with all applicable laws; in particular, the European Data Protection framework. Within the bounds of applicable regulations, the registry will implement anti-data mining measures such as rate limitation, authenticated access, or white-listing⁄black-listing, as well as tools to prevent unauthorized recourse to repetitive automated access.

In addition, LLC Registry intends to include contractual provisions to protect confidential and personal data in its registrar agreement, including provisions modeled after language in the template Registry Agreement that has been successfully utilized by existing ICANN gTLD registry operators. The template Registry Agreement states, “Registry 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 (‘Personal Data’) 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.

The .LLC gTLD will likely operate in a similar manner as most of the generic TLDs that have primarily been operated by Internet start-ups created solely for the provision of domain name registration services, e.g., .INFO (Afilias Limited), .BIZ (Neustar, Inc.), and .TRAVEL (Tralliance) and that ICANN has approved.

LLC Registry will seek to leverage VeriSign, Inc.’s existing network of registrars to expand the distribution network of its gTLD, and will engage the services of a marketing or otherwise strategically situated consulting firm in order to facilitate outreach and communication in an evolving namespace. LLC Registry may seek to partner with businesses that focus on establishing business entities to potentially bundle a domain name registration with a recently organized LLC.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.basketball	dot Basketball 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 .basketball 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 .basketball 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 .basketball will provide significant competition for existing and forthcoming gTLDs. The .basketball 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 .basketball 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.


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.

.basketball 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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