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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.blogCorn Shadow, 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.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.ticketsShubert Internet, Inc.shubertorg.comView

Shubert Internet, Inc. is applying to ICANN for the new gTLD, .TICKETS.

As a business, we intend for .TICKETS to realize revenues, but our goal is not to maximize profits, but to build and perpetuate the live performing arts, particularly the professional theatre, and to benefit our community of venues, artists, producers and presenters of legitimate forms of arts and entertainment (collectively, sometimes referred to herein as the “Arts & Entertainment Community”), and related service providers and their designees and agents involved in the sale and distribution of tickets (collectively, sometimes referred to herein as the “Ticketing Services Community”).

The core commercial structure of ticketing of admission to events has evolved from one of local supply and local demand, to today’s global demand and distribution as a result of wide internet ticketing capabilities. While this broader access to event ticketing has been a boon to many suppliers and primary inventory owners, there is significant confusion in the marketplace owing to the wide dispersion of urls and businesses selling on the internet. A new .TICKETS gTLD will inject much needed transparency into this marketplace, by improving the concentration of online ticket distribution into a more uniform internet presence.

At present, no specific .TICKETS domain name, or useful top-level alternative domain name, exists for the Arts & Entertainment Community and the Ticketing Services Community, or people, organizations and businesses that want to communicate with them. Those wanting a domain name that indicates some level of association with or recognition of the Arts & Entertainment Community and the Ticketing Services Community could seek a second level domain name such as theatretickets.com, or theatretickets.org, but such domains (or similar names) are rarely available under the limited number of existing secondary domain names, and more importantly only provide a secondary (at best) or weak (at worst) relationship between the domain name and ticketing for arts and entertainment, which we believe is the primary goal of the registrant of such names. From a competitive perspective, registrants that want a domain name that effectively and efficiently shows an association with the provision of ticketing services for the Arts & Entertainment Community, or registrants that want a domain name that allows them to identifiably communicate with people who associate or identify with the Arts & Entertainment Community and the provision of ticketing services, face a domain name marketplace that provides them with few--if any--options for their purposes. The .TICKETS top-level domain will resolve this problem by providing registrants with an efficient, effective, prominent, instantly understood means of showing their association with tickets and the provision of ticketing services for arts and entertainment, while at the same time providing competition with the existing TLDs and new gTLDs that will be approved by ICANN, thereby increasing consumer choice.

The mission of .TICKETS is to:

- Promote arts and entertainment around the world, with a primary emphasis on the professional theatre.

- Promote the sale of tickets through authorized, official channels and provide the consumer with a clear channel for information about the Arts & Entertainment and Ticketing Services Communities.

- Promote all things related to tickets from legitimate sources for the Arts & Entertainment Community: shows, theatres, issues, causes, interests, perspectives, positions, policies, supporters and admirers by making domain names ending in .TICKETS available to qualified parties to use such .TICKETS domain names for their legal purposes, and by having information of any and all types and for any and all legal and authorized purposes available and disseminated from websites and email addresses ending in .TICKETS for the registrants and users own authorized purposes in the United States and worldwide.

- Provide the Arts & Entertainment Community and the Ticketing Services Community with a forum to communicate information about their forms of entertainment, ticketing information, and related services on the Internet.

- Provide an identifiable means for people, organizations and businesses to communicate with those who associate or identify with the Arts & Entertainment Community, the Ticketing Services Community and the distribution of tickets.

- Increase the number of people and organizations worldwide that publicly identify themselves via the Internet with all things “Tickets” through their use of .TICKETS domain names and email accounts by making such .TICKETS domain names affordable and readily available (subject to compliance with the rules governing .TICKETS discussed elsewhere in this Application).

The purpose of the .TICKETS gTLD is to:

- Provide a central market place for the Arts & Entertainment Community and the Ticketing Services Community to communicate directly with consumers and to provide greater transparency in the ticket distribution process.

- Provide a central market place for buying and selling tickets to arts and entertainment and related services (e.g., travel and lodging) from legitimate sources.

- Provide all those interested and qualified, worldwide, in selling or purchasing ticket-related goods, services, or information with a convenient and recognizable domain name that associates them and⁄or their goods, services, or information with tickets.

- Provide a top-level domain name that provides an identifiable means of communicating with people, organizations and businesses that associate or identify with tickets.

- Provide arts and entertainment venues and their ticketing service providers with an additional choice of available domain names at competitive prices.

ABOUT THE APPLICANT

Shubert Internet, Inc. is a newly formed entity for the purposes of this application. It is funded by its corporate parent, The Shubert Organization, Inc. (“Shubert”). Shubert owns and operates seventeen (17) Broadway theatres and one (1) off-Broadway theatre in mid-town Manhattan. Shubert is generally regarded as the preeminent provider of legitimate theatrical entertainment on Broadway. Shubert (and its predecessors) has been in business for over one hundred years.

Through its ticketing services division, Shubert Ticketing, Shubert provides internet and telephonic ticketing services, including through its website, telecharge.com. Telecharge is the leading provider of ticketing services to Broadway and off-Broadway events, (currently, it provides ticketing services for 27 of the 40 Broadway venues as well as to a number of off-Broadway venues) and, in addition, provides ticketing services for live entertainment events in a number of other venues across the United States. Shubert also owns Broadway Inbound, Inc. and Plum Benefits, LLC. Broadway Inbound provides ticketing services focused on the travel industry and Plum Benefits specializes in marketing forms of live entertainment through human resources departments.

We believe that the introduction and administration of the .TICKETS top level domain is the next logical step in Shubert’s long held position as a respected leader in the arts and entertainment and ticketing distribution fields.