Back

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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.artUK Creative Ideas Limitedwhitecase.comView
THE MISSION AND PURPOSE OF THE NEW RESTRICTED .ART gTLD IS TO CREATE A UNIVERSAL ONLINE MEDIUM FOR THE WORLD OF ART TO ALLOW FOR INCREASED INTERACTION IN THE GLOBAL ART COMMUNITY.

The .art gTLD will be a new generation gTLD serving the interests of the artistic community, as well as internet users more generally. The .art domain will provide an internet space for the artistic community, not in the sense of representing the existing community, but instead through the creation of an online community for artists, owners and keepers of works of art, commercial art organisations (such as galleries and auction and trading houses), not-for-profit organisations (such as museums, foundations, professional associations), supporting businesses (such as insurance, appraisal, transport) and customers and members of the general public interested in art. The .art gTLD is particularly focused on engaging the visual arts community worldwide. UK Creative Ideas Limited (“Creative Ideas”), as the applicant, intends to create an authoritative and innovative internet space for internet users to access art-related services, information and products through the .art gTLD. Creative Ideas firmly believes in an inclusive model for managing a global public .art gTLD and intends to implement mechanisms for the democratization and consolidation of the art community through global infrastructure, supported by self-governing elected structures. As such, Creative Ideas intends to enable those involved in the art industry to contribute to the evolution of the .art gTLD e.g. by advisory councils. The mission and purpose of the .art gTLD includes:

- The democratization and consolidation of the art community through a global infrastructure;

- Using the latest technology to grant access to the responsible user; and

- New levels of development through high quality content.


The .art gTLD will provide an authentic resource for members of the public, allowing for information and professional services to be accessed by end users in a simple and trustworthy way. With the aim of creating a unified, global medium for the art community to interact, Creative Ideas intends to democratize the decision-making processes of the gTLD. The global structures for the management of .art include a Constituent Assembly, which will be formed in accordance with the principles of electivity, regional and professional representation, as well as transparency of decision making. The Constituent Assembly will be supported by other organisations which focus on professional representation, regional representation, day-to-day management and executive bodies.

Creative Ideas intends to create a range of technical, artistic and information based services supported by the latest technology. The .art gTLD will contribute to an effective exchange of information in many ways, including the creation of new forms of art exhibition, education, promotion, business solutions, search technologies, and industry related information. The .art gTLD will represent a new level of development through high quality content, with its architecture incorporating high-efficiency filters that will provide the technological foundation for neutralizing cyber-crime and abusive use. This platform is supported by a registration policy that is transparent and intends to protect internet users.

Under the registration policy, users will be required to provide information about their connection to the art industry to allow broad audiences to have access to a wide array of relevant, inexpensive, high-quality information and search related services. In this regard, the .art gTLD will represent an innovative, secure and high-quality domain space for the artistic community.

The .art gTLD’s mission and purpose of the proposed new gTLD share ICANN’s initiatives to promote the public interest. Creative Ideas is committed to contribute towards achieving such initiatives in line with ICANN’s Affirmation of Commitments, which includes:

- consumer trust: the .art gTLD registry will operate in a centralised manner with a restricted registration policy, allowing only those associated with the art industry, who meet the eligibility requirements, to register. Consumers will be able to act with greater confidence and assurance that the information that they receive from the .art gTLD is provided by those related to the art industry. As .art domain names are subject to registration standards, policies and procedures under Creative Ideas’ control, this limits the possibility of malicious conduct within the .art domain space;

- competition: the .art gTLD is anticipated to contribute to the initiatives of competition and consumer choice through its operation focused on promoting consumer trust and convenience. It may have the effect of instilling such initiatives between prospective registrants in the art industry who will enjoy a greater choice of gTLDs for registration of relevant domain names. Increased trust and innovation within the .art gTLD will drive existing and new top level domain (TLD) registry operators to make improvements in mechanisms to enhance consumer trust of their TLDs ; and

- consumer choice: the proposed new gTLD will enable user-driven improvements and innovations with specific relevance to the art industry, with second and third level domain names to be registered by those related to the art industry. This will allow consumers more choices for interacting with the art industry, as well as encouraging competition between members of the industry to best interact with such consumers. As Creative Ideas has effective control over the registration and use of domain names under .art domain space, with its aim to develop and promote the art industry, this will also contribute towards general service innovations on the internet.


It is difficult to anticipate the number of registrations in the restricted registry for .art, as the number may be determined by the effectiveness of marketing and the reception of internet users to the new gTLDs more generally. It is estimated that between 25,000 and 80,000 registrations may take place in the first year. It is difficult to estimate the number of people engaged at different levels within the visual arts community worldwide; however as a portion of the population, the number is likely to be significant and growing. In 2009 there were over 400,000 listed businesses engaging in the art market worldwide and between 5 and 15 million individuals engaging in arts related activities. Currently, the visual arts community, including individuals, businesses and non-commercial organisations, is scattered over the existing domain name structure or do not have internet representation at all. The mission of .art is to create a democratised, user-friendly, professional environment for this growing art community. Creative Ideas intends to utilise geographic names and IDNs to support a positive user experience for users regardless of geography or language.
In its endeavour to promote and expand the .art gTLD, Creative Ideas will continually comply with all operational, technical and policy requirements, as well as maintaining consumer trust and the stability of the internet. Creative Ideas will keep ICANN reasonably informed of any material developments relating to .art gTLD including compliance with the continued operations instrument obligations as set out in Specification 8 of the Registry Agreement.

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.furnitureLone Fields, 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.