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

Prototypical answer:

i. The Applicant, the BNP Paribas Group, has one of the largest international networks with operations in 80 countries and counts with nearly 200,000 employees. The Applicant has key positions in its three core businesses: Retail banking, Corporate & Investment Banking and Investment Solutions .Present across Europe through all its business lines, the Applicant’s Group has four domestic retail banking markets in France, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg.
BNP PARIBAS is the most used and most recognized brand in the group (alone or in combination with other elements) The BNP PARIBAS brand has a widely spread international exposure.
The Applicant’s group uses the BNP PARIBAS brand for many of its activities, including retail banking in France, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, etc. It is also a distinctive element of many of the Applicant’s other brands, such as BNP Paribas Cardif, BNP Paribas Fortis, BNP Paribas Personal Finance, etc.
The Applicant is one of the best rated banks in the world (Rated AA- by Standard & Poorʹs in the date of 28th March 2012). The proposed gTLD aims at consolidating the reputation of the Applicant’s brand;
ii. From the Applicant’s perspective, .BNPPARIBAS will bring a high degree of recognition and specialization to the currently existing name space. Where in most cases the specific connotation that has been initially given to the gTLDs (or even ccTLDs) has disappeared, the .BNPPARIBAS top-level domain will be unambiguous as regards the identity of the Registry Operator, the source of the content and services offered under the .BNPPARIBAS and⁄or the affiliation between the Registry Operator and the TLD;
iii. As mentioned in the vision ⁄ mission statement before, some of the key reasons why Applicant is applying for .BNPPARIBAS are:
1. Marketing and branding: reflect the Applicant’s key brand BNP PARIBAS at the top-level of the DNS’ hierarchy,
2. Safety and security, given the fact that the TLD and most if not all of the domain names registered therein will be completely or at least partially under the control of the Registry Operator;
3. Affiliation between the core BNP PARIBAS brand and the hundreds of product and service brands registered and⁄or used by BNP PARIBAS and⁄or its subsidiaries in their day-to-day business;
iv. The Applicant intends to implement the following policies and procedures with respect to the registration of domain names in the .BNPPARIBAS top-level domain to include but not limited to:
1. Reservation of domain names in the name of the Applicant. These names include:

a) descriptive names, referring to the actual day-to-day business activities of the Applicant and⁄or its subsidiaries;
b) descriptive names, referring to the internal departments of the Applicant;
c) descriptive names, referring to the subsidiaries or the Applicant, joint ventures and⁄or other forms of entities linked to the Applicant;
d) product and service brands promoted by the Applicant and⁄or its subsidiaries now and in the future;
e) any denomination, subject to the respect of the legal conditions applicable, in order to facilitate the Applicant’s communication and in particular the proximity with its customers;
f) any denomination, subject to the respect of the legal conditions applicable, in order to facilitate the applicant business and in particular the proximity with the customers.
h) reserved names according to specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement
h) geographic names according to specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement
i) etc.

2. Launch of the TLD:


a) Prior to Sunrise⁄ TLD launch: the registry operator will populate a list of reserved names. and will reserve the right to register domain names during the pre launch phase. The list will be made available to sponsoring registrars and potential eligible registrants as an additional procedures to minimize any abusive registrations and other activities that would have a negative impact on Internet users
b) Prior to general availability: The registry operator will ensure a Trademark Claims service during the start-up phase as provided in the registry agreement. These mechanism will be supported by the established Trademark Clearinghouse as indicated by ICANN. The Trademark Claims service provides notice to potential registrants of existing trademark rights, as well as notice to rightsholders of relevant names registered. Registry operators may decide to continue offering the Trademark Claims service after the relevant start-up phases. The registry operator will also implement safeguards against allowing unqualified registrations in accordance to, the registry’s eligibility restrictions or policies
c) Sunrise: allow physical persons, organizations and entities that meet the eligibility requirements in force at that point in time to choose the domain names that are identical to their trademarks;
d) General availability: other available domain names may be registered by physical persons, organizations and entities that meet the eligibility requirements in force at that point in time to choose the domain names in accordance with the applicable terms and conditions.
e) Depending on the terms and conditions in force at the time of launch of the TLD, these domain names may or may not be registered in the name of the applicant for the domain name or in the name of the Applicant for the TLD (BNP PARIBAS). In any case, the Applicant reserves the right to impose additional and other restrictions from time to time at its sole discretion;

v. Given the fact that the Applicant is a company that is established in France, it is subject to both national and European privacy and data protection rules and practices. French and European privacy and data protection rules and practices are recognized to be among the most consumer protective rules in the world.
vi. As an additional data privacy procedure, the registry operator do not plan on selling bulk WHOIS data or contact data in any way. The registry operator will not allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations. The registry operator do not plan on selling DNS query data in a way that is personally identifiable. The registry operator reserve the rights to use registration data in the aggregate for marketing purposes.
vii. In order to prevent any abusive mining or harvesting of personal data, the registry operator will enforce adequate WHOIS service and access to contact data, such as but not limited to, limit in search returns. WhoIs protection services information can be found in question 26
viii. The Applicant is a multinational financial institution that has been created in 2000 from the merger of BNP and Paribas. The new group thus inherited two major banking traditions: that of BNP, the first French bank, whose origins date back to 1848, and that of Paribas, an investment bank founded in 1872. Ever since that merger, the Applicant has been trading under the BNP PARIBAS brand and domain name (bnpparibas.com). Since its establishment, the Applicant has become a major player at international level, with a worldwide reputation. In 2011, Forbes Global 2000 considered the Applicant’s Group to be the number one bank in the eurozone. Therefore, the Applicant has different ways in order to make existing and future clients, visitors and stakeholders aware of the (gradual) move from the Group’s bnpparibas.com domain name to the .BNPPARIBAS TLD, including but not limited to:
1. Internet advertising campaigns;
2. having Internet traffic to its key domain names resolving into domain names registered in the .BNPPARIBAS TLD;
3. email marketing campaigns;
4. offline campaigns; etc.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)