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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.BINGMicrosoft Corporationmicrosoft.comView
We expect that customers and users of our Bing search engine services will benefit if the .bing gTLD registry allows us to lay the ground work for a more secure, globally recognized platform to complement our on-going efforts to enhance the security, stability, and reliability of these services. We hope that a .bing gTLD may provide us with the opportunity to deliver more secure, stable and reliable search engine services.

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

The goals of the proposed .bing gTLD are to lay the ground work to provide customers and users who interact with Microsoft through the .bing gTLD with an increased sense of security and authenticity, to protect the Bing brand, and to promote Bing search engine services. Because the .bing gTLD is the gTLD counterpart to our famous Bing brand, the importance of maintaining and strengthening this brand dictates that we operate the .bing registry to the highest service levels.

We anticipate that the operation of the .bing gTLD may provide us with the opportunity to use the gTLD as a globally recognized and more secure platform to give customers and users choice and flexibility and an easy-to-use interface through which we can continue to provide our innovative and user-friendly Bing search engine services.

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

Our proposed .bing gTLD will add differentiation to the current space because it has the potential to provide customers and users with an increased sense of security and authenticity, to protect the well-known Bing brand, and to promote Bing search engine services. We anticipate that the opportunity to operate a .bing gTLD will provide an authentic and secure platform through which we can continue our commitment to innovation in search.

What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of user experience?

The goals of the .bing gTLD are to provide users who interact with Microsoft through the .bing gTLD with an increased sense of security and authenticity for their search needs, to protect the Bing brand, and to promote Bing search engine services.

Provide a complete description of the applicants intended registration policies in support of the goals above

The Microsoft Domain Name Management team is responsible for the development, maintenance and enforcement of the .bing Domain Management Policy (bDMP). The bDMP defines the rules for eligibility and domain name allocation, sets out the terms governing the use of a .bing domain name, and describes the dispute resolution policies for the .bing TLD. We intend to update and revise the bDMP as appropriate to reflect Microsoft’s commercial and strategic interests as well as ICANN Consensus Policy and Temporary Policy developments. We summarize below the bDMP.

Registration of a .bing domain name is a four-step process: Eligibility Confirmation, Naming Convention Check, Acceptable Use Review, and Registration.

Registration of a .bing domain name will be restricted to Microsoft Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiaries.

All domains in the .bing registry will be registered to Microsoft Corporation or one of its wholly owned subsidiaries.

Checks will be performed to ensure that each applied-for domain name satisfies the .bing Naming Conventions. Each .bing domain name must:

• not be a prohibited label such as “example”;

• be at least 3 characters and no more than 63 characters long;

• not contain a hyphen on the 3rd and 4th position (tagged domains);

• contain only letters (a-z), numbers (0-9) and hyphens or a combination of these;

• start and end with an alphanumeric character, not a hyphen;

• not match any character strings reserved by ICANN; and

• not match any protected country or territory name identified in the internationally recognized lists set forth in Specification 5 to the New gTLD Agreement, unless Microsoft reaches agreement regarding release of such names with the applicable government or pursuant to a proposal reviewed by the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee and approved by ICANN.

The .bing registry may support Internationalized domain names (IDN) at the second level.

.bing domain names must be used solely for purposes that, in Microsoft’s sole discretion and judgment, enhance its strategic or commercial interests .bing domains shall not be used to knowingly infringe, violate, or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

Registrants may not assign any rights in .bing domains to any third party.

Microsoft will require that the WHOIS data for all .bing domains is accurate and complete.

Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy of confidential information of registrants or users?

Microsoft is committed to protecting the privacy of employee and customer data.

The .bing registry will be operated by the Microsoft Corporation, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Washington; data will be processed in accordance with applicable data protection requirements. We intend to comply with the Personal Data obligations set forth in Section 2.10 of the Registry Agreement.

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

We anticipate engaging in the types and scope of outreach and communications appropriate to the operation of a .brand registry in which the brand owner and its wholly owned subsidiaries are the registrants of all second-level domain names.

