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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
.ummahUmmah Digital Limitedgmail.comView
.ummah gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others in various ways, namely:

a) Better value of domain names: The introduction of .ummah is expected to offer registrants a better value for their domain names. In the first place, registrants will become part of a well-defined global community, with very strong ties that bind. Secondly, a .ummah domain name will be much more attractive as a destination to Internet users, and hence, registrants can expect to gain increased traffic and better loyalty with a .ummah domain name, than other domain names. The resultant increase in traffic will undoubtedly help increase revenue for Web sites that are advertising based, and hence, the value of the sites.

b) Increase the domain-name extension inventory: In the top 22 countries with the greatest number of Muslim Internet users, the number of Muslim Internet users increased an average of about 276 percent between 2005, and 2010, according to data from the ITU. If this trend is to continue (and there is no reason to belief the upward increase wonʹt continue given the relatively low Internet penetration rates in many Islamic countries), it can be expected that the .ummah target market will increase, and hence, help expand the domain name extension inventory. This is especially so given that .ummah is flexible, and can be used for sites for purposes ranging from e-commerce, information dissemination, government agencies, as well as non-profit, businesses, and many others.

c) Increase online innovation: It is also expected that .ummah will increase online innovation by providing registrants with a new avenue for reaching Muslims and Islamic organizations, businesses. Presently, Muslims and Islamic organizations are reached via various TLDs ranging from ccTLDs to gTLDs, none of which can be specifically identified as being targeted at these groups of Internet users. With increasing interest in Islamic products and services, the need to provide accurate information, and reach out to Islamic communities, .ummah will be a welcome development. Toward this end, Ummah Digital will provide world class services to registrants and users of .ummah domains.

d) Increase access to online resources: The .ummah gTLD will also help increase, and ease access to online resources in a number of ways. First by providing domain names targeted at Muslims and Islamic organizations and entities, .ummah will make the Internet more attractive to many more people because they would be able to find information and services easier. On other other hand, .ummah will also make it easier for content providers to target Muslims and Islamic organizations, thus encouraging many them that would not have otherwise done so to provide online resources. It is expected that existing registrants will be able to extend their presence to that audience with new .ummah sites, and new registrants will come from the Muslim and Islamic organizations, adding even more value to the Internet.

e) Increased trust and confidence in Islamic content and online services: Another important benefit of .ummah is that it will help increase trust and confidence in Islamic content and online services. Ummah Digital will work with ICANN, its channel partners, as well as governments and the community to ensure that content and online services provided via .ummah domain names conform to Islamic values. For this reason, it is expected that .ummah will help build and increase the trust and confidence that Muslims and Islamic organizations have in the Internet and the services that are provided through it.

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

Many of the gTLDs that will be introduced by ICANN will appeal only to narrow segments of the online population. To the extent that .ummah is aimed at a specific religious and psychoraphic segment of the online population, it is also similar to many of proposed new gTLDs. However, .ummah will stand out from the crowd in one main respect, and that is that it is targets the global Islamic community of of 1.6 billion Muslims, as well as Islamic organizations, businesses and government agencies around the world.

Ummah Digital is poised to work with partners around the world to promote .ummah, and provide quality services to registrants. In this regard, the company will work with registrars, resellers, and other partners to promote the .ummah gTLD, and increase the number of registrants using it. Given that about 60 percent of Muslim Internet users around the world are found in 10 countries, Ummah Digital will focus on developing strong partnerships in these countries, namely, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, India, and Saudi Arabia.

Although Ummah Digital is a start up company, it is founded by people who are well-known in the community, and who are committed to ensuring that the Internet, and .ummah in particular, serve the interests of the global Internet community. Toward this end, Ummah Digital will build partnerships in various Islamic countries to not achieve a healthy uptake of the .ummah gTLD, but to also promote the responsible use of the Internet in its target countries and communities.

Ummah Digital will also support Internet development in the developing world, and work with ICANN, government agencies, and other partners to achieve this aim. Toward this end, Ummah Digital will use a part of its profits to fund activities and programs aimed at developing the use and growth of the Internet in developing countries. The company will form an international Advisory Panel to ensure the transparent and effective use of funds allocated to this purpose.

The Ummah Digital co-founders are well-known in the ICANN community both for their technical competence and dedication to ensuring that developing countries have a voice in the affairs of ICANN. In addition, we have significant links with government agencies, and other stakeholders in many developing countries and Islamic countries, thereby providing us a solid foundation on which to build the marketing and outreach efforts of Ummah Digital. We have a solid reputation which we intend to maintain as we roll out the .ummah gTLD.

