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

Prototypical answer:

i. Goal

Introduction

The overall goal of the dot BENTLEY top level domain is to drive excellence by becoming the trusted, authentic resource for online communication from and with the Applicant. This is the goal for dot BENTLEY’s specialty.

The Applicant has established a global reputation for an extremely high quality product and service levels that are the very best in the motoring industry worldwide. Its brand defines Driving Luxury Performance. The Applicant believes that, as the exclusive official online resource for the Bentley brand, dot BENTLEY will swiftly develop a quality reputation derived in large part from the Applicant’s own consistently strong, authentic and dynamic status. This is the goal for dot BENTLEY’s reputation.

Building on its longstanding experience of engagement with its community of interest via the Internet, the Applicant plans to use the gTLD to take the user experience to the next level - that of a newly relevant namespace which will directly engage the Internet user. The Applicant prides itself on its responsiveness to external and internal stakeholders, whether they be customers, the media, licensees or individuals within the dealer network. The Applicant believes that its existing approach can be further enhanced by delivering relevant information to the relevant Internet user via the newly relevant namespace, thus giving rise to the best of communication. This is the goal for dot BENTLEY’s service level.


The Internet and Bentley

Bentley has engaged with the commercial Internet since 1996. Its website at the URL www.bentleymotors.com serves as a source of information for its entire community of interest.

The Applicant’s website seeks to reach out to all parties who may be interested in the Bentley brand. Accordingly, it seeks to offer information to potential buyers as well as details in which wider enthusiasts may have an interest such as clubs and associations, factory tours and official merchandise. The site offers support to owners of Heritage Bentleys and provides a retail portal for the purchase of accessories and pre-owned vehicles.

dot BENTLEY is seen by the Applicant as a natural progression in its commitment to this very real and substantial online community of over 600,000 monthly visitors. It will serve to expand the Applicant’s commitment to Driving Luxury Performance into this new namespace such that corresponding Internet traffic will be driven to sites where users will gain the full benefit of the Bentley experience, secure in the knowledge of its authentic, credible and reliable source.

The Applicant is the definitive British luxury car company; it specialises in developing, crafting and selling the most desirable of automobiles and the Bentley brand stands for such values as power, exclusivity and individuality. Bentley’s vision is to become the world’s most successful luxury car company. These aims would be underpinned by the deployment of dot BENTLEY. Via this top level domain, Bentley will build on its reputation of exemplary customer satisfaction and sustainable business success.

These reputational drivers will be reinforced at every website associated with the dot BENTLEY TLD and will create a seamless online environment.


dot BENTLEY: Driving the Brand - Driving the Traffic

At Bentley’s core is a commitment to driving excellence - at the core of dot BENTLEY will be these same values in terms of driving Internet traffic to associated web sites, delivering a luxurious and individual user journey and an online performance concomitant with the offline experience.

In providing an exclusive top level resource for the community of interest in the Bentley brand, the Applicant will establish dot BENTLEY as one of the leading facets of the post-delegation new gTLD landscape. dot BENTLEY will serve to bring relevance and indeed innovation to the namespace, aligning with ICANN’s own goals for this important online development.

The delegation of dot BENTLEY will negate the opportunity for confusion as communication from the Applicant will educate Internet users to understand that no other source can provide the levels of assurance of trust that will be found at the new TLD.

Post-Delegation activities

It is anticipated that immediately following delegation of dot BENTLEY, second level domains will be limited to modest numbers. In this way, the Applicant will afford itself the opportunity to begin the process of educating Internet users to access the brand at this new TLD. The promotion of dot BENTLEY will require to be continuous and vigorous such that the Registry will achieve its promotional goals.

The analysis of traffic to the newly established TLD will be an ongoing process which will be regularly monitored to determine the number of users that continue to access the Applicant at bentleymotors.com and those that are migrating to the new platform over time. As the education process gathers momentum and the numbers of unique hits increase, Bentley would seek to deploy greater numbers of domains at the second level for example accessories.bentley, parts.bentley, service.bentley etc.

It is difficult to establish just how long it will take to move Internet users from what is the current norm however it is anticipated that within a twelve month period there will be sufficient shift in users patterns of behaviour which will warrant an increase in the deployment of domains at the second level.

Looking further to the future, the Applicant anticipates that within 36 months of delegation all on-line communication will be accessed at dot BENTLEY and that visitors to the .com domains and other generic and country code TLDs will be redirected to the new TLD.

The Applicant will conduct regular research to quantify the results of their education process and its effectiveness in establishing dot BENTLEY in Internet users’ consciousness.


ii. Competition, Differentiation, and Innovation

Introduction

Throughout the life of the Internet there have been many innovations that have improved trust and confidence among its userbase and which have in turn led to the development of enhanced products and services; the invention of the SSL certificate to name but one. However, there has to date been no corresponding advancement in the namespace itself.

