.volkswagen New gTLD Application
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New gTLD Application Submitted to ICANN by: Volkswagen Group of America Inc.
Application Downloaded On: 08 Sep 2014
String: volkswagen
Application ID: 1-1262-79766
Applicant Information
- Full legal name
Volkswagen Group of America Inc.
- Address of the principal place of business
2200 Ferdinand Porsche Dr. Herndon, Virginia - 20171 US
- Phone number
+1 703 364 7000
- Fax number
+1 703 364 7080
- If applicable, website or URL
http://www.volkswagengroupamerica.com
Primary Contact
6(a). Name
Thomas Schell
6(b). Title
Chief Digital Brand Management Officer
6(c). Address
6(d). Phone Number
+49 170 9129020
6(e). Fax Number
6(f). Email Address
Secondary Contact
7(a). Name
Katrin Ohlmer
7(b). Title
Consultant (CEO DOTZON GmbH)
7(c). Address
7(d). Phone Number
+49 30 49802722
7(e). Fax Number
7(f). Email Address
Proof of Legal Establishment
8(a). Legal form of the Applicant
corporation
8(b). State the specific national or other jurisdiction that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a).
In the United States of America, the formation of business entities is governed by the individual state that the principal filers choose as the place of formation. State law governing business entities usually consists of statutes, regulations and case decisions. VWGoA is incorporated in the US state of New Jersey (see http://law.justia.com/codes/new-jersey/2009/title-14a/).
8(c). Attach evidence of the applicant's establishment.
Attachments are not displayed on this form.
9(a). If applying company is publicly traded, provide the exchange and symbol.
9(b). If the applying entity is a subsidiary, provide the parent company.
Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft
9(c). If the applying entity is a joint venture, list all joint venture partners.
Applicant Background
11(a). Name(s) and position(s) of all directors
Name
Position
Christian Dahlheim Member of the Board
Christian Klingler Member of the Board
Christian Koch Member of the Board and Member of the Executive Committee
David Geanacopoulos Member of the Board
Dr. Heinz-Jakob Neusser Member of the Board
Dr. Horst Neumann Member of the Board
Francisco Garcia-Sanz Member of the Board
Hans Dieter Poetsch Member of the Board and Member of the Executive Committee
Jan Vycital Member of the Board
Michael Beamish Member of the Board
Michael Horn Member of the Executive Committee
Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn Chairman of the Board and Member of the Executive Committee
Scott Keogh Member of the Board
Sebastian Patta Member of the Board
Thomas Ulbrich Member of the Board
Ulrich Heimann Member of the Board
11(b). Name(s) and position(s) of all officers and partners
Name
Position
Abdallah Shanti EVP and Chief Information Officer – Region Americas
Bjoern Baetge Treasurer
Christian Dalheim EVP
David Geanacopoulos Executive Vice President Public Affairs, General Counsel and Secretary
David Holtz Assistant Secretary, Vehicle Administration
Eric Carlson Assistant Secretary, Real Estate
Jan Bures EVP, Group After Sales and Services
Jan Vycital EVP & CFO
Kevin Duke Assistant Secretary
Larry Creef Assistant Treasurer
Lawrence Tolep Assistant Treasurer
Mark Del Rosso Chief Operating Officer, Audi of America, Inc.
Mark McNabb EVP & COO, Volkswagen of America, Inc.
Martin Eickhoff VP Operations and Regional Chief Technology Officer
Michael Horn President & Chief Executive Officer
Mike Beamish Executive Vice President Human Resources
Scott Keogh President, Audi of America, Inc. & EVP, VWGoA
Scott Vazin EVP, Group Communications
Shannon Tierney Assistant Secretary, Licensing
Stefan Schueller EVP, Group Quality
Stephanie Goeller Assistant Secretary, Intellectual Property
11(c). Name(s) and position(s) of all shareholders holding at least 15% of shares
Name
Position
VOLKSWAGEN AG Not Applicable
11(d). For an applying entity that does not have directors, officers, partners, or shareholders: Name(s) and position(s) of all individuals having legal or executive responsibility
Applied-for gTLD string
- Provide the applied-for gTLD string. If an IDN, provide the U-label.
volkswagen
14A. If applying for an IDN, provide the A-label (beginning with "xn--").