18(b)(ii) What do you anticipate your proposed TLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
Under the management of Ummah Digital, the .ummah gTLD will add to the current gTLD space with increasing competition, help consumers and Internet users more easily differentiate Islamic products, content, and services, and foster innovation on the Internet.

Competition: The .ummah gTLD will increase competition in almost all sectors of the gTLD space. Thus, registrars will compete to offer .ummah to strengthen their presence and profile in the Islamic world, and tap into hitherto the under-served, but potentially lucrative market. Similarly, .ummah will provide existing and new gTLDs with significant competition, given it is targeted to Muslim users, as well as Islamic organizations, government agencies and businesses. Furthermore, .ummah will be a strong competition because it will be a gTLD to help its registrants join a large global community of Muslims and Islamic organizations, something other gTLDs cannot offer.

The .ummah gTLD will also increase competition because it will help better define the online profile of providers of Islamic products and services such as Islamic finance and banking services. To the extent that many of the target countries are presently under-served by the domain name industry, Ummah Digital will help push the boundaries of the industry, and bring new players online, thereby benefiting Internet users around the world.

Differentiation: The .ummah gTLD also contribute immensely to the differentiation of the gTLD space. Presently, Muslims and Islamic organizations, government agencies, and parties interested in reaching them do not have a clearly defined way of reaching them. Similarly, Muslims and others interested in reaching resources and services targeted at the Islamic community have a hard time finding them because the domain names undifferentiated, and lumped with those providing products and services many of which might indeed be contrary to Islamic values. For this reason, .ummah will be a welcome development because it will help both Islamic content and service providers and Internet users to find each other.

Innovation: As stated above, the .ummah gTLD will help increase competition and differentiation in the gTLD space. A direct consequence of the efforts by the various sites seeking to differentiate themselves from others will be increased innovation. This need for innovation will be felt at many levels of the gTLD space ranging from registrars to registrants and end-users, as well as in various aspects of the services provided in the industry. By virtue of its focus on the Islamic world, Ummah Digital will, through the introduction of the .ummah gTLD, be in a unique position to help spur innovation in the gTLD space in Islamic countries, and the larger Muslim world.

18(b)(iii) What goals does your proposed TLD have in terms of user experience?
Ummah Digital will provide rewarding user experience to three of its main target markets: registrars, registrants, and Internet users.

a) Registrars: Ummah Digital will also provide registrars a positive user experience based on a responsive, customer-oriented service. Toward this end, Ummah Digital will work with CoCCA, its registry backend service provider, to ensure that registrars are provided timely and responsive service, as well as adequate marketing and promotional support to support their .ummah sales campaigns.

b) Registrants: Ummah Digital will work both with existing registrars seeking to enter the market of the Islamic world, and new registrars that might emerge from within the global Islamic community to deliver quality services to registrants around the world. Furthermore, Ummah Digital will encourage competition at the registrar level by providing assistance and encouragement with new registrars, especially those from developing countries and Islamic communities.

c) Internet users: The success of the .ummah gTLD will largely depend on the extent to which it can provide a positive user experience for Internet users. For this reason, Ummah Digital will work with ICANN, registrars, developers, governments, consumer protection agencies and organizations, as well as security experts and the global community to ensure that the .ummah gTLD is one of the safest and trusted gTLDs available.

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

As mentioned above, the primary goal of the .ummah gTLD is to help build a strong Isamic identity on the Internet, and build bridges between Islamic and non-Islamic worlds. Toward this end, Ummah Digital will require that the content of Web sites under the .ummah gTLD must be sensitive to Islamic values and norms, involve or abet criminal activity, and⁄or promote hatred or violence and terrorism in any form.

Ummah Digital recognizes that it cannot, and is not responsible for determining the faithfulness of registrants to Islam. However, registrants of .ummah domain names will be required to provide identification details, as detailed in the agreement they will need to sign before their domain names are registered.

