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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.spiegelSPIEGEL-Verlag Rudolf Augstein GmbH & Co. KGthomsentrampedach.comView
SPIEGEL Question 18a

Since its founding in 1947, Spiegel has become the most widely-read and highly respected German news magazine, selling one million copies each week and reaching roughly six million readers. A growing percentage of its circulation is from individuals residing outside of Germany. The company’s website, at “spiegel.de” is accessible from every mobile device format, and attracts approximately ten million unique viewers. The company currently generates revenues of about EUR 30 million, predominately through advertising sales and, in a smaller part, through digital subscriptions.

In addition to providing the premier German news and information outlet, the Spiegel online portal offers a wide array of interactive user opportunities, including commenting systems and personalized newsletters. In recent years, Spiegel has rapidly increased its offerings in not only the German language but also in English to reach a broader international audience, and has accordingly created and English-speaking section of its website. Moreover, the company produces a wide range of books, both in traditional print format and “ebooks”, on a multitude of various topics, which are available through the site. Currently, the company publishes roughly 25 SPIEGEL and SPIEGEL ONLINE books each year, and the company intends to begin releasing shorter ebooks based on selected articles from Spiegel. These new ebooks will be written by Spiegel’s award-winning, top-of-the-industry journalists, and will focus on current news topics.

The company has used its Spiegel trade name in commerce since 1947 and is the registered owner of numerous “Spiegel” and “DER SPIEGEL” trademarks, with protection, inter alia, in all member States of the European Union.


A. The Mission and Purpose of the “.SPIEGEL” space

The new “.SPIEGEL” TLD offers the unique opportunity for a new, brand-based service platform, through which Spiegel intends to integrate both its German and international readers at one comprehensive and easy-to-use location. The “.SPIEGEL” space would operate as an inter-connected nexus of information, available in both English and German, to cater to the needs of its many avid readers worldwide.

The magazine’s international users are often unfamiliar with the “.DE” space, and accordingly operation based predominately in a ccTLD has at times made expansion of the company’s readership difficult or problematic. The “.SPIEGEL” TLD, however, would be viewed as internationally accessible, and would enable Spiegel to provide a wide array of information and interactive user content in both languages.

The company’s core readership in German would also benefit from the dedicated TLD space, as it would enable Spiegel to streamline its content offerings. The company envisages that its main German-language portal would remain in the trusted “.DE” space, enabling users to continue locating content in its familiar location, with additional links to new services, content and opportunities provided via the “.SPIEGEL” TLD. Thus, the company’s existing Internet infrastructure would be cross-integrated with the new TLD pages, greatly enhancing the availability of Spiegel content, and giving the company’s many consumers broad access to its many news and publication offerings.

The new “.SPIEGEL” domain will serve as a “one-stop-shopping” experience for all of the many services and goods offered by the company beyond the news, and second-level domain name registrations will be carefully managed by the company to enable intuitive navigation of the space.

For example, users may be able to easily update their subscriptions for an array of print and digital magazines released under the SPIEGEL brand at “abo.SPIEGEL.” They may choose from the vast selection of books, printed as well as ebooks, written by established Spiegel authors at “shop.SPIEGEL.”

Many of the company’s highly-acclaimed authors and journalists are also much sought after speakers. Accordingly, Spiegel may create a new in-house speakerʹs agency, at ”speakers.SPIEGEL,” which will connect its experts to institutions hosting conferences and events.

Additionally, Spiegel will continue to host its own series of events, the Montag auf der Spitze, where industry leaders come together to discuss cultural and political issues. The company might expand this series, showcasing it on “events.SPIEGEL.” A livestream of events will be available, as well as archived material, for paying users at “video.SPIEGEL.” Furthermore, the Spiegel Group has, for over 20 years, produced a bi-weekly TV show focused on current events, the archives of which the company will make available through “.SPIEGEL.”

Another possible aspect of the “.SPIEGEL” TLD is an expansion of commercial offerings that go beyond the news. Such benefits may include a ticketing service for cultural events at “kultur.SPIEGEL,” and a customized travel service at “travel.SPIEGEL” or “reisen.SPIEGEL.”

Accordingly, Spiegel believes that use of the new TLD will benefit the company, its customers, and general Internet users alike, resulting in increased traffic and Internet user interest. The new space is expected to greatly augment the quality and quantity of offerings by the company, and signifies a large expansion of the Spiegel brand. The “.SPIEGEL” TLD is the gateway to new opportunities for Spiegel, and to an enhanced online experience for its wide array of Internet users.

Additionally, Internet users can be assured of the company’s diligent monitoring efforts and privacy protection within the new TLD. As the space will operate under a single-registrant model, Spiegel will be able to exercise full control over the content displayed on “.SPIEGEL” sites and, accordingly, consumers will experience much safer, more trustworthy interactions. Users will be assured that whenever they navigate to a domain name in the TLD, the information displayed on the site will be authentic, authorized and accurate.

Operationally, the “.SPIEGEL” Registry Service Provider KSregistry GmbH will manage the Internet space under the direct control of Spiegel. The TLD will follow a single-registrant model, wherein all registrations within the space are held by Spiegel itself. Affiliated entities and individuals, such as affiliated companies or journalists, may apply to Spiegel to request authorization to license “.SPIEGEL” registrations for their own use. The Legal Department of Spiegel shall review every registration and license request and, in its sole discretion, may approve registrations and grant such licenses on a case-by-case basis. In every case, however, the registrant of record for all domains shall be Spiegel, and the company will monitor the use of all “.SPIEGEL” domain names to ensure that the content of the associated websites remains current and appropriate to the TLD space.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.cardsFoggy Hollow, 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.