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.AZUREMicrosoft Corporationmicrosoft.comView
We expect that customers and users of our Windows Azure family of cloud services will benefit if the .azure gTLD registry allows us to lay the groundwork for a more secure, globally recognized platform to complement our on-going efforts to enhance the security, stability, and reliability of our family of Windows Azure cloud services. We believe that the opportunity to provide our customers and users with an increased sense of security and authenticity for their interactions with Windows Azure cloud services may increase their confidence in and use of these services. We hope that an .azure gTLD will help us deliver a more secure, stable and reliable family of cloud services.

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

The goals of the proposed .azure gTLD are to lay the groundwork for providing customers and users who interact with Microsoft through the .azure gTLD with an increased sense of security and authenticity, to protect the Windows Azure brand and to promote the family of Windows Azure cloud services. Because the .azure gTLD is the logical, short gTLD counterpart to our Windows Azure brand, the importance of maintaining and strengthening this brand dictates that we operate the .azure registry to the highest service levels.

We anticipate that operation of the .azure gTLD has the potential to provide us with the opportunity to use the gTLD as a globally recognized and more secure platform to give customers and users choice and flexibility and an easy-to-use interface through which we can continue to provide our innovative family of Windows Azure cloud services.

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

Our proposed .azure gTLD will add differentiation to the current space because it will be the only gTLD that may provide customers who interact with Microsoft through the .azure gTLD with an increased sense of security and authenticity, to protect the well-known Windows Azure brand, and to promote the family of Windows Azure cloud services. We anticipate that the opportunity to operate an .azure gTLD may provide an authentic and secure platform through which we can continue our commitment to innovation.

iii. What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of user experience?

The goals of the .azure gTLD are to lay the groundwork for providing users who interact with Microsoft through the .azure gTLD with an increased sense of security and authenticity for using the family of Windows Azure cloud services, to protect the Windows Azure brand, and to promote the family of Windows Azure cloud services.

iv. Provide a complete description of the applicants intended registration policies in support of the goals above.

The Microsoft Domain Name Management team is responsible for the development, maintenance and enforcement of the .azure Domain Management Policy (aDMP). The aDMP defines the rules for eligibility and domain name allocation, sets out the terms governing the use of an .azure domain name, and describes the dispute resolution policies for the .azure TLD. We intend to update and revise the aDMP as appropriate to reflect Microsoft’s commercial and strategic interests as well as ICANN Consensus Policy and Temporary Policy developments. We summarize below the aDMP.

Registration of an .azure domain name is a four-step process: Eligibility Confirmation, Naming Convention Check, Acceptable Use Review, and Registration.

Registration of an .azure domain name will be restricted to Microsoft Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiaries.

All domains in the .azure registry will be registered to Microsoft Corporation or one of its wholly owned subsidiaries.

Checks will be performed to ensure that each applied-for domain name satisfies the .azure Naming Conventions. Each .azure domain name must:
• not be a prohibited label such as “example”;
• be at least 3 characters and no more than 63 characters long;
• not contain a hyphen on the 3rd and 4th position (tagged domains);
• contain only letters (a-z), numbers (0-9) and hyphens or a combination of these;
• start and end with an alphanumeric character, not a hyphen;
• not match any character strings reserved by ICANN; and
• not match any protected country or territory name identified in the internationally recognized lists set forth in Specification 5 to the New gTLD Agreement, unless Microsoft reaches agreement regarding release of such names with the applicable government or pursuant to a proposal reviewed by the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee and approved by ICANN.

The .azure registry may support Internationalized domain names (IDN) at the second level.

.azure domain names must be used solely for purposes that, in Microsoft’s sole discretion and judgment, enhance its strategic or commercial interests. .azure domains shall not be used to knowingly infringe, violate, or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

Registrants may not assign any rights in .azure domains to any third party.

Microsoft will require that the WHOIS data for all .azure domains is accurate and current.

v. Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy of confidential information of registrants or users?

Microsoft is committed to protecting the privacy of employee and customer data.

The .azure registry will be operated by the Microsoft Corporation, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Washington; data will be processed in accordance with applicable data protection requirements. We intend to comply with the Personal Data obligations set forth in Section 2.10 of the Registry Agreement.

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

We anticipate engaging in the types and scope of outreach and communications appropriate to the operation of a .brand registry in which the brand owner and its wholly owned subsidiaries are the registrants of all second-level domain names.