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

Prototypical answer:

18.2 Goal of .WED gTLD

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


Wedding Couples

Our key constituency is couples planning their wedding around the world but with an initial marketing focus in the United States of America. Our target market is couples who want to share their experience via the internet without the need to use the gateways of wedding website resellers in the .com, .biz, .org, .net and other gTLD and ccTLD spaces. The .WED TLD brand will be one that epitomizes the special nature of a wedding and recognizes the significant investment families make in creating an event they will treasure forever. Couples will no longer have to provide their personal information to login to wedding website vendor reseller sites or leverage these reseller website offerings at the third level due to the limited availability of .com and other gTLD domain names. .WED provides an immediate connection between the domain name and the event eliminating the need for longer domain name strings.

.WED will be an open and unrestricted registry. The pricing strategy, registrar policies, Acceptable Use Policy and Wildcard Blocking program are designed to create the best opportunity for couples to obtain the .WED domain name of their choice. These components are also designed to minimize domain name speculation, cyber-squatting and human trafficking. We are particularly concerned with the possibilities of human trafficking and will actively combat this practice. The three policies designed to accomplish these goals are as follows:

Pricing Strategy: Annual registrations and renewals are priced affordably for couples who on average use a website for their engagement and wedding for a year or less and usually no more than 18 months. Any annual registrations over two years or initial registrations exceeding a two-year term will be priced significantly higher than any wedding couple would be expected to budget for a presence on the internet. We recognize this may create an inconvenience for some commercial enterprises that desire a longer-term domain name registration. The .com, .biz, .org, .co, and .net gTLDs as well as many of the new gTLDs and ccTLDs offer businesses and other commercial entities multiple opportunities to have a presence on the internet so Atgron doesnʹt think this represents a barrier to competition and could act as a deterrent to other forms of domain name misuse, particularly those related to intellectual property violations in the .WED TLD.

Registrar policies: Bulk registrations and renewals will only be allowed if registrars confirm the bulk registration or bulk renewal is a result of direct interaction between the registrant and couples or families planning a wedding. Any accredited registrars offering .WED TLD domain names for longer than two year terms, will need to obtain electronic acknowledgement from registrants of their understanding of the significant price increase for .WED TLD domain name registrations beyond two years.

Acceptable Use Policy: Material that promotes pornography, human trafficking, mail order bride services and forms of discrimination as well as hatred and violence are strictly prohibited. We will actively monitor registered domains for these violations and use our Wildcard Blocking feature to block common terms with pornographic intent. Please see the response to Question 28 for the detailed Acceptable Use Policy.

Wildcard Blocking: The .WED TLD will offer the ability for verified Trademark Holders to block variants of their trademarked name in perpetuity via a one-time premium wildcard blocking program. Blocked variants will be based upon demonstrable usage by the trademark holder and appropriate interpretation of the trademark intent. Details of this program are provided in the response to question 29.

Municipalities

Because weddings tend to be local events, we will provide unique spaces to countries, provinces, states, counties, and cities to promote tourism generated by weddings, if they so desire. No geographic domain names will be approved without the express request or approval of an authorized governmental agency. Violations of this policy will be handled using the Complaint Resolution Service (CRS) of Atgronʹs Registry Service Provider, CoCCA Registry Services Limited. For details of the CRS process, please see the response to question 28.

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

A wedding is a special but fleeting occasion. The .WED gTLD will offer couples the ability to provide targeted communication conveying their special event using a channel designed for that specific purpose.

Competition

Currently, the .com, .biz, .org, and .net, gTLDs as well as ccTLDs are the most common strings used by wedding couples today. Many of these strings are saturated and couples are unable to obtain the domain name of their choice. The .WED TLD will offer wedding couples additional choices related specifically to their unique event.

Because Atgron, Inc. and its partners have no affiliation with any wedding industry vendors and conducts no business in the wedding industry, there is decreased risk of anti-competitive behavior. We have no incentive to steer registrants to any particular vendor, inhibit competition, promote products or leverage registrant information for competitive advantage. Our target market, wedding couples, will be our competitive advantage and our entire focus will be providing the best gTLD registry to meet their needs.

Differentiation and Innovation

Unlike other gTLDʹs, the .WED TLD is designed to offer domain names to couples planning and executing a wedding, a fundamentally short-term need. This niche TLD will offer a supply of domain names that can be recycled forever. Supplying domain names to families for this short-term need is the foundation of the differentiation and innovation of the business model.

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


The goal is to provide a consistent, wholesome, exceptional quality online wedding brand with a reputation for reliability and specialization in this area. Registrants must abide by local legal restrictions but will also be prohibited from promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups, on the basis of religion, ethnic origin, race, sexual orientation, disability, gender, age, or veteran status. While there is no way to eliminate these occurrences, we will provide these terms and conditions to hinder these activities. Violations of this policy will also be handled by the CRS process detailed in the response to question 28.

We will also work with our registrars to provide a .WED TLD central website which not only lists all the participating ICANN accredited registrars but also includes their prices for .WED TLD domain names and any additional services they may offer related to creating wedding products for couples. This site is intended to create ease of use for couples searching for registrars and will not collect any domain name fees. This site will be provided at no charge to .WED TLD registrars but will require registrars to keep the information up-to-date and accurate. Equal access will be provided to all accredited registrars who provide the .WED TLD to the public.

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


The registry will comply with all consensus policies adopted by ICANN but the following policies directly support the goals listed above:
- Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) Policy.
- Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
- Trademark Clearinghouse Policy - The Trademark Clearinghouse will be used during the Sunrise period as required by ICANN. The .WED TLD will also offer the ability for verified Trademark Holders to block variants of their trademarked name via a premium Wildcard registration program. Details of this program are provided in the response to question 29.
- Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (PDDRP).
- Privacy Policy that provides registrants with the maximum privacy possible within the requirements of the WHOIS policy and Unites States legal requirements. Please see the Acceptable Use Policy and Privacy Policy provided in the response to question 28.

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


The .WED gTLD will institute a Privacy Policy that provides registrants with the maximum privacy possible within the requirements of the WHOIS policy and Unites States legal requirements. The release of contact information for couples planning a wedding could present the opportunity for unwanted solicitations to domain name registrants and it will be our goal to minimize these possibilities. Please see the .WED TLD Acceptable Use Policy and Privacy Policy provided in response to question 28.

Similar gTLD applications: (0)