Back

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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.londonDot London Domains Limitedlondonandpartners.comView
Our vision is to create a world-class, innovative and trusted TLD for London, to be operated in the public interest, through a commercial business model which reinvests profits for the benefit of London. Dot London Domains Ltd. (DLD – a wholly owned subsidiary of London & Partners Ltd.) has secured the support of the Mayor of London and non objection from UK Government to bring forward this application for the London TLD (.LONDON). We believe that operating a successful London TLD registry and the subsequent use of .LONDON domains will:
- Enhance the reputation of London and promote the London brand
- Amplify London & Partners’ promotional activity
- Position London as a leading centre of technology and innovation
- Promote consumer choice and benefit registrants by offering relevant and affordable .LONDON domain names
- Create jobs and economic benefit for London

LONDON context
London is a leading world city and a vibrant centre for business, investment, technology, creativity, education and tourism. London is made up of the City of London Corporation and 32 boroughs, has a population of 7,900,500 and is home to 331,540 businesses. London attracts over 100,000 international students from 200 nations to its higher education institutions and welcomes millions of visitors each year. London is the powerhouse of the UK economy and is Europeʹs leading centre for technology. According to a recent report on Londonʹs Digital Economy (GLA, 3 Jan 2012), there are over 23,000 ICT and software companies in London, the highest number of any European city. London hosts a quarter of all British jobs in computer and related activities and 22% of jobs in telecommunications. According to the Experian Business Strategies Regional Planning Service, in 2010 the Gross Value Added of communications companies in London was £7.9 billion.

London is in the international spotlight during this unique and special year. Her Majesty the Queenʹs Diamond Jubilee celebrations, closely followed by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, will see the city celebrate as never before. Many high profile sporting and cultural events are planned for future years as the Olympic legacy London’s and presence on the world stage continues.

London is a diverse, cultural and evolving capital city that welcomes enterprise, provides opportunities for businesses and individuals and adopts technological change. .LONDON domains will support the digital platforms on which these activities can flourish.

Demand
Over the last decade, the global market for domain name registrations has grown at a tremendous rate. From 2000 to 2010 registrations increased from 40 million to 200 million. 2011 saw growth of approx. 9%, which was significantly higher than the previous year’s 6% growth, ending third quarter 2011 with approx. 220 million domain names registered. Approx. 60% are gTLDs while the remaining 40% are ccTLDs. Specifically, gTLD growth was 8% in 2011, while ccTLD growth exceeded 11%. Considering the opportunities available from new gTLDs, growth is expected to continue in all sectors of the domain name industry. Established gTLDs, such as .COM and .NET, do not provide solutions for many registrants and domain names that relate to their businesses, interests or associations are often already registered and if for sale are costly. Therefore acquiring a relevant and useful domain name may only be achievable through a new gTLD.

This clearly demonstrates there is likely to be high and sustainable demand for .LONDON domains and audiences will be receptive to digital channels and communications that use .LONDON domains.

Mission and purpose
Our mission is to generate benefits for London and Londoners and provide .LONDON domains to:
- Those interested in disseminating information, whether commercial, non-commercial, news, culture, lifestyle, entertainment, sports or any other topic and who wish to associate themselves and their information with London.
- Those interested in selling goods and services or providing information and who wish to associate themselves and their goods, services and information with London.
- Individuals, organisations and businesses who wish to associate themselves or identify with London

Our purpose is to:
- Make .LONDON domains available to organisations and individuals in London, the UK and world-wide and by the use of .LONDON domains, enable them to associate their products, information and themselves with London for their own legal purposes.
- Allow organisations and individuals to promote their association or identification with London and provide a means to communicate with those who associate or identify with London.
- Increase the number of organisations and individuals that identify with London through their use of .LONDON domains and email accounts.
- Make .LONDON domains affordable and available subject to compliance with the rules governing .LONDON discussed elsewhere in this application.
- Operate a safe and secure registry for .LONDON that exceeds ICANN’s requirements.

