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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.agencySteel Falls, 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
.MOZAICQatar Telecom (Qtel)centralnic.comView
Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has chosen to apply for the TLD to promote awareness of its services and products and facilitate the digital growth and physical expansion of Qtel’s Mozaic brand. The TLD will control and protect both the Qtel and Mozaic brands by providing an official digital hub for consumers worldwide as well as fostering consumer trust by creating a secure and technically stable zone. Qtel’s goal is to be among the top 20 telecommunications companies in the world by 2020, and it actively pursues a program of expansion and consolidation to bring improved service and choice to customers across the Middle East, North Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and South East Asia. The deployment of the TLD across this region as Qtel’s Mozaic brand expands will therefore contribute to ICANNʹs commitment to innovation, consumer protection, security, and stability across new markets.
Headquartered in Doha, Qatar, Qtel currently has a presence in 17 countries (Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Oman, Algeria, Tunisia, Kuwait, Pakistan, the Maldives, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia) and has a customer base in excess of 83 million. Qtel has a strong vision and strategy to offer consumer mobile, broadband, entertainment, and corporate managed services to customers across its coverage area. The company actively seeks entry in developing or emerging markets, bringing a level of service and previously unknown product offerings to consumers. In this regard, Qtel’s expansion program directly mirrors ICANN’s commitment to the extension of choice and the promotion of secure and stable technology across new and emerging markets.
Qtel was incorporated in 1987 and listed on the Qatar Exchange in 1998. The Qatari government provides direct and indirect strategic backing, fuelling the growth and expansion of the company. Within Qatar, Qtel is a full service telecommunications provider offering a suite of mobile, fixed line, broadband, and digital entertainment (television) services. The Qatar operation has 2,000 employees and is one of the largest publicly traded companies in the country, with listings in several other international exchanges (including the London Stock Exchange or LSE).
Qtel is a multi-award winning organization, and it has received recognition and accolades from industry organizations and counterparts in every field – from the business as a whole (Best Telecom Deal, Best Company for Investor Relations in Qatar, Telecommunications Company of the Year) to innovation in products and services (Best Brand award for the Nojoom Loyalty Program). Qtel has won the Gulf Excellence Award (2005) and the GCC Economic Award (2006) among others.
Qtel shares ICANNʹs commitment to consumer empowerment, innovation, and competition. One noted example is the company’s significant investment in next generation digital media and entertainment services and best in value-added telecommunications services which are at the forefront of developing Qatar’s knowledge-based economy. Qtel has additionally introduced next generation services such as LTE, WiMAX, and fibre optic (high speed internet) connections across Qatar and in various emerging markets. It also launched many innovative services designed to improve customer experience, including “Backstage” (a music download service for mobile phones and PCs that gives music fans unlimited access to their favourite music in Qatar and other markets across the Qtel Group), Instant Top-Up, Skype, and Twitter Mobile across the MENA region.
In addition to its commitment to technology and its consumers, Qtel takes its mission of corporate social responsibility very seriously. Qtel’s “Triple P” approach – whereby People and the Planet are as highly valued as Profit – ensures that the company provides material and social support for community groups and charities as well as promotes environmental causes. Qtel actively engages in projects promoting education, healthcare, the environment, social welfare, and sport within Qatar and across the company’s markets in an ongoing mission to help enhance all aspects of society. Innovative initiatives such as the e-Waste Recycling Program and charity auctions of “easy-to-remember” mobile numbers visibly demonstrate Qtel’s commitment to people and the planet. Qtel was presented with the Corporate Social Responsibility Award at the CEO Middle East Awards (2009 and 2011) in recognition of its efforts toward continued support of CSR activity in Qatar and the extension of CSR strategy into international markets.
The Qtel Group strategy focuses on customer experience, broadband, entertainment, and new growth opportunities, and its corporate mission requires it to actively expand, bringing unprecedented service levels and innovation to new consumers. The launch of the TLD falls squarely within this mission and will allow Qtel to achieve its goals of innovation, outreach, growth, and learning within the Mozaic brand while reinforcing Qtel’s overall credibility and reputation for technical stability, security, and excellence.
The Mozaic brand name is currently used in Qatar in association with Qtel’s IPTV service (“Mozaic TV”) and mobile entertainment portal (“Mozaic Mob”), but in line with Qtel’s focus on innovation and expansion the Group plans to broaden the reach and remit of the Mozaic entertainment brand. Consequently, as well as launching multiple TV services in multiple territories under the more specific MozaicTV name, Qtel also intends to use Mozaic as a general descriptor of Qtel’s overall entertainment portfolio. Mozaic the brand and the TLD will therefore be used to launch entirely new entertainment features and capabilities including but not limited to television, games, music, social media, and augmented reality. In future, Qtel intends to offer Mozaic products not only across the Qtel Group’s current geographic footprint but also into countries where Qtel presently has no physical telecommunications operation. The TLD will be employed as a springboard for innovative service offerings and rights protection during the expansion of the Mozaic product offering while uniting all markets and products under one TLD, ensuring brand continuity and recognition.
Qtel will retain domains for internal use, educating consumers about Mozaic’s diverse service offering as it expands globally. As Qtel launches the Mozaic service into new countries across its target region, it will simultaneously extend the outreach of the TLD – ensuring not only the promotion of the Mozaic brand but also the effective organization of the Group’s domain name structure and the technical security and stability of its internet presence. The TLD will allow Qtel to continue innovating and bringing new products to an emerging consumer base without compromise and achieve its corporate goals of increasing productivity, standing out from the competition, growing B2B and IT services, and exploring new opportunities.