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

Prototypical answer:

i. As mentioned in question 18(a) above, the Applicant is one of the world’s largest and most respected centers for scientific research. The reputation of the Applicant builds upon a history of over half a century of incredible innovation and discovery, such as the creation of the World Wide Web (WWW) by Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist at CERN, in 1989. There is a strong and growing global demand for information about the research conducted at CERN - both in the LHC programme, and in other experiments on antimatter, neutrino physics and beyond. As enshrined in its Convention, CERN favors the general dissemination of its knowledge and knowhow: Article II.1 provides that “the results of its experimental and theoretical work shall be published or otherwise made generally available”.
The proposed gTLD therefore aims at consolidating the reputation of the Applicant and providing a powerful tool for reaching out to a global audience;
ii. From the Applicant’s perspective, .CERN will bring a high degree of recognition and specialization to the currently existing name space. Where in most cases the specific connotation that has been initially given to the gTLDs (or even ccTLDs) has disappeared, the .CERN top-level domain will be unambiguous as regards the identity of the Registry Operator, the source of the content and⁄or services offered under the .CERN and⁄or the affiliation between the Registry Operator, CERN, and the TLD. Moreover, CERN is host to a large number of autonomous collaborations, some of which involve thousands of people and have independent management structures and strong identities. Complex constituent relationships could be more readily represented in a .cern namespace;
iii. As mentioned in the vision ⁄ mission statement above, the key reasons why Applicant is applying for .CERN are:
1. Branding: reflect the Applicant’s key identifier CERN at the top-level of the DNS’ hierarchy,
2. Safety and security, given the fact that the TLD and most, if not all, of the domain names registered therein will be completely or at least partially under the control of the Registry Operator, CERN;
3. Affiliation between the core CERN identifier and the hundreds of names registered and⁄or used by CERN and⁄or its stakeholders;
iv. Initially, the .CERN TLD will be a single-registrant TLD: only CERN will be eligible to register domain names. In due course, the Applicant may decide to open registration to certain third parties. The Applicant intends to implement the following policies and procedures with respect to the registration of domain names in the .CERN top-level domain, to include but not limited to:
1. Reservation of domain names in the name of the Applicant. These names include:

a) descriptive names, referring to the activities of the Applicant (e.g. lhc.cern);
b) descriptive names, referring to the internal departments of the Applicant (e.g. finance.cern);
c) descriptive names, referring to the stakeholders of the Applicant (e.g. experiment.cern);
d) etc.

2. Launch of the TLD:

a) Sunrise: allow physical persons, organizations and entities that meet the eligibility requirements in force at that point in time to choose the domain names that are identical to their trademarks;
b) General availability: other available domain names may be registered by physical persons, organizations and entities that meet the eligibility requirements in force at that point in time to choose the domain names in accordance with the applicable terms and conditions.
c) Depending on the terms and conditions in force at the time of launch of the TLD, these domain names may or may not be registered in the name of the applicant for the domain name or in the name of the Applicant for the TLD (CERN). In any case, the Applicant reserves the right to impose additional and other restrictions from time to time at its sole discretion;

v. The .CERN TLD will implement strict measures for protecting privacy and confidential information. While policies regarding the protection of financial information (in the context of transactions) and personnel administrative data are already in place at CERN, general policies regarding data protection and privacy are currently being developed on a best practice basis, with due regard to relevant national laws and the position adopted by the European Data Protection Supervisor.

As explained above, the Applicant is an intergovernmental organization with 20 Member States. Ever since its establishment over fifty years ago, the Applicant has been using the name CERN. The Applicant uses the cern.ch domain name. As the Applicant has a worldwide reputation, it has numerous ways to make the general public aware of the existence and, potentially, the (gradual) move from the cern.ch domain name to the .CERN TLD, including but not limited to having Internet traffic to its key domain names resolving into domain names registered in the .CERN TLD.

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