14B. If an IDN, provide the meaning, or restatement of the string in English, that is, a description of the literal meaning of the string in the opinion of the applicant.
14C1. If an IDN, provide the language of the label (in English).
14C2. If an IDN, provide the language of the label (as referenced by ISO-639-1).
14D1. If an IDN, provide the script of the label (in English).
14D2. If an IDN, provide the script of the label (as referenced by ISO 15924).
14E. If an IDN, list all code points contained in the U-label according to Unicode form.
15A. If an IDN, upload IDN tables for the proposed registry. An IDN table must include:
the applied-for gTLD string relevant to the tables,
the script or language designator (as defined in BCP 47),
table version number,
effective date (DD Month YYYY), and
contact name, email address, and phone number.
Submission of IDN tables in a standards-based format is encouraged.
15B. Describe the process used for development of the IDN tables submitted, including consultations and sources used.
15C. List any variants to the applied-for gTLD string according to the relevant IDN tables.
- Describe the applicant's efforts to ensure that there are no known operational or rendering problems concerning the applied-for gTLD string. If such issues are known, describe steps that will be taken to mitigate these issues in software and other applications.
Volkswagen anticipates the introduction of this TLD without operational or rendering problems. Based on a decade of experience launching and operating new TLDs, Afilias, the back-end provider of registry services for this TLD, is confident the launch and operation of this TLD presents no known challenges. The rationale for this opinion includes:
- The string is not complex and is represented in standard ASCII characters and follows relevant technical, operational and policy standards;
- The string length is within lengths currently supported in the root and by ubiquitous Internet programs such as web browsers and mail applications;
- There are no new standards required for the introduction of this TLD;
- No onerous requirements are being made on registrars, registrants or Internet users, and;
- The existing secure, stable and reliable Afilias SRS, DNS, WHOIS and supporting systems and staff are amply provisioned and prepared to meet the needs of this TLD.
- OPTIONAL.
Provide a representation of the label according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/).
18A. Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD.
The applicant, Volkswagen Group of America, is the US subsidiary of the second largest car manufacturer worldwide, Volkswagen AG. Volkswagen Group of America has a history in car making in the US for more than 60 years and was founded in 1955. The Company has its registered office and principal place of business in Herndon, VA, United States. The duration of the Company is not restricted to a certain period. The object of the company is the development, production and sale of motor vehicles as well as vehicles and engines of all kinds, the accessories thereof and all machines, tools and other technical articles.
According to the latest ranking of Interbrand from 2011 the brand VOLKSWAGEN is listed on position 47 on the list of the “World‘s Most Valuable Brands”.
Volkswagen Group of America is applying for the .volkswagen top-level domain with the following mission and purpose:
The .volkswagen top-level domain is intended to serve the needs of the US branch and to benefit the worldwide Volkswagen Group in terms of (a) differentiating, protecting and expanding its brand, (b) promoting its brand to the public and stakeholders, and (c) creating added value for its brand by enhanced consumer trust and reliability in the digital space.
The .volkswagen top-level domain has the purpose to support the goals of Volkswagen Group of America and its parent company in becoming the number one automotive brand through continuous growth and by developing innovative products, positioning the company as a highly attractive employer and delivering an outstanding brand experience. The .volkswagen top-level domain will also substantiate the Volkswagen brand claim “Volkswagen. Das Auto.” (translates to: Volkswagen. The Car.).
Volkswagen Group of America hereby states that according to Specification 9 Para. 6 in the New gTLD Agreement
(i) all domain names in the .volkswagen top-level domain will be registered to, and maintained by, Volkswagen Group of America for its own exclusive use,
(ii) Volkswagen Group of America will not sell, distribute or transfer control or use of any registrations in the .volkswagen top-level domain to any third party that is not an Affiliate of Volkswagen Group of America, and
(iii) the application of the Code of Conduct to the .volkswagen top-level domain is not necessary to protect the public interest.
18B. How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?
- The .volkswagen top-level domain and its .volkswagen domain names are dedicated and thereby specialized to create content, facilitate communication, information and distribution in connection with the brand VOLKSWAGEN between all parties involved in the business of Volkswagen Group of America and their Affiliates.
