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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.neustarNeuStar, Inc.neustar.bizView
Neustar believes the .neustar top-level domain will play a vital role in revolutionizing the Internet by adding greater specificity to the namespace, as well as serving as a platform to expand its online presence and improve branding efforts. One of Neustar’s overall goals is to ensure that the .neustar top-level domain becomes a trusted, secure, and stable operation that Internet users can trust as the true source of information from Neustar.

The .neustar gTLD will ensure that customer entities relying on Neustar branded services for critical infrastructure will have a secure domain in which to share the proprietary and confidential information with Neustar.  Neustar will also be able to provide and maintain individual service level agreements (SLAs) with customers desiring guaranteed availability.

The .neustar gTLD will add to the content space by providing a clear and unambiguous location at which to secure services from Neustar.  Neustarʹs reputation of trusted neutrality, along with our history of providing secure and reliable services to the industries we serve require that we protect our brand for ourselves and our customers with a single gTLD.

More specifically, Neustarʹs goals for the .neustar gTLD are to:
1. Provide a single, secure location for all Neustar-branded services;
2. Ensure no customer confusion regarding location of Neustar-branded services; and
3. Provide the Internet community a single location for interacting with Neustar.

Neustar believes that a proposed .neustar gTLD has the potential to offer the following benefits to Internet users and consumers:
* Establish a trusted source of information for the thousands of Neustar customers who purchase Neustar’s services, for investors and third parties seeking information about Neustar, and for the general Internet user population;
* Provide Neustar and its affiliates with short and memorable Internet addresses;
* Provide increased navigation to products, services, advertising campaigns, public interest content, public awareness initiatives, etc;
* Through the adoption of new gTLDs by the wider Internet user community, consumers may benefit from a lower incidence of phishing and malware often associated with mistypes of domain names in the .com space that are owned by cybersquatters, since consumers will be navigating to domain names in the .neustar gTLD; and
* Minimize the cost and need for defensive registrations because domain names will only be allocated by Neustar within the .neustar gTLD to Neustar and qualified subsidiaries and affiliates.

18(b)1 What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

The .neustar top-level domain will be a safe, stable, and secure operation. As stated above, Neustar is well-known within the ICANN and global Internet community for its provision of domain name registry services in compliance with the strictest industry-leading service levels since its award of the .biz gTLD by ICANN in 2000. Neustar has historically met or exceeded its service level obligations for all of the TLDs it operates, including .biz and .us as well as .co, .tel and .travel for which it provides back-end registry services. Neustar has a history of operating a number of mission-critical services in addition to its registry operations, including the maintenance of the North American Numbering Plan and Local Number Portability which ensure the appropriate routing of all telephone calls in North America and DNS services for many of the top Fortune 500 companies in the world. The operation of each of these services must be at a level at or above those required in the current ICANN Registry Agreement for new gTLDs.


18(b)2 What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
As a branded gTLD, the primary driving factors of a .neustar gTLD are differentiation and innovation. The success of the gTLD will be measured not by the number of domain names registered, but rather by the level of consumer recognition and trust that is placed in the .neustar gTLD. Using this benchmark, Neustar will strive to build consumer recognition and trust through usage of the .neustar gTLD.

The .neustar gTLD will simplify how internet users interact with Neustar’s services by providing a distinctive domain space. Internet users will be able to directly navigate to the .neustar gTLD site, as well as particular pages within the .neustar gTLD, saving time and resources searching for an official site. The current domain name system has shown that it is vulnerable to malicious abuses due to registration of domain names which seek to exploit consumer confusion. Neustar can address some of these vulnerabilities by maintaining complete control over the domain names registered under the .neustar domain space.

18(b)3 What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
Neustar believes that the .neustar gTLD will provide a single trusted ecosystem experience for the thousands of consumers worldwide who purchase the company’s services, as well as those who seek information about Neustar, including investors and members of the press. Consumers will know that domains and content on .neustar are owned and controlled by Neustar and are thus more likely to be protected from infringing, pirated, or harmful content.

The initial use of the .neustar gTLD will involve a limited number of second-level domain names. This initial use will provide Neustar the ability to ensure seamless and secure access to the Neustar website and interoperability with various software and Web⁄mobile-based applications. After consideration of the following factors: analysis of Neustar’s existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that Neustar will have full control over the number of registrations in the .neustar gTLD namespace, Neustar reasonably assumes that the number of domain name registrations will be far less than 10,000 in the first five years of operation.

