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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.bikeGrand Hollow, 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
.SAPSAP AGknipp.deView
1. Q 18 (a): Describe the mission⁄purpose of your proposed gTLD.

Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software. Founded in 1972, SAP (which stands for ʺSystems, Applications, and Products in Data Processingʺ) has a rich history of innovation and growth as a true industry leader. SAP applications and services enable more than 183,000 customers worldwide to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. With revenue (IFRS) of €12.5 billion for the year 2010, SAP has more than 55,000 employees and sales and development locations in more than 50 countries worldwide.

SAP is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol ʺSAPʺ.

SAP helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device, SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. We do this by extending the availability of software across on-premise installations, on-demand deployments, and mobile devices.

We believe that the power of our people, products, and partners unleashes growth and creates significant new value for our customers, SAP, and, ultimately, entire industries and the economy at large.

Our mission is to help companies of all sizes and industries to run better. Our vision is to help the world run better.


1.1 SAP Active Quality Management


1.1.1 Prestige, Recognition, Acclaim, Respect

Highly successful implementations donʹt just happen – they are the result of proactive engagement from customers during implementation. To mitigate risks, organizations are using the most optimal resources, establishing a strong governance structure, and applying a solid methodology. As a result, companies can become ambitious in achieving high business value in a short period of time and at a low total cost of ownership (TCO).


1.1.2 SAP Commitment to Quality

* At SAP, quality and best practice are at the heart of everything we do. Our software development teams employ recognized practices to ensure the highest quality of design, development testing, and roll out. SAP Education and SAP Consulting services adhere to strict quality standards based on industry best practices. Our ASAP implementation methodology also incorporates clearly defined quality gates and various SAP quality assurance consulting services can decrease risks, reduce TCO, shorten implementation time, and increase business value.
* By learning from each implementation and through customer and partner feedback, SAP continues to improve quality by working more closely with our stakeholders.
* SAP partner programs, through certification of partners and their consultants, enable customers to make informed decisions when selecting implementation partners. Our partner programs and SAP quality assurance services also offer advice to partners about the best way to control program delivery and increase business value to customers.


1.1.3 SAP Quality Principles

* Based on thousands of implementations, SAP has developed a set of quality principles. They guide us, our certified partners, and our customers by highlighting essential factors that enable successful implementation and integration of SAP software into our customersʹ organizations.
* Our quality principles also underpin our sales activities, helping to ensure that we provide our customers with the necessary information to make carefully considered decisions about their solution and implementation options. And when issues do arise, we have documented processes and procedures to make sure the issues are resolved quickly.


2. Our mission in the operation of the .sap gTLD


2.1 Security, trust, and reputation

A brand gTLD will help us protect our trademark and our company’s reputation. Our customers and Internet users in general will be able to rest assured that a website with our brand’s TLD is authentic and secure. This will help strengthen our brand while increasing our customers’ and the Internet Communityʹs loyalty and trust.


2.2 Control over internet presence

As the operator of our own registry, we will be able to establish the requirements and policies for all domain name registrants. We can choose to restrict use of our brand TLD to departments within the company or allow other companies with whom we partner as well as resellers of our products to use our brand gTLD.


2.3 New marketing opportunities

Operating our own brand TLD will provide new opportunities for marketing online. Whenever we launch a new campaign, we can create custom URLs with our brand extension. A brand TLD will allow us to reach new potential customers online, expand our target market, and strengthen relationships with current business partners and build new relationships with potential partners.


2.4 Short, memorable domain names and ease of access

Choosing to operate a gTLD will allow us to create domain names that are short and easy for consumers to remember. With more and more people using their mobile phones to connect to the Internet, accessing content online will be easier. Internet users seeking reliable first-hand information about our products or our company will benefit largely from the possibility to restrict the search space to the contents of .sap domains.


2.5 Competitive advantage

Being one of the first to be applying for a gTLD in this round will allow SAP to be ahead of the competition.