The most important service level of the .volkswagen top-level domain is the certainty for Internet users that all .volkswagen domain names are exclusively registered and maintained by a trusted source, Volkswagen Group of America. They will understand that only Volkswagen Group of America can register a domain name and all domain names which end on .volkswagen are owned by Volkswagen Group of America and not by someone who just pretends to be Volkswagen. Aim is that Internet users will be aware that domain names branded by the famous brand extension .volkswagen are a hoard of security, stability and reliability. This will lead to awareness among Internet users that .volkswagen is a trusted namespace on the Internet. Thus it will become a symbol of quality for Internet users.
The .volkswagen top-level-domain will be a namespace with support of the company including the parent company Volkswagen AG, ranging from manufacturing, design, administrative, human resources and sales to the marketing department and including the management team. It is the aim that such a secure namespace will quickly gain a substantial reputation among the global Internet community and Volkswagen customers.
Enhanced Competition
The .volkswagen top-level domain will enhance competition in the global domain name business by introducing a dedicated namespace for the brand VOLKSWAGEN. Thus, the global car manufacturer industry faces the challenge to offer customers a secure, reliable and trustworthy namespace like Volkswagen Group of America does with .volkswagen. Customers will have the expectation that big global car manufacturer brands will have an own namespace on the internet.
Clear Differentiation
The .volkswagen top-level domain and its .volkswagen domain names are clearly differentiated to existing top-level domains, especially due to their descriptive and branded nature which has a clear meaning and value to the targeted audience. Today Internet users cannot be sure that domain names incorporating Volkswagen under one of the existing TLDs really belong to Volkswagen or to someone else who is not affiliated with Volkswagen and merely tries to use this brand for his own purposes. Furthermore, only content which strongly relates to the brand VOLKSWAGEN or is issued by Volkswagen Group of America will be displayed under .volkswagen domain names which differentiate Volkswagen from all other car manufacturers who will not own their respective brand as a top-level domain.
Innovative TLD
The .volkswagen top-level-domain and its .volkswagen domain names are innovative due to the new category of TLDs which brands like VOLKSWAGEN are creating: “Domain names with the ending .volkswagen belong to Volkswagen”. The novelty is the creation of real trust and reliability for Internet users due to the fact that all .volkswagen domain names are exclusively registered and maintained by a trustworthy source, Volkswagen Group of America and used by Volkswagen Group of America or one of its affiliates. Together with other brand top-level domain registries Volkswagen Group of America will work on creating awareness on this new namespace “category”.
iii.
Improved search rankings
Today users do not know whether to search volkswagengroup.com or volkswagen.us, phaeton.net or buy-audi.org, or seatshop.info. With a .volkswagen top-level domain the user will experience a much more intuitive way of finding Volkswagen content on the Internet. They can either type in the exact domain name, since many big companies are expected to operate their .brand and thus type-in traffic might increase for brands. Furthermore this will be supported by the algorithms of big search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. As of today ranking results in search engines incorporate, among many other elements, the top-level as well as the second-level in relation to the search. Therefore it is to be expected that search engines will incorporate the .brand top-level domain as being a relevant part of the search. This effect has been forecasted by major IT researchers, among them Forrester: According to Forrester Research (Oct 2011) „Search engines will give authority to dot-brand TLDs”. Search engines make their money from advertising, and search traffic comes from providing the most relevant, authoritative results to a user’s query. Since companies that get TLDs will have gone through a rigorous 8-12 month validation process, Google, Bing, and Yahoo will adjust their algorithms to give authority to these TLDs.“ Volkswagen Group of America is expecting that such a shift in search engine rankings will also positively affect the search engine positioning of the Volkswagen brand and the respective websites under .volkswagen.
Umbrella brand strategy
With a .volkswagen top-level domain VOLKSWAGEN will be able to setup an umbrella brand strategy with .volkswagen acting as the umbrella and all VOLKSWAGEN trademarks underneath on the second level. Users will then be able to connect the company name with products or services even via domain names, for instance through maintenance.volkswagen, audi.volkswagen, bugatti.volkswagen, lamborghini.volkswagen and seat.volkswagen.
Enhanced trust and reliability
With the .volkswagen top-level domain Volkswagen Group of America is expecting to deliver enhanced trust and reliability in the digital space for suppliers, partners and customers based on content and services under domain names with the extension .volkswagen since there will be only one authoritative entity able to register domain names – Volkswagen Group of America. Especially the suppliers might access further information about the VOLKSWAGEN products via a secured login page, will get the certainty that they log into a real VOLKSWAGEN website.