18(b)4 Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.
Neustar currently intends for the .neustar gTLD to be used exclusively by Neustar and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. As Neustar intends to use the gTLD for its own branding purposes, most of the registration policies will be written into existing corporate policies. Neustar will implement the following registration policies:
1. .neustar Domain Name Eligibility Requirements
2. Acceptable Use Policy
3. Reserved Names
4. Rights Protection Mechanisms
5. ICANN Consensus Policies

1. Neustar Domain Name Eligibility Requirements
The .neustar Domain Registration Eligibility policy sets forth the guidelines that dictate the allowable labels for domain name registrations, who or what entities may register the names, how the names may be used as well as the technical criteria each name must meet.

Neustar proposes that only Neustar, its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates will be allowed to request second level domain registrations. Neustar will implement an internal process that will define how they can submit second-level registration requests and the process which will be used to approve such registrations. Neustar envisions having a domain management department that will be responsible for the receipt of domain name registration requests from specially designated and approved managers (Domain Manager) though a documented internal request form. Once the Domain Manager receives a registration request, an internal review will be completed to ensure the name complies with internal policies and procedures governing the registration of .neustar domain name as well as complies with the technical specifications in the ICANN Agreement. Once the name has undergone the standard review, and is deemed in compliance with internal rules and procedures, the name will be approved and submitted through an ICANN-Accredited Registrar for registration.

Neustar believes that it is eligible to an exemption to the ICANN Code of Conduct (Specification 9 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement). Neustar believes that limiting the number of registrars is important in order to protect the integrity of the brand and as such serves the public interest. Many of the registration terms for second level domain names will match those found in existing TLDs. The registration term will be allowed for one to ten years. At no point are domain registrations allowed for more years than the maximum registration term of 10 years or the minimum term of one year. Additional details regarding the registration, renewal, and transfer terms can be found in answer to Question 23 regarding Registry Services.

2. Acceptable Use Policy
Neustar intends to be the sole registrant in the .neustar gTLD, and will implement an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) to ensure that Neustar maintains all rights of registered names to protect the integrity of its registry, and achieve its goal of maintaining a safe and stable operation. The AUP also documents any restrictions related to use of the domain name and how the registry, may enforce its policies. More information on the AUP can be found in Neustar’s response to Question 28.

3. Reserved names
Neustar will comply with Specification 5 of the ICANN new gTLD Registry Agreement by initially reserving all names as required by Specification 5. These names will include:
* The label ʺEXAMPLEʺ as required by ICANN
* All two character labels will be initially reserved. Provisions for the release of these names is further described in relation to Neustar’s response to Question 22
* Tagged domain names (labels with a hyphen (ʺ-ʺ) in the third or fourth positions will only be allowed if they represent a valid internationalized domain name (IDN) in their ASCII encoding.
* Second level names for registry operations, defined by ICANN as: NIC, WWW, IRIS, and WHOIS.
* Country and territory names listed on the following internationally recognized lists will be initially reserved:
1. the ISO 3166-1 list including the short form and long form English versions,
2. United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World
3. The list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names

However, Neustar does believe that certain 2-letter names and country and territory names may be used in a manner unlikely to cause confusion with the country-codes, countries or territories and therefore is exploring ways in which such names may be released in accordance with ICANN policies and avoids consumer confusion. Please see Neustar’s response to question 22 for more information on the protection of Geographic Names.

4. Rights Protection Mechanisms
Neustar is committed to following all ICANN rules regarding protecting third party intellectual property rights within its TLD. Neustar plans to operate and maintain the .neustar space as an extension of its current branding activities, therefore, it is highly unlikely that names in the zone will interfere with the rights of other third parties.

Nevertheless, Neustar plans to implement all Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) as required by ICANN. These RPMs include the following, which are further explained in answer to Question 18 Part C as well as Question 29.
* Trademark Clearinghouse
* Sunrise and Trademark Claims Process
* Implementation of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)
* Implementation of the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) mechanism

18(b)5 Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

As a United States public company with customers located around the globe, Neustar respects the privacy of its customers and other consumers. Neustar employs a variety of physical, electronic, contractual, and managerial safeguards to protect personal and confidential information through its services and on its websites. Neustar will take similar precautions to protect registrant and user data associated with the .neustar gTLD. Furthermore, given that every domain name will be registered to Neustar or a qualified subsidiary⁄affiliate, Neustar has a vested interest in ensuring that accurate and current registrant information is readily available in connection with each .neustar domain name.

Neustar will ensure that the operation of the .neustar TLD will be consistent with Neustar’s Privacy Policy, available on its website at http:⁄⁄www.neustar.biz⁄privacy.