With dot BENTLEY, the Applicant proposes to provide just such an innovation, namely an official brand resource, as a component of the generic namespace at the top level, which will be the trusted location for communications from and with the brand owner, directed at all of the relevant communities of interest. The opportunity to provide such an innovative resource within a TLD is unprecedented.

Through a variety of second level domains of close relevance to the Bentley brand, mission, values and goals, the Applicant will in time extend its pursuit of Driving Luxury Performance further into this new namespace such that the corresponding Internet traffic will arrive at the full benefit of the Bentley experience, secure in the knowledge of its authentic, credible and reliable source.

Today, Bentley stands for “powerful, exquisite and individual”. This unique message of exclusivity will be conveyed via the trusted and powerful resource that will underpin a dedicated top level generic domain name for the brand, both to differentiate the Applicant from other luxury car manufacturers and to innovate in methods of communication with all interested parties.


Previous challenges in the existing namespace

There are multiple parties who would seek to compromise the Applicant’s brand values in the existing namespace by registering domain names that aim to confuse Internet users and indeed divert traffic away from Bentley’s bona fide on-line offering. This is evidenced by various enforcement actions (including UDRP complaints) that have been necessitated by malicious activity of this nature. By establishing a strong and reliable presence at dot BENTLEY however the Applicant will be in a position to provide ABSOLUTE reassurance to Internet users that the dot BENTLEY TLD is the source of trusted data about the brand.

Furthermore, the existing namespace has made it somewhat challenging in the past for any organization with a global dealer network to be able to ensure consistency of approach and, more importantly, presentation within domain names throughout that network. Today, most brands strive to deliver dealer consistency via contractual arrangements however with a series of open namespaces and with a large and global dealer network this becomes difficult to police. Inevitably, consumer confusion can result from dealers adopting a range of different naming approaches.

It follows therefore that the delegation of dot BENTLEY will augment the existing domain name space by removing the opportunity for vulnerability among Internet users who may be deceived by confusingly similar domains in the existing space or simply unsure as to the authenticity of the dealership network. Further, by establishing dot BENTLEY, Internet users will be able to differentiate between the bona fide on-line offering and those of questionable or even merely unauthorized third parties.


Innovation and differentiation

It is anticipated that post delegation the TLD will be deployed in a variety of visionary and innovative ways including new ways of allocating domains at the second level for use by the Bentley dealer network. These could in turn be developed for the deployment of unique and innovative applications that could be exclusive to their field.

A Bentley motor car is, in its physical being, a vehicle that differentiates its driver from the crowd. The delegation of dot BENTLEY will further serve to differentiate the Applicant from other motor manufacturers and create an exclusive on-line presence for the communities the Applicant seeks to serve and with whom it seeks to communicate.

In time to come the Applicant envisages that the namespace could be the venue for the deployment of exciting and innovative automotive technologies which will allow owners the ability to communicate with their vehicles or simply to engage more efficiently and directly with the Applicant or its dealer network. While many of these technologies have yet to progress beyond the level of research and development it is inevitable that all such innovations will be enhanced by the ability to be deployed within a trusted portion of the namespace such as dot BENTLEY.

It is also noteworthy that the application is in itself an indicator of the far sightedness of the Applicant and is demonstrative of innovation. In an offline setting, the Applicant constantly seeks to innovate in its research and development programme for the production of pioneering motor vehicles. The application for dot BENTLEY is an extrapolation of that very same commitment.


iii. User Experience

In common with the themes adopted throughout this application the proposed gTLD will aim to establish a trusted presence for the Applicant at dot BENTLEY. Quite simply, dot BENTLEY will be developed to convey all that the brand stands for in the offline world to Internet users world wide.

The user experience itself will be as long as it is broad although at its core will be the key goal of relevance and authenticity of content, direct from the Bentley brand owner. Much of the individual experience will depend upon the stakeholder, whether they be internal or external, and whether they be customer, dealer, media or licensee.

The Applicant has historically been an innovative user of the present namespace to enhance relevance of content for its Internet users. The volume of relevant third level subdomains in the Applicant’s core domain, from continentalgt.bentleymotors.com to supersports.bentleymotors.com which point to specific content (and indeed which fulfil distinct yet consistent user experiences) bears witness. Such use of the existing namespace is true of relatively few brand owners. The Applicant intends to build on its innovations in the existing namespace by developing similar and extended relevant resources in the second level of dot BENTLEY.

dot BENTLEY will provide the Applicant with the eventual capability to personalise the user experience in line with the “Individual - ‘made for me’” aspect of its brand essence and values. This will give rise to a highly relevant user experience, compared to doing so via a third level domain within an existing open gTLD such as .com. While however this is the ultimate goal for the domain, the Applicant proposes a gentle migration to this new space so as to minimise the potential for confusion. Accordingly, while the Applicant looks forward to the ultimate goal, the initial user experience for dot BENTLEY can be expected to be closer to that of the Applicant’s existing online presence which, in itself, provides a powerful experience commensurate with Bentley brand values.


iv. Registration Policies

The Applicant proposes the dot BENTLEY Registry Domain Management Policy (DMP) designed to ensure 100% compliance with establishing a trusted presence on the Internet.

