18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

Prototypical answer:

The mission of the .FLIR TLD is to make a safe, trusted and reputable name space for our products, services, and company divisions, as well as our authorized FLIR sales agents, OEMs and distribution outlets.

FLIR Systems, Inc. (FLIR) is a world leader in the design, manufacture, and marketing of sensor systems that enhance perception and awareness. The company was founded in 1978, and originally provided infrared imaging systems that were installed on vehicles for use in conducting energy audits. Today FLIR provides advanced thermal imaging and threat detection systems for use by industry, consumers, science, law enforcement, and the military for a wide variety of imaging, thermography, and security applications. Our products play pivotal roles in more than 100 countries, providing solutions that include airborne and ground-based surveillance, industrial condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, non-destructive testing, research and development, manufacturing process control, search and rescue, drug interdiction, navigation, transportation safety, border and maritime patrol, environmental monitoring, maritime instrumentation, and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNE) detection.

FLIR is headquartered in Wilsonville Oregon and employs about 3,200 people around the globe. Public since 1993, in 2011 FLIR had revenues of more than $1.5B and has a market cap of about $4.4B and is traded on the FLIR is a public company traded on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol FLIR.

Currently a single branded communications platform is a challenge. Furthermore, seamlessly integrating each acquisition and its accompanying brands into one coherent and consistent communication platform is difficult, time consuming and costly. As an example, FLIR maintains a portfolio of almost 1000 second-level domain names, in over 10 gTLDs, and over 90 ccTLDs. Many of these names are associated with the various divisions, products or acquisitions, and some are used only intermittently for specific marketing or educational campaigns. We believe that it is imperative that we achieve a consistent brand and communication platform, especially if we want to continue our tradition of bringing new and innovative products, and doing so at lower and lower costs to the consumers. A .FLIR TLD would provide ONE memorable and consistent TLD⁄platform instead of having to maintain websites across over 100 TLDs, as is the case with FLIR now. It will also provide us with an unlimited inventory of relevant names for communication campaigns, names that we would otherwise have to procure at great cost on the secondary market. A .FLIR TLD will help us lower marketing, branding and communications costs in the long term, allowing us divert these savings into R&D and product development which ultimately generates greater competition and benefits the consumer. Further, a .FLIR TLD will help reinforce the consumer recognition and the trademark rights that FLIR has built in the FLIR brand over the past three decades through its continued use and promotion, its more than 100 worldwide trademark registrations, and nearly 400 “FLIR” bearing domain names.

The .FLIR TLD will be managed under the direct control of FLIR and therefore will deliberately be organized from the beginning to be consistent with the navigational needs and preferences of FLIR’s main stakeholders such FLIR corporate divisions, authorized FLIR sales agents, OEMs and distribution outlets, and most importantly, FLIR’s end-user customers. The .FLIR TLD namespace will include, but will not be limited to various corporate and affiliates’ websites, and social media sites.

Thus .FLIR will be essentially a brand centric single-registrant model, wherein the company itself holds all registrations within the TLD. Authorized FLIR sales agents, OEMs and distribution outlets, new or existing corporate divisions, or any other authorized entities may apply to FLIR for authorization to register a second-level name. FLIR will review such requests and, in its sole discretion, may approve the registration on a case-by-case basis. In all cases, FLIR shall monitor the use of all .FLIR domain names to ensure that the content and use of the associated websites is not only consistent with the registration and use policies of the .FLIR TLD (as set forth in FLIR’s policies and procedures and as outlined in this application), but also in accordance with the policies and requirements of ICANN. To help ensure thus success, FLIR will employ the services of ICANN accredited registrar(s) in order to register these domain names.

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