18(b)6 Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.
The switch over to .neustar as the authoritative namespace for the Neustar brand will require a fair amount of time and effort to ensure that user confusion does not occur. Therefore, Neustar will incorporate the .neustar name into its existing marketing, outreach and communications activities in a calculated and deliberate fashion to ensure these goals are met.

Additionally, Neustar will implement an effective pre-delegation communications plan that will help users become aware of that the scope of the Internet is expanding and Neustar has elected to brand is primary web presence under the .neustar top level domain. After Neustar has implemented and announced its new web presence the focus on communications will cautiously lead users from the old domain name to the new domain names under the .neustar TLD.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.energydot Energy Limitedfamousfourmedia.comView
Q18b
How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit Registrants, Internet users, and others?

The Applicantʹs primary intention is to provide a favorable ecosystem for the growth and evolution of the sector. The key to achieving this aim are significant provisions for brand integrity and protection of intellectual property. The Applicant intends to push the boundaries of what can be done through innovative design of the new top level domain, including technologies that capitalize on the sectorʹs needs. A close relationship with the sectorʹs stakeholders is essential to this purpose, and will enable .energy to grow in response to both Registrant and user needs. The gTLD also contains significant opportunities as a next generation organizational scheme for online content, including provisions for abuse prevention to defend users against malicious registrations. The gTLD has been meticulously designed by a team of industry leaders from an array of different fields. This has enabled the creation of an airtight financial strategy, an inspired technological development plan as well as a close and dynamic relationship with the sector community - all critical needs on the path to the enduring success of the gTLD.

18(b)(i) What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

Specialty

The Applicant’s key specialty goal is to enable a secure and stable gTLD dedicated to providing global Internet users with a targeted space for subject matter of interest. This gTLD will serve as a home for both Registrants and end-users who feel an affinity with this sector and its associated content. Consequently they will prefer to register domain names, create and post content and seek information in a highly targeted manner.

Allowing users the ability to create a targeted, unique space within the new gTLD will enable them to customize their online offering and presence. The .energy gTLD will by itself clearly signal the nature and purpose of such websites to Internet users.

The applicant intends to actively promote gTLD specific vertical searching in the gTLD for the benefit of Registrants, end-users and other stakeholders. This specialization through Vertical Search will also benefit Internet users seeking authentic online information and products or services as they will no longer have to wade through content completely unrelated to their desired results.

As the gTLD is sector specific it will provide a better context for second level strings allowing for a much higher number of relevant and more conscise domains. This more targeted environment will simplify the user experience across multiple platforms specifically with smartphones and tablets where minimal input is favoured.


Service Levels

The goal of the gTLD Registry is to offer domain name registration services of the highest level, exceeding both ICANN requirements and current sector norms. To achieve these goals, the Applicant has contracted with well established, proven service providers offering the highest possible level of quality in Registry and Registrar services. The expertise of the service providers will ensure that the security and quality of the gTLD will be uncompromised.

The Applicant will further provide the highest level of service to trademark, legal rights owners and second-level domain owners. To achieve this goal the Applicant will be implementing a range of Abuse Prevention and Mitigation policies and procedures. The Applicant is also firmly committed to the protection of Intellectual Property rights and will implement all the mandatory Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) contained in the Applicant Guidebook. Aswell as these The Applicant will further protect the rights of others through the implementation of additional RPMs. The RSPʹs experience will ensure that the gTLD provides this high level of service to trademark and other legal rights owners to combat abusive and malicious activity within the gTLD.

The Registry will respond to abuse or malicious conduct complaints on a 24⁄7⁄365 basis, respond to requests from governmental and quasi-governmental agencies and law enforcement in a timely manner, and promptly abide by decisions and judgments of UDRP and URS panels, in accordance with ICANN consensus policies.

The Applicant will also provide fast and responsive (24⁄7⁄365) customer support to both Registrars and end-users in a number of languages to assist with general enquiries as well as complaints of abusive or malicious conduct.


Service Levels related to Registry Backend Services

The Applicant will work with Neustar Inc. (hereinafter “RSP”) whose extensive experience spans more than a decade. This will ensure delivery of the protected, trusted, and permanently-running Registry infrastructure necessary to reliably host and operate a gTLD. The Applicant will also work with its Registrars to ensure that consumers receive secure, fast, and reliable domain name registration services with a high-level of customer service.

The global DNS network that will be utilised for the resolution of domains in this gTLD has already been operating for over 10 years. It currently delivers DNS resolution for several TLD customers and provides low latency query responses with a 100% DNS uptime service level agreement.

The Applicant will further leverage the RSP’s existing DNSSEC infrastructure, capabilities, and experience to provide a robust and standards compliant implementation that ensures DNSSEC services are always available as part of the DNS.