1. Eligibility

Only Bentley Motors Limited will be eligible to register second level domains at dot BENTLEY. Thus the only registrant of any given second level domain within the TLD will be the Applicant. In this manner, the Applicant’s goals of authenticity, credibility and reliability together with the assurances it proposes to its community of interest, all as mentioned throughout this application, may be assured. Furthermore, only proposals for registration containing an appropriate statement as to the business need for the domain name and emanating from or sponsored by personnel within the Applicant and its group of companies will be entitled to proceed to authorization.

2. Authorization

The Applicant will establish a Naming Committee which will authorize second level names to be registered. This group will comprise senior members of the Applicant’s personnel. Initially, they will meet on a weekly basis (depending on the number of applications for second level domains) and thereafter at regular intervals. The opportunity to conduct interim ad hoc meetings will be provided should the need arise. The Naming Committee will consider all applications from within the group to add domains at the second level. This scrutiny will ensure that rogue, bogus or unofficial second level domains will not be authorised and indeed that suitable internal due diligence will be performed before new registrations are effected.

3. Scrutiny

The Naming Committee will consider each proposed domain name from the perspective of the goals established for the top level domain as outlined throughout this application. This is, in effect, merely a slightly more sophisticated version of the policy already in force within the Applicant for the scrutiny of proposed third level domains within its current core domain name, bentleymotors.com, which has today around 500 third level sub-domains each of which has been individually assessed by an authorized official point of contact within the Applicant prior to its entry in the relevant zone file. Once a proposed second level domain passes this scrutiny it will proceed to clearance as outlined below.

4. First clearance check

As part of their remit, the Naming Committee will instruct that a clearance check be carried out on all proposed second level domains with a view to minimizing the possibility of infringement of third party rights. This will be achieved via meticulous checking of various online resources (such as the relevant trademark registries). In essence, it is anticipated that this process will be no different from the typical clearance check in which the Applicant engages should it be developing a new sub-brand within the overall Bentley brand.

It should be noted that the Applicant considers that it is highly unlikely that desired second level domain names within dot BENTLEY will fail a clearance check principally because only personnel within the Applicant will be seeking the registration of such domain names. Accordingly, the prospect of intentionally abusive registrations being entered within the registry is extremely low and in fact probably nil.

5. Submission to registrar and second clearance check

Authorised domains will be thereafter be submitted by the Naming Committee, or by an official within the Applicant upon whom the requisite permission has been delegated by the Naming Committee, for registration via an ICANN Accredited Registrar. In light of the eligibility requirements, the Registrar will only be entitled to take registration instructions from the Naming Committee or from a person within the Applicant having the Committee’s delegated authority. The Registrar will, either at the request of the Naming Committee or at random, undertake further checks such as a check within ICANN’s proposed Trademark Clearinghouse to ensure that the rights of third parties are not in any way compromised by the registration of specific domains.

6. Registration

Following any further checks as outlined above, the Registrar will proceed to register the desired second level domain name within the registry. The registrant of all such domain names will be the Applicant.

Clearly in addition to the DMP, and post delegation of dot BENTLEY, the Applicant will institute a Sunrise period for initial registrations, utilizing the Trademark Clearinghouse as mandated by ICANN. That said, given the eligibility rule outlined above, only the Applicant will be entitled to request that domain names be registered in dot BENTLEY and accordingly third parties will not require to protect their intellectual property in this new generic top level domain.


v. Privacy and Confidential Information

As noted at (iv), only the Applicant will be (within the policies of the Registry) eligible to register at dot BENTLEY. Accordingly, there will be no need to maintain registrant privacy as there can only be one – i.e. Bentley Motors Limited.

The Applicant is already committed to user privacy. Its current Privacy Statement may be reviewed online at its website. It is not at present anticipated that users will supply personal data in connection with dot BENTLEY however should this change (such as with possible innovations outlined in this application) Bentley will simply apply its Privacy Statement then in force to such data. With the restrictive registration policy outlined above, assuring the privacy of users should be straightforward.


Outreach and Communications

It will be vitally important for the Applicant to reach out to its community of interest. Bentley is known for its drive to create curiosity and innovation. The promotion of the new TLD will be an extension of these embedded values.

To promote dot BENTLEY, the Applicant will develop a communications programme (both on and offline) to include advertisements, posters, public relations and outreach to the dealer network. The programme will also encompass such audiences as schools and local community groups; graduate and apprentice audiences as well as the extensive base of enthusiasts.

The Applicant will seek to implement the above noted communications programme from the date of execution of the Registry Agreement. Between this time and delegation, it will work relentlessly to ensure that the launch will be abundantly anticipated and the transitional journey from .com to dot BENTLEY will have begun.

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