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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.earthInterlink Co., Ltd.urbanbrain.comView
Interlink Co., Ltd. (Interlink) envisions that the “.earth” top-level domain (TLD) will become a symbol of worldwide unity on the Internet. “.earth” will add to the diversity of available namespaces on the Internet as well as provide a viable alternative to newly proposed gTLDs thereby creating an opportunity for Internet users to register new memorable domain names with which they can use to create thriving business models and innovative online brands, and show their support to build a better home for all of Earth’s inhabitants. By registering a second-level domain in the “.earth” TLD, registrants will agree to do their part in protecting the planet, environmentally and socially, by doing away with all forms of harmful actions to Earth and its inhabitants. All registrants effectively become ambassadors to the “.earth” community.

The concept of creating the “.earth” TLD is much larger than environmental relationships, or philanthropic ideals; it’s all about connecting and establishing cooperative relationships between like-minded individuals who wish to show their support for making the planet a better place. Interlink anticipates that domains under “.earth” will focus on a wide range of issues; for example, while some users will register domains associated with the preservation of wildlife, others may register names that deal with societal relationships including international and racial conflicts, and other users may use “.earth” to publicize their mission to raise support and awareness for serious illnesses. As part of the registration process, all registrants will agree to and pledge to do away with any and all hostile actions that harm earth and its inhabitants. The registration of an “.earth” name will require users to fully acknowledge equality, tolerance, and fairness among all people.

The following three points can summarize the overall purpose and existence of “.earth”:

 1. Creation of a Namespace for Like-Minded People Everywhere
 2. Contribute to Worthy Causes
 3. Operate a Safe, Stable, and Secure TLD


1. Creation of a Namespace for Like-Minded People Everywhere

There are thousands of businesses, organizations, community groups, etc., that are focused on activities to protect the environment, preserve Earth, protect wildlife, and improve life on Earth. There are millions of individuals who share the same passion for supporting similar causes.

The establishment and promotion of the “.earth” TLD domain will create a unified space on the Internet where like-minded individuals can easily identify causes of interest to support and engage in. The “.earth” TLD has the potential to spark innovation and creativity among organizations, businesses, and individuals. As the TLD grows in registration “.earth” will become a powerful tool in creating a worldwide movement to enhance our existence.

Individuals and businesses that take part of activities that “.earth” intends to support are very enthusiastic about what they do. Interlink’s mission in managing “.earth” is to create an online community that serves as a platform for Internet users who view themselves as part of what “.earth” embodies. The introduction of the “.earth” top-level domain will bring about new and exciting choices for consumers when selecting a domain name to show their support for various causes and initiatives.


2. Contribute to Worthy Causes

Interlink will use a portion of the proceeds from “.earth” to support worthy causes around the world beginning after registry startup costs have been recovered. Interlink is committed to the following:

 • Placing a selected percentage of all revenues a fund to assist relief efforts for natural disasters
 • Utilize revenues to help promote the growth of the Internet in developing countries.
 • Utilize revenues to promote and support select public (non-political) initiatives

Interlink envisions a tight-knit community to be formed in the “.earth” TLD and will proactively seek input from users on particular donations and projects.


3. Operate a Safe, Stable, and Secure TLD

It is essential that the “.earth” TLD be run in the most stable fashion to ensure trust among the registrants who chose to be part of the community. The registry will be responsible for creating an environment where users can trust the registry and affiliated registrars. Interlink is fully aware of the firm financial commitments needed to ensure that the TLD is properly managed from a technical perspective to ensure there are no negative effects on the stability and security of the Internet. Furthermore, from a user standpoint, Interlink understands that down time due to poorly managed registry systems will have lasting commercial consequences.

Interlink has selected to work with Neustar Inc., for backend registry services for “.earth” in order to effectively mitigate any issues with stability and security. Neustar has significant experience running existing gTLDs and ccTLDs as well as operating secure and reliable domain name services for several of the world’s largest and most demanding corporations. Additionally, Neustar has successfully launched more New TLDs through each phase of the launch process than any other backend registry provider, and will prove to be an indispensable partner as “.earth” surges forward in accomplishing its goals.

In addition to running a technically sound operation, Interlink believes that registration policies and abuse policies play a major role in creating and maintaining an Internet namespace that truly serves its intended registrants and users. Interlink has fully described its registration policies in response to Question 18B, as well as its policies to protect consumers social costs in answer to Question 18C. Finally, draft language for an Acceptable Use Policy can be found in the response to Question 28.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.tubeBoss Castle, 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.