The Shared Registry System (“SRS”) to be used for the Applicantʹs gTLD is a production-proven, standards-based, highly reliable and high-performance domain name registration and management system that has been designed to operate at the highest performance levels. The Applicantʹs RSP has been able to meet or exceed their SLA requirements nearly every month since itʹs inception. Their Registry has achieved a 99.997% success rate in meeting SLAs since 2004.

The Applicantʹs RSP has extensive experience providing ICANN and RFC-compliant WHOIS services for each of the gTLDs that it operates as a Registry Operator for both gTLDs and ccTLDs. The RSPʹs thick WHOIS solution is production proven, highly flexible, and scalable with a track record of 100% availability over the past 10 years.

The Applicant will comply with all the data escrow requirements documented in the Registry Data Escrow (“RyDE”) Specification of the Registry Agreement and has a contract in place with Iron Mountain Intellectual Property Management, Inc. (“IM”) for RyDE Services. The Applicant and its RSP will in conjunction with Iron Mountain work to ensure that the escrow deposit process is compliant 100% of the time.


Reputation

The Applicant will ensure that the Registry enjoys an excellent reputation through its core focus on creating a secure, sustainable, and specialized gTLD, thus supporting ICANN’s primary goals for the new gTLD program in promoting consumer trust, consumer choice, competition and innovation.

The Applicant will strive to become a reputable and successful new gTLD by providing secure, fast and reliable customer service throughout the registration life cycle of all domains in the gTLD.

The Applicant will endeavour to ensure that only non-fraudulent Registrants have domain names in the gTLD via a WHOIS that is searchable, thick and reliable and by being highly responsive to complaints from legal rights owners. The Applicant will further implement an industry leading range of Abuse Prevention and Mitigation policies and procedures as well as RPMs.

The Applicant will provide the financial and operational stability to protect Registrants and ensure the reputation of the Registry. The Applicant has estimated the maximum costs of the critical functions for a three year period by taking the largest single year cost estimate (year 5) and multiplying this by 3. If the calculation used a lower figure the costs estimate would not be at the potential highest amount during the 5 years and the COI instrument would be too small in order to fund the costs of the 5 critical functions for at least 3 years.

The Applicant has decided to commit to providing the highest level of protection to Registrants and Stakeholders by providing ICANN with a COI for the maximum amount as recommended by ICANN in its COI Guidance. This ensures the Registry is reputable, remains conservative and mirrors ICANN’s core objectives. In a worst case scenario where the Applicant will not receive any revenue Registrants will be protected not only by the COI, but also by the fact that the Applicant has enough capital to operate for over 3 years.

Question 18(b)(ii) What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

It is expected that .energy will provide significant competition for existing and forthcoming gTLDs. The .energy gTLD will provide a blank canvas of second level domains that will inevitably lead to increased consumer choice and significant innovation from the sector. It will allow Registrants to seek new and varied ways to separate themselves from the competition.

Competition

The Applicant will enhance competition by allowing new Registrants to create new online products and services serving the global marketplace and connecting geographically diverse Registrants and users with a common affinity for the specialized subject matter exemplified by the new gTLD. The new gTLD process and its resulting gTLDs are likely to incentivize top-level domains to improve the security and quality of their online products and services as well as introducing new ones. Thus, this gTLD will benefit consumers by increasing the likelihood of new innovative online products and services.The addition of a new gTLD such as .energy will also increase competition between existing registries.

The Applicant will promote competition to the benefit of the Registrants by amongst other things:

- Building a healthy growth trend of domain registrations to validate the specialty space
- Promote the migration of sector relevant content from other TLDs
- Maintaining competitive pricing of domains

Differentiation

Currently, there is no gTLD available on the Internet that signifies the specialized products, services, and subject matter encompassed by this gTLD. The gTLD string itself will give a clear indication to website visitors that the site has content relevant to the sector. This will result in the gTLD becoming globally recognizable and viewed as a trusted source of goods, services and information.

Innovation

The gTLD will demonstrate innovation through cutting edge RPMs.

Firstly the Applicant considers the Protection of Intergovernmental Organization (ʺIGOʺ) names to be very important. The Applicant will use strings registered as second level domains in the .int gTLD as the basis for this protection. To register in the .int domain, the Registrants must be an IGO that meets the requirements found in RFC 1591. The Applicant will reserve these strings and only allow for their future release if an IGO on the “reserve list” wishes to make use of the protected string in the gTLD and provides the Applicant with sufficient documentation.


Finally if a Registrant during sunrise and landrush applies to register a domain name identical to a capital city name of a country or territory listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard it will receive a Capital City Claims (“CCC”) notification stating this. Subsequently they will have to reply unconditionally agreeing to comply with requirements to protect the reputation of the capital city and any further terms.

