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

Prototypical answer:

The .reit TLD has been specifically designed to meet the requirements of the global REIT community while satisfying ICANNʹs goals of promoting innovation and increasing consumer choice and trust. The domain will provide REITs with the opportunity to register the shortest, most intuitive, and most descriptive domain name possible while certifying their online presence as a verified and legitimate REIT.

The domain will simultaneously promote awareness of REITs to the public and educate the wider population about the nature of REITs. Internet users will automatically know that .reit websites represent genuine REITs, instilling faith in the REIT brand and the DNS and encouraging them to seek out information from these domains as a trusted point of contact and information. The domains will not only be verified and promote consumer trust and protection from an information perspective but will also do so from a technical view by operating at the highest levels of technical stability and security as required from the new gTLD program.

REITs are becoming more and more common worldwide, and they are being introduced to new markets at a rapid rate. Since the development of REITs in the United States in 1960, REITs are now found in one form or another in 35 countries (as at September 2011), with many European and other REIT regimes coming into existence only within the last decade. As a result of the rapid introduction of these highly sophisticated and regulated products into new markets, it is crucial that both REITs and the public have access to the most appropriate domain names and accurate product information in order to maintain their success and stellar reputation as effective investment vehicles. The .reit TLD will provide both, and it is expertly positioned to grow in size and significance along with the REIT market.

NAREIT has undertaken extensive outreach efforts to ensure our international counterparts are aware of our efforts to launch the .reit TLD and understand the benefits .reit domains will pose for members. NAREIT has been in touch with the following organizations:
• The Association for Real Estate Securitization (ARES - Japan)
• British Property Federation (BPF - UK)
• European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA - Europe)
• Property Council of Australia (PCA)
• Real Property Association of Canada (REALpac)
• Federation des Societes Immobilieres et Foncieres (FSIF - France)

.reit will provide a reliable technical service for REITs, with an unprecedented level of technical security and stability meeting all new gTLD requirements. A battery of logging and monitoring tools will protect the TLD from attack and disruption – allowing REITs worldwide and internet users to be sure that the domains have complete, uninterrupted functionality and uncompromised content.

ii. The .reit TLD will be the first TLD specifically designed to serve the needs of the global REIT community and will perform the dual purpose of supplying REITs with the most appropriate domain name for their corporate entity while providing the public with a filter to ensure they obtain genuine, accurate information about REITs. .reit will ensure that not only do the domains belong to genuine REITs, but also that information disseminated on the domains is legitimate and genuine. At this time, no other TLD provides equally significant levels of service for an industry association as well as for the general public, and NAREIT intends for the .reit domain to pave the way for innovation and differentiation in the new TLD space by ensuring that the .reit TLD becomes one of many trusted zones protecting registrants, rights holders, and internet users.

NAREIT will engage with our international partners and colleagues to promote the .reit domain worldwide, ensuring community take-up and user awareness. Innovative domain registration and validation opportunities will be afforded by the .reit registration portal, which will allow .reit registrants to apply directly for their application and track and monitor the registration and validation process, providing an exceptional and unique customer service experience from pre-registration onward.

.reit will provide a key service to the REIT community and the internet alike. REITs as entities are currently expanding and proliferating concurrent with severely decreased availability in the DNS (traditional zones); the existence of the .reit TLD in providing simple, navigable, and intuitive domain names to an increasingly significant and global product will prove crucial to the effective establishment of of REITsʹ internet presences as well as the ʺtidying upʺ of the DNS.

iii. Only legitimate and validated REITs worldwide will be eligible to register a .reit domain name corresponding to their registered business name, and the TLD has been designed to host explanatory, helpful, and websites about specific REIT entities, providing information to the public and investors (potential and actual). The domain will serve as a badge of authentication for web content about REITs and will disseminate accurate information about REITs as they grow in significance and importance worldwide. As a result, the .reit TLD will serve as a navigable, predictable, and trusted internet zone, allowing web users to safely and securely obtain information about REITs worldwide. Web users will be able to visit any .reit domain secure in the knowledge that the REIT is recognized under jurisdictional law and the content posted complies with all regulations governing REITs.

iv. The .reit TLD is open to registrations by legitimate REITs worldwide – regardless of the acronym by which they are known in their country of origin (SIIC, J-REIT, etc.). NAREIT will engage with partner and corresponding organizations worldwide to inform member REITs about the .reit opportunity and encourage them to register their domain names. A global, top-down outreach initiative will ensure that REITs are aware of the TLD and encourage them to register and make use of their .reit domain from availability onward. Although individual organizations may wish to adopt their own informative strategies corresponding specifically with their home markets’ preferences, the common denominator will remain providing detailed information about the benefits of .reit domain purchase both for REITs and also the public at large.

Registrations at the second level must correspond directly to the registered name of the entity (or an acceptable abbreviation thereof) or the name by which it is known in business. This ensures that each REIT will be able to obtain the most appropriate domain name possible and will not have to settle for long, inappropriate, or difficult-to-remember generic or ccTLD domain names. This will be increasingly important as the size and scale of the REIT market worldwide continues to grow.

Each REIT may register only one domain corresponding to the business name; this criterion is an important safeguard against the excessive proliferation of domains within the .reit zone and the dissemination of non-objective content by third parties seeking to register commercial domains such as info.reit, about.reit, invest.reit, etc. which could potentially give unfair competitive advantage over other .reit domains and thus other REITs. NAREIT believes that no third party entity should be able to register these domains as they would open the door for subjective commercial websites detrimental to the globally accommodating nature of the TLD and contradicting the cultivation of a trusted internet zone.

NAREIT will require potential applicants to submit certain criteria in order to verify that not only is the applicant a valid REIT but also one in good financial standing. This criteria will protect not only the integrity of the .reit TLD but also ensure internet users are only exposed to information from legitimate and verified REITs.

A complete list of the criteria required to register a .reit domain name is available in the answer to question 20 of this application.

The .reit TLD will feature an acceptable use policy to ensure that domains are used only for the dissemination of accurate information about REITs and specific REIT entities (this is unlikely to be necessary given the nature of the registrants; however, NAREIT wishes to ensure that the zone remains stringently protected), and the UDRP, URS, and all other ICANN-required rights protection mechanisms will form an integral part of the domain.

v. Applicant in its capacity of a TLD registry operator will not be providing any special services for protecting privacy or confidential information of registrants or end-users apart from those required by applicable laws, policies, agreements or technical standards. Some registry services include as their integral part, protection of usersʹ confidential information. Examples of such services are:

• SRS (protecting confidentiality of the EPP transfer authorisation codes)
• Dissemination of TLD zone files (protecting confidentiality of zone file FTP accounts credentials)

All registry services, including those described above, will be provided in accordance with the ICANN requirements and specifications to the Registry Agreement. The data security measures adopted by the Applicant are described in detail in the answer to question 30 ʺSecurity Policyʺ.

vi. NAREIT has undertaken significant outreach efforts to ensure that other member organizations of the REIT community and their members are aware of the .reit domain. Following the delegation of the .reit domain, NAREIT will undertake further efforts to ensure market takeup and enthusiasm for the domain among existing and future REITs. NAREIT will then work with other REIT associations to inform members and members of their respective publics about the domain and its intrinsic benefits. The inherent nature of the TLD and the chosen stringʹs inextricable association with the nature of the intended registrants (REITs) will ensure that the public is aware of, trusts, and understands the TLD.

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