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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.osakaInterlink Co., Ltd.urbanbrain.comView
Interlink has received the endorsement of the Osaka Prefectural Government for its application to ICANN to operate and manage the “.osaka” top-level domain (TLD). In its proposal to the government authority, Interlink made a sufficiently strong case suggesting that the registry operator for the TLD must offer the highest standards in technical and operational capabilities, and that it is imperative that the operator act as a steward on behalf of the local Internet community to promote the public interest.

Interlink strongly believes that a TLD for Osaka will play an important function in expanding the Internet, fostering communications, improving commerce, and growing the online communities of Osaka. Furthermore, Interlink is confident that its proposed structure, policies, technical solution, and operational capabilities will enable “.osaka” to become a viable geographic TLD that serves the needs of the Osaka community.

Over the past few years Interlink has held several discussions with officials from the Osaka Prefectural Government about the potential “.osaka” presents to the Osaka community. In preparation to operate the “.osaka” TLD, Interlink has received a letter of endorsement from the relevant government authority and has received several of letters of support from key organizations within the Osaka community. Interlink has established an office in Osaka and joined several community organizations in order to better serve the Osaka community. (Letters of support can be found as an attachment to Question 20).

The creation of the “.osaka” namespace is anticipated to facilitate numerous opportunities for development of new business models and methods for engagement among local online communities, individual users, businesses, organizations, and government bodies. The overall aim of “.osaka” is to provide a solid and secure platform for the Osaka community that inspires an environment where the Osaka brand can thrive. Interlink believes the following points are key factors in successfully achieving its mission.

 1. Operating a Safe, Stable, and Secure TLD for the Osaka Community
 2. Seek Convergence Among Geographic TLDs
 3. Create a Fair and Competitive Market


1. Operate a Safe, Stable TLD for the Osaka Community.

Interlink has closely evaluated existing policies in gTLDs and ccTLDs to determine the success factors in running a safe, stable, and highly secure TLD. In its analysis Interlink drew upon a report compiled by McAfee. The report, Mapping the Mal Web in 2010, shows that Internet criminals choose to register domain names in a TLD based on registration fees, registration regulations, and the overall ease of registration. This makes generic top-level domains and non-regulated, inexpensive country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) prime targets for cyber criminals. (The full report can be located at the following URL: http:⁄⁄www.mcafee.com⁄cf⁄about⁄news⁄2010⁄q4⁄20101026-02.aspx).

Both .JP and .CAT were rated as the safest TLDs in the world. According to JPRS, the .JP ccTLD manager, this is due to its strict eligibility requirements. In addition, Interlink believes that .JPs higher price point, compared with other ccTLDs, is another factor that deters abusive registrations.

During its analysis, Interlink found that proper implementation of registry policies is also a key factor in enabling a secure, community driven TLD. Interlink believes that the creation of a Nexus Requirement and promoting strict adherence to such a policy will play a key role in maintaining the stability of the operation as well as the utility it provides to the Osaka community. The Nexus Requirement is described in part B.

Finally, another key factor in running a safe TLD deals with the infrastructure the registry system is operated on. Interlink selected Neustar as the technical provider for “.osaka” based on the company’s strong 13-year track record of providing solutions for demanding global businesses as well as its proven ability to run registry operations. With Neustar running the technical infrastructure, the Osaka community can be fully confident that when users access names under “.osaka” they will be accessing a safe, stable, and secure namespace.

The foundation of running a registry operation from a technical aspect should be grounded in long-term industry best practices using proven infrastructure and registry software. The “.osaka” TLD will stand for stability and longevity with a mission to serve the community of Osaka residents, individuals, businesses, organizations, and government bodies who choose to build an identity under the ʺ.osakaʺ brand.


2. Seek Convergence Among Geographic TLDs

Interlink anticipates that many geographic TLDs will be applied for in the first round of new gTLD applications. While the launch of geographic TLDs present many benefits to Internet users, Interlink believes that these benefits can only be fully achieved by overcoming several major challenges in the implementation stage, prior to launch.

In Japan alone, it appears that there will be applications for heavily populated areas such as Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Kyoto, and less populous areas like Okinawa. Interlink believes that in serving the Osaka community it also has a duty to serve the entire Japanese Internet community. Therefore, Interlink proposes that it is necessary to implement important similarities related to the structure of certain key names across geographic TLDs. This is especially true in Japan due to the close proximity of major cities and the propensity for community members to move in and out of certain areas.

Interlink is a strong advocate of the creation of a geographic TLD group within the ICANN community, and believes that such a group will provide invaluable information to help geographic TLD mangers better serve their communities. Interlink’s staff has previously participated in a similar working group in 2008 and 2009 and actively endorsed a petition to start a geographic (city) TLD constituency.

Interlink will continue to seek to achieve convergence with other geographic TLDs in Japan to ensure user confusion is minimized, thereby enabling Japan to have a strong network of geographic TLDs that work in tandem for the benefit of the public.


3. Create a Fair and Competitive Market

Interlink envisions managing the “.osaka” TLD in a manner that strongly serves the public interest of the community. Interlink proposes the implementation of advisory committee to oversee registry operations and ensure that policies and regulations meet the needs of the community. Additional details regarding Osaka’s community structure and the advisory committee can be found in response to Question 20.

Interlink proposes that customers who wish to register a domain name will directly deal with ICANN accredited registrars who have signed an agreement to sell “.osaka” names. Interlink will develop fair and non-discriminatory criteria for qualification to become a registrar. Some qualifications to become a registrar may include, but are not limited to, having a local presence (having an office in Osaka), provision of services in Japanese, and the passing of operational testing.

All registrars will be required execute an agreement with the registry operator and abide by its terms. Additionally, Interlink is committed to fully complying with the Registry Operator Code of Conduct as described in Specification 9 of the New gTLD Registry Agreement.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.discountHolly Hill, 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.