These functions will enhance Internet stability, security and will demonstrate to Registrars, Registrants, and end-users of the Registry that abusive or malicious conduct will not be tolerated. They will further contribute significantly to the integrity of the gTLD enabling an environment where stakeholders can innovate with confidence.

Question 18(b)(iii) What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

The Applicant’s goals for the new gTLD are to provide a trusted, secure, and user friendly environment whereby domain names and content relating to its specific affinity group can flourish.

The Applicant believes that the success of the gTLD will be determined by the sector’s key stakeholders globally. The Applicant believes that stakeholders should have the opportunity to influence the gTLD and the way it is governed. Accordingly, the Applicant is establishing a Governance Council (“GC”), to serve as an advisory body.

.energy will be developed with consumer trust, choice and satisfaction in mind and after the initial 2 years, the Applicant will conduct a survey to analyse the gTLDʹs success in these areas to help further improve the user experience.

To ensure a high level of service the Applicant will further measure:

- Service Availability Targets for the Critical Registry Functions
- The number of abuse incidents and takedowns
- ICANN Compliance
- Rights protection incidents (i.e. UDRP and URS)
- WHOIS data accuracy

The Applicant intends to promote consumer choice by providing the following:

- Highly available and geographically diverse Registrar distribution channel;
- Effective sunrise and trademark services.

Question 18(b)(iv) Provide a complete description of the applicantʹs intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

Registration Policies

The purpose and goal of the Applicant’s policies are to ensure competition, fairness, trust and reliability for Registrars, Registrants, the user community, and other stake holders, while maintaining security and stability for the gTLD.

General Policy

Aside from certain start-up mechanisms, all domain names will generally be registered on a first-come, first-served basis. A Trademark Claims service will be offered for the first 90 days of general registration, with the intent of providing clear notice to potential Registrants of the existing rights of trademark owners with registered trademarks in the Trademark Clearinghouse.

Registration Policies

As per ICANN’s requirements, the Applicant will be operating both a Sunrise and Landrush period ahead of general availability for the gTLD.

Governance Council

The Applicant is establishing a the GC, to be comprised of key sector stakeholders that will serve as an advisory body. Each GC will elect its own Board of Directors, which will be responsible for self-governance, the recommendation of sector-specific registration policies,the formulation of guidance on intellectual property and other best practices related to the gTLD.


The Applicant aims to develop an Abuse Prevention and Mitigation Working Group in conjunction with the GC. It will give the Applicant’s team advice on abuse preventions and mitigation and how this may effect registration policies. The group will meet to regularly discuss the latest trends in domain name abuse and the most effective way to prevent and remedy them.

Question 18(b)(v) Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of Registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

Data and Privacy Policies

The Applicant shall comply with all the Data, WHOIS, and Privacy requirements in the Applicant Guidebook required by ICANN. The Applicant will take all possible steps to maintain the security and privacy of information or data that it may collect in connection with the planned function and usage of names domains, and will remain in compliance with all confidentiality and security regulations in relevant jurisdictions. This data will be held by the Applicant in accordance with the Registry Agreement that the Applicant will execute with ICANN.

The Applicant has further ensured that its suppliers also understand that keeping information secure and private is of crucial importance and will take all available steps to maintain the security and privacy of information collected from the Applicants in the Sunrise, Landrush and General Availability Phases.

Question 18(b) Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

The Applicant plans on making the gTLD the premier gTLD where individuals and organizations can register, build and maintain websites relating to their specific interest area. Thus, communication with the public and development of an outreach campaign are important goals in connection with the gTLD.

During the gTLD evaluation process, the Applicant plans to conduct a two-to-three month communications campaign aimed at reaching sector stakeholders and informing them of the gTLD’s mission and the opportunity to participate in the GC. The communication outreach will include email communications to hundreds of leading sector organizations. It will also be accompanied by the launch of a website for communicating information about the gTLD and allowing interested members of the related sector to express interest in serving on the GC. Other communications efforts, including but not limited to, press releases and social media campaigns may all be initiated to raise further awareness regarding the gTLD.

Shortly after completing the evaluation process and being awarded the gTLD, the Applicant will institute marketing and outreach efforts to inform the public about the new gTLD, its launch schedule, and its intended affinity group. The Applicant will use different outreach and communications methods and venues to get the new gTLD mission and message out to the public, including but not limited to the following: online and print press releases, communications with various media outlets, domain name sector groups, mobile apps and various social media platforms. The GC will be used as a further means of outreach and communication to the Internet community.
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