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

Prototypical answer:

The .soccer TLD is being introduced to continue the growth and advancement of the sport of soccer in North America and to further connect the North American brand to the rest of the world. The .soccer TLD will also provide manufacturers, merchandisers, brands, communities, professionals, teams, leagues, youth programs, information providers and others with a more targeted vehicle to support their online marketing, education, awareness-building, sales, fulfillment, dissemination and delivery of soccer-related information and resources to soccer fans and soccer-minded users.

Many of the world’s largest and most successful brands already leverage soccer as a powerful brand engagement platform for reaching consumers at soccer stadiums and tournament venues, on television and radio, in newspapers and magazines, and increasingly through the Internet and mobile devices.

.soccer domains will enable consumers to intuitively self-engage in the discovery of soccer-related information, products and resources that most appeal to their unique and personal interests. As consumers of the game, soccer fans are already demonstrating a propensity for self-direction in seeking information on the web about their favorite players and teams, to stay informed about news and scores and to access highlights and other information related to the sport on many levels.

Consumers conditioned through the ease of using natural language terms will be empowered through .soccer names to more successfully discover soccer-related information, products and services that harmonize with their spontaneous interests.

Manufacturers and merchandisers which market and sell products and services across many different retail categories can adopt natural-language focused .soccer domains in order to enable their more direct, “vertical” discovery. These can be integrated as memorable call-to-action messages across their advertising, branding and marketing campaigns . For example, “visit Nike.soccer” versus Nike.com which requires an end user to take several steps to find Nike products in the soccer category as featured at http:⁄⁄www.nike.com⁄nikeos⁄p⁄usnikefootball⁄en_US⁄. Or, Home Depot which recently funded and sponsored the development of the “Home Depot Center”, a soccer stadium in Los Angeles, could utilize HomeDepotCenter.soccer instead of HomeDepotCenter.com to more closely associate its brand with the sport. Soccer United Marketing, LLC (ʺSUMʺ) is committed to working in partnership with all commercial stakeholders in the sport to maximize their commercial interests.

.soccer will also open up new possibilities for personalized marketing and fan engagement for professional soccer players, schools and community organizations, who could utilize .soccer domains to specifically promote and distinguish their soccer programs for community stakeholders. As an effective means of enabling differentiation, branding and consumer choice, .soccer domains will appeal to virtually all of the sport’s stakeholders.

The registration policies that have been defined for .soccer are similar to those which currently exist in existing gTLD registries,SUM has elected to support the registration of Spanish-language internationalized domain names (IDN) and will expand our IDN model over time in support of additional languages and in support of the continued growth and diversity of the sport.

SUM will require registrants to comply with a more stringent Acceptable Use Policy which emphasizes prohibitions on phishing, pharming, dissemination of malware, fast flux hosting, hacking, and child pornography. In addition, the policy will include the right of the registry to take action necessary to deny, cancel, suspend, lock, or transfer any registration in violation of the policy.

Additional rights protection mechanisms and safeguards including service-level coordination with the Trademark Clearinghouse will ensure that trademark holders can protect their trademarks with a single registration. SUM, in cooperation with its back-end registry services provider and law enforcement will also implement a Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy to address domain names that have been registered and used in bad faith in the TLD. Other safeguards including Uniform Rapid Suspension and the implementation of a Thick WHOIS will make it easier for rightsholders to identify and locate infringing parties.

A comprehensive set of information security policies and procedures will be established and actively enforced to ensure the security and protection of confidential information of registrants and end users. These are further described in Question 30a as part of our application submission and are based on the industry best practices for security including SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Institute, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), and Center for Internet Security (CIS).

SUM orchestrates and manages numerous community outreach, volunteer, education and awareness programs throughout communities in the US and North America. SUM’s grassroots partnerships include the American Youth Soccer Organization, US Club Soccer, US Youth Soccer, and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. In early 2009, SUM announced the creation of the SUM Digital Network (now MLS Digital Properties), the only online and mobile soccer advertising network of its kind, covering all facets of the sport in the U.S., and which allows advertisers to reach millions of soccer fans via online advertising and sponsorships campaigns. SUM will leverage the strength of all of our properties and unparalleled connectivity to millions of soccer fans and industry stakeholders throughout the U.S., North America and worldwide to ensure the growth and success of the .soccer TLD.

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