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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.skySky IP International Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales, operating via its registered Swiss branchbskyb.comView
The mission and purpose of the new .sky gTLD is to benefit internet users by ensuring increased trust and confidence through the assurance of brand authenticity.

The .sky gTLD will be a new generation gTLD providing Sky end-users with an authenticated and trusted Sky internet space where information can be found on the Sky brand, its products and services, its affiliates and partners. The .sky gTLD will be controlled by Sky IP International Limited (Sky IPI) for use by potentially all Sky group companies including the parent company BSkyB Group plc and Sky licensees (all of which shall be collectively referred to as “Sky”). It is anticipated that the primary use of the second level .sky domain names will be to promote and communicate the Sky brand and its broadcasting, media, entertainment and telecommunication services and products. There may be potential for various second and third level .sky gTLD domains to be created for use by Sky home and business customers at a later date. There may also be use of geographic names for second level .sky domains for use by Sky licensees in overseas territories and countries. Furthermore, given the global presence of Sky (as described below), Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) may also be registered and used for second level .sky domain names.
Sky operates, directly or through its licensees, a comprehensive multi-channel, multi-platform television service in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Brazil and Mexico. It also has a significant global footprint outside of these territories where it broadcasts various services including an Arabic language news service to 19 Middle Eastern countries, and an English language news service to 110 countries throughout Europe, the Asia Pacific region, Australasia, Africa, Latin America and North America. It also operates a number of associated businesses in advertising and marketing, betting and gaming and telecommunications including broadband and telephone services. Sky also has significant sponsorship arrangements including sponsoring the Sky Pro Cycling team, a professional road cycling team. Sky is also involved with well-publicised community initiatives including Sky Ride (an initiative encouraging people to exercise by cycling) and Sky Rainforest Rescue (a campaign to raise awareness and funds to prevent the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest). Customer trust, brand recognition and continuous innovation are paramount considerations in all of the activities of the business.
Sky’s business activities are increasingly conducted on the internet and are constantly changing and evolving especially with the convergence of media technologies in delivering content. The volume of commercial transactions over the internet is constantly growing and .sky will simplify and lower transaction costs benefiting Sky and its customers. Furthermore, .sky aims to promote greater user confidence in the security of transactions and⁄or interactions with Sky. Similarly, the .sky gTLD will assure customers of the authenticity of its online promotion and marketing of media, entertainment, betting and gaming, and telecommunication related products and services.
Sky IPI’s mission and purpose for the proposed .sky gTLD are aligned with ICANN’s initiatives to promote the public interest and its Affirmation of Commitments which include promoting consumer trust, competition and consumer choice.The .sky registry will be operated centrally with a restricted registration policy where only Sky IPI and⁄or its authorised affiliate entities will be able to register domains for use initially by the Sky group companies and existing and future Sky licensees. Furthermore, .sky domain names are subject to registration standards, policies and procedures under Sky IPI’s control, which eliminates the possibility of malicious conduct within the .sky.
Given Sky IPI’s tight control over .sky and its proposed policies and procedures (as described above and throughout this application) to eliminate all possible malicious and abusive conduct within .sky, consumers will be reassured that all .sky domain names are trustworthy and authentic Sky sites. This in turn builds consumer trust and confidence enhancing Sky’s online reputation. Sky’s activities will encourage competition amongst registry operators, whereby existing and new TLD operators will make changes in their mechanisms to improve consumer trust in their own TLDs so that they are at least on part with improvements in consumer trust made by other TLD operators such as Sky IPI. Improved consumer trust and competition will encourage e-commerce thereby increases the number of online transactions and interactions by consumers.
The .sky gTLD also presents Sky with a substantial opportunity to market new products and services including user-driven improvement and innovations by creating new second and third level domain names as required. These domain names, including the use of geographic names and IDNs, will promote consumers choice by innovatively increasing the ways consumers can interact with Sky.

Given the initially restricted nature of.sky, the projected number of registrations is likely to be limited. It is anticipated that a small number of domain names will be registered in the first year. Over the next few years, the number of registrations is likely to increase to between 500-1000 domain names as new services and marketing campaigns are developed and implemented. Sky may, at a later date, evaluate the potential in extending .sky access (i.e. use but not registration) to its home and business customers. In making such evaluation, Sky IPI will take due consideration of its continued compliance with all operational, technical and policy requirements. Sky IPI will keep ICANN reasonably informed of any material developments relating to.sky, including compliance with the continued operations instrument obligations as set out in Specification 8 of the Registry Agreement. Sky IPI intends to utilise geographic names and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) to support a positive user experience for users regardless of geography or language.

Sky is a well-recognised global brand and has trade mark applications and registrations in 130 jurisdictions for the word SKY and other SKY related marks. These registrations cover a range of different classes of goods and services including broadcasting services (such as television and radio broadcasting), apparatus used for the receiving, recording, storage and playback of television and radio, advertising and marketing, telecommunications (including telephony and broadband services), betting and gaming, entertainment and cultural activities.
Sky has existing domain names using the SKY trade marks in domain spaces including:
-gTLDs: .com, .biz, .net, .org, .travel,
-ccTLDS: co.uk, eu, me, ws, com.cn, cn, .de, com.dm, com.es, com.gr, dm, mp, org.cn, qa, so., tm.fr, tv, it ie.
Recently, Sky was successful in securing sunrise applications for .info, .mobi, .eu, .asia, .tel, .co and .xxx domain spaces based on its existing registered trade mark rights.

Sky has strong registered and unregistered rights in the SKY name based on its famous reputation in the UK, Ireland, Italy and Germany. In particular, Sky has used the SKY trade mark extensively and exclusively for over 20 years in the UK where it has developed an iconic reputation. Furthermore, it has a substantial reputation in other countries around the world via its worldwide broadcasts of Sky News amongst other things. Sky has been at the forefront of media convergent technology by combining television, computer, internet and telecommunication technologies through its substantial investment in technological innovation, product development and focused marketing. As a result, the SKY brand is well known for its internet-related goods and services. Sky IPI believes that .sky is unlikely to cause confusion with either a generic term or any existing TLDs.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.webRuby Glen, 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.