Registry operator and RSP
DLD is the .LONDON applicant, the registry operator for .LONDON. and is a wholly owned subsidiary of London & Partners Ltd, the official promotional organisation for London. London & Partners is a not for profit organisation and through its remit acts in the interests of London. London & Partners Ltd. is funded by the Greater London Authority and derives additional income from commercial activites. London & Partners operates Londonʹs official tourism website www.visitlondon.com which attracts over 16.5 million unique visits a year. Registry services for .LONDON will be provided by Minds + Machines Ltd. (a subsidiary of Top Level Domain Holdings LTD) and supported by Minds + Machines LLC of the USA. Minds + Machines Ltd will operate Espresso, the complete registry services platform used by Minds + Machines LLC and described elsewhere in this application. DLD, Minds + Machines Ltd. and their parent companies give their full commitment to operating a safe, stable and sustainable registry for .LONDON and the organisations will be the proud custodians of a vital piece of the Internetʹs infrastructure.

Operating model
Generally, the London TLD will operate on a first come, first served basis. Pricing will be competitive and the business model will be sustainable. We expect applicants will have an association or affiliation with London, however this need not be based on the location of the applicant. This will ensure .LONDON domains are accessible to London organisations and individuals and those with a geographical connection, affinity with, or customer base in London.

Policy development
DLD is committed to developing .LONDON policies through a multi-stakeholder model of engagement and consultation in line with industry best practice. The stakeholder constituency will be broad and consist of London-specific communities, London and UK-wide organisations and bodies and issue-specific communities or organisations who may present particular points of view during the policy making process. DLD will facilitate and manage this process and acknowledges that setting effective policies will be vital to the success of .LONDON. The process should be perceived as open and transparent, in which legitimate concerns will be heard. DLD and Minds + Machines Ltd.’s policies will endeavour to protect consumers from harm and to secure businesses existing rights, as set out in responses to questions 28 and 29.

IP
DLD owns the Dot London trade mark in the UK (under registration no.2501539) and this will be a key part of our strategy to build and promote the Dot London brand.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.plumbingSpring Tigers, LLCdonuts.coView
Q18A CHAR: 7985

ABOUT DONUTS
Donuts Inc. is the parent applicant for this and multiple other TLDs. The company intends to increase competition and consumer choice at the top level. It will operate these carefully selected TLDs safely and securely in a shared resources business model. To achieve its objectives, Donuts has recruited seasoned executive management with proven track records of excellence in the industry. In addition to this business and operational experience, the Donuts team also has contributed broadly to industry policymaking and regulation, successfully launched TLDs, built industry-leading companies from the ground up, and brought innovation, value and choice to the domain name marketplace.

DONUTS’ PLACE WITHIN ICANN’S MISSION
ICANN and the new TLD program share the following purposes:
1. to make sure that the Internet remains as safe, stable and secure as possible, while
2. helping to ensure there is a vibrant competitive marketplace to efficiently bring the benefits of the namespace to registrants and users alike.

ICANN harnesses the power of private enterprise to bring forth these public benefits. While pursuing its interests, Donuts helps ICANN accomplish its objectives by:

1. Significantly widening competition and choice in Internet identities with hundreds of new top-level domain choices;
2. Providing innovative, robust, and easy-to-use new services, names and tools for users, registrants, registrars, and registries while at the same time safeguarding the rights of others;
3. Designing, launching, and securely operating carefully selected TLDs in multiple languages and character sets; and
4. Providing a financially robust corporate umbrella under which its new TLDs will be protected and can thrive.

ABOUT DONUTS’ RESOURCES
Donuts’ financial resources are extensive. The company has raised more than US$100 million from a number of capital sources including multiple multi-billion dollar venture capital and private equity funds, a top-tier bank, and other well-capitalized investors. Should circumstances warrant, Donuts is prepared to raise additional funding from current or new investors. Donuts also has in place pre-funded, Continued Operations Instruments to protect future registrants. These resource commitments mean Donuts has the capability and intent to launch, expand and operate its TLDs in a secure manner, and to properly protect Internet users and rights-holders from potential abuse.

Donuts firmly believes a capable and skilled organization will operate multiple TLDs and benefit Internet users by:

1. Providing the operational and financial stability necessary for TLDs of all sizes, but particularly for those with smaller volume (which are more likely to succeed within a shared resources and shared services model);
2. Competing more powerfully against incumbent gTLDs; and
3. More thoroughly and uniformly executing consumer and rights holder protections.