Intuitive Access
It is planned that intuitive domain name categories such as division.volkswagen, product.volkswagen, city.volkswagen and services.volkswagen will deliver due to their descriptive nature a much more intuitive access to the resources of VOLKSWAGEN for customers, business partners, employees and other stakeholders. Instead of clicking through the hierarchies of a website or searching on websites users will have a whole new level of direct access to the relevant content they have been searching for.
- Beyond the provisions of the New gTLD Agreement the following policies are imposed:
General Policy: The Policy sets out the rules and regulations concerning the registration of domain names for second-level domains under .VOLKSWAGEN. In relation to registrants the policy is incorporated by reference in the registration agreement and in relation to the registrars by the Registry-Registrar Agreement (RAA). Further policies, such as sunrise policies, sunrise dispute resolution policy, a trademark claims service policy or an eligibility requirement dispute resolution policy will be implemented.
The following description of the .VOLKSWAGEN policies contains a shortened excerpt of the intended policies. In the following description, words beginning with capital letters will be defined in the Policies:
1 Object and Scope
Description of the general object and scope of the TLD in accordance with response to #18 a.
The general Registration Policy sets out the rules and regulations concerning the registration of Domain Names for second level domain names under .VOLKSWAGEN
2 Purpose
This section will describe the purpose of the TLD in accordance with the response to #18 a.
3 Allocation Phases
The roll-out of the TLD is anticipated to feature the following phases:
- Sunrise Period — the required period for trademark owners to secure their domains before availability to all eligible registrants. This phase will feature applications for domain names, verification of trademarks via Trademark Clearinghouse and a trademark verification agent.
- General Availability period — real-time registrations for eligible registrants. Trademark Claims Service will be in use for the first 60 days after General Availability applications open.
4 Priority Principle
Within each allocation phase a specific Domain Name shall be allocated for use to the eligible Applicant whose request has been received first by the Registry in the technically correct manner and complies with all applicable requirements.
5 Registrant Eligibility
Only Registry Operator shall be eligible to register Domain Names. Registry Operator verifies all domain name registrations upon registration and renewal.
6 Content and Use Restrictions
Domain Names are intended to be used for domain name based services (e.g. HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, email, website) in connection with products, services, activities and organizations of Registry Operator and its Affiliates.
Domain Names shall, within six months following the date of registration and thereafter throughout the term of registration, be used either for a website displaying content related to the Registry Operator (in particular the products or services offered by or information about Registry Operator or its Affiliates) or in any other corresponding manner (e. g. e-mail) having a similar relation to the Registry Operator or its Affiliates.
Domain names used as contemplated above may resolve directly to the relevant website or be forwarded or redirected to another domain name displaying content relevant to the Domain Name.
Registry Operator will not sell, distribute or transfer control or use of any registrations in the Top Level Domain to any third party other than an Affiliate of Registry Operator.
7 Name Selection Policies and Restrictions
Name Selection: Domain Names shall have a connection with products, services, activities or organizations of the Registry Operator or its Affiliates. Domain Names shall comprise
- the names of Registry Operator or its Affiliates
- trademarks, service marks, names or designations used for products and ⁄ or services offered by Registry Operator or its Affiliates, and⁄or
- strings, which in connection with the Top Level Domain create a nexus, an association or a relation to the Registry Operator or its Affiliates or to their activities, services or products.
Domain names can only be registered on the second level. Upper and lower case characters do not differentiate domains. Domain names have a minimum of one and a maximum of 63 characters, must neither begin with, nor end with a hyphen, must not include a space and must not contain hyphens in the third and fourth positions (except for A-Labels of IDN).
Details for IDN, in particular supported languages and ⁄ or scripts, codepoints, characters, variant and script mixing regulations are intended to be subject to separate IDN-Policies. Any requisite IDN-related policies required for the operation of this TLD will be introduced as required and in conjunction with other relevant ICANN policies. Please refer to response to #44 for further details.
8 Verification of Eligibility
Registry Operator verifies domain name registrations upon initial registration and renewal. Verification of eligibility will be effected by Review by