Additionally, Ummah Digital requires that domain names within the .ummah gTLD should consist of proper characters unique within top-level domain, followed by the characters ‘.ummah’. Domain names shall meet the following technical requirements; they shall:
contain no more than 63 characters;
begin and end with a letter or a digit;
contain no characters different from letters, figures and a hyphen (allowable characters are the letters of the Roman alphabet; capital and lowercase letters do not differ);
contain no hyphens simultaneously in the third and forth positions.
contain no characters different from letters, figures and a hyphen (allowable characters are the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet including letter “ё”; capital and lowercase letters do not differ)

Ummah Digital will also enforce a name selection policy that ensures that all names registered in the gTLD will be in compliance with ICANN mandated technical standards. These include restrictions on 2 character names, tagged names, reserved names for Registry Operations. All names must also be in compliance with all applicable RFCs governing the composition of domain names. Registrations of Country, Geographical and Territory Names will only be allowed in compliance with the restrictions as outlined in the answer to Question 22.

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

Ummah Digital will provide registrants and users with complete privacy that will also within the rules and procedures provided by ICANN.

The .ummah gTLD will be governed by strict guidelines and policies to ensure the privacy of information for registrants as well as users. The policies will be transparent and rigorous, and modeled after policies that have been successfully implemented by existing TLD operators. In addition, the policies will be supplemented by sound technologies that will prevent unauthorized access to information. This is a manifestation of the larger goal of the new gTLD, that of a trusted source of safe online transactions, as stipulated in 18(a).

Privacy and security will be key elements of the .ummah Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). The AUP will govern how a registrant may use its registered .ummah domain name, with a specific focus on protecting Internet users. Specifically, the AUP language will address privacy by prohibiting a registrant from using a domain for any activity that violates the privacy or publicity rights of another person or entity, or breaches any duty of confidentiality owed to any other person or entity.

The AUP also would prohibit spam or other unsolicited bulk email, or computer or network hacking or cracking, as well as the installation of any viruses, worms, bugs, Trojan horses or other code, files or programs designed to, or capable of, disrupting, damaging or limiting the functionality of any software or hardware.

Ummah Digital will maintain complete enforcement rights over the use of the domain name. Furthermore, Ummah Digital will reserve the right to revoke, suspend, terminate, cancel or otherwise modify the rights of registrants to the domain name(s) they have registered, should they breach the AUP.

Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

There is no doubt that the .ummah gTLD will benefit from the momentum generated by the introduction of the new gTLD program, given the global buzz that has been created. However, Ummah Digital recognizes that it has to embark on additional outreach and communications to ensure the successful launch, and sustainability of the .ummah gTLD. Toward this end, Ummah Digital will leverage various channels to ensure the widespread adoption of the .ummah gTLD.

The dot ummah gTLD will be actively promoted in 10 key target countries (Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Malaysia) which account for about 65 percent of global Muslim Internet users. Ummah Digital will partner with trade organizations and associations, as well as media outlets, Web site owners, ISPs, Web developers, social networks, and international Islamic organizations to help promote the gTLD. Other important groups Ummah Digital will work with include registrars, and domain name re-sellers.

Ummah Digital will also participate as much as possible in meetings to actively promote the gTLD. It is also expected that over time, the use of the dot ummah gTLD by prominent individuals, organizations, and businesses will help promote it around the world. For this reason, Ummah Digital will provide select organizations with free domain names to encourage them to use the dot ummah gTLD. Examples of target organizations Ummah Digital will work with include the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC-OCI), trade and industry associations such as the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), the Federation of Consultants from Islamic Countries (FCIC), and the Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), as well as non-governmental organizations, and their umbrella groups such as the Union of NGOs of the Islamic World (UNIW).

Dot ummah will be promoted as a desirable gTLD because it will help owners have an identity, and a sense of belonging to a large global community. Furthermore, the fact that Ummah Digital will donate some of its profits to the development of the Internet in developing countries will provide additional promotion for dot ummah.

Finally, the growth of the .ummah gTLD will be driven by a network effect, which occurs when a service becomes more popular as more users adopt it. As more sites offer information, services, and opportunities for interconnection using .ummah domain names, more members of the community will navigate to those sites. Many of those will provide their own content, and their activity there will spark further growth of second-level .ummah domains. At some point, information and service providers will see the demand for .ummah content and migrate their offerings to .ummah, thereby further increasing offerings to the community, and driving even more traffic to .ummah sites. The future benefits of interlinking this global community of Muslims and Islamic organizations are incalculable, but huge.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.tradeElite Registry 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 .trade 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 .trade 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 .trade will provide significant competition for existing and forthcoming gTLDs. The .trade 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 .trade 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.

.trade 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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