THIS TLD
This TLD is attractive and useful to end-users as it better facilitates search, self-expression, information sharing and the provision of legitimate goods and services. Along with the other TLDs in the Donuts family, this TLD will provide Internet users with opportunities for online identities and expression that do not currently exist. In doing so, the TLD will introduce significant consumer choice and competition to the Internet namespace – the very purpose of ICANN’s new TLD program.

This TLD is a generic term and its second level names will be attractive to a variety of Internet users. Making this TLD available to a broad audience of registrants is consistent with the competition goals of the New TLD expansion program, and consistent with ICANN’s objective of maximizing Internet participation. Donuts believes in an open Internet and, accordingly, we will encourage inclusiveness in the registration policies for this TLD. In order to avoid harm to legitimate registrants, Donuts will not artificially deny access, on the basis of identity alone (without legal cause), to a TLD that represents a generic form of activity and expression.

DONUTS’ APPROACH TO PROTECTIONS
No entity, or group of entities, has exclusive rights to own or register second level names in this TLD. There are superior ways to minimize the potential abuse of second level names, and in this application Donuts will describe and commit to an extensive array of protections against abuse, including protections against the abuse of trademark rights.

We recognize some applicants seek to address harms by constraining access to the registration of second level names. However, we believe attempts to limit abuse by limiting registrant eligibility is unnecessarily restrictive and harms users by denying access to many legitimate registrants. Restrictions on second level domain eligibility would prevent law-abiding individuals and organizations from participating in a space to which they are legitimately connected, and would inhibit the sort of positive innovation we intend to see in this TLD. As detailed throughout this application, we have struck the correct balance between consumer and business safety, and open access to second level names.

By applying our array of protection mechanisms, Donuts will make this TLD a place for Internet users that is far safer than existing TLDs. Donuts will strive to operate this TLD with fewer incidences of fraud and abuse than occur in incumbent TLDs. In addition, Donuts commits to work toward a downward trend in such incidents.

OUR PROTECTIONS
Donuts has consulted with and evaluated the ideas of international law enforcement, consumer privacy advocacy organizations, intellectual property interests and other Internet industry groups to create a set of protections that far exceed those in existing TLDs, and bring to the Internet namespace nearly two dozen new rights and protection mechanisms to raise user safety and protection to a new level.

These include eight, innovative and forceful mechanisms and resources that far exceed the already powerful protections in the applicant guidebook. These are:

1. Periodic audit of WhoIs data for accuracy;
2. Remediation of inaccurate Whois data, including takedown, if warranted;
3. A new Domain Protected Marks List (DPML) product for trademark protection;
4. A new Claims Plus product for trademark protection;
5. Terms of use that prohibit illegal or abusive activity;
6. Limitations on domain proxy and privacy service;
7. Published policies and procedures that define abusive activity; and
8. Proper resourcing for all of the functions above.

They also include fourteen new measures that were developed specifically by ICANN for the new TLD process. These are:

1. Controls to ensure proper access to domain management functions;
2. 24⁄7⁄365 abuse point of contact at registry;
3. Procedures for handling complaints of illegal or abusive activity, including remediation and takedown processes;
4. Thick WhoIs;
5. Use of the Trademark Clearinghouse;
6. A Sunrise process;
7. A Trademark Claims process;
8. Adherence to the Uniform Rapid Suspension system;
9. Adherence to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy;
10. Adherence to the Post Delegation Dispute Resolution Policy;
11. Detailed security policies and procedures;
12. Strong security controls for access, threat analysis and audit;
13. Implementation DNSSEC; and
14. Measures for the prevention of orphan glue records.

DONUTS’ INTENTION FOR THIS TLD
As a senior government authority has recently said, “a successful applicant is entrusted with operating a critical piece of global Internet infrastructure.” Donuts’ plan and intent is for this TLD to serve the international community by bringing new users online through opportunities for economic growth, increased productivity, the exchange of ideas and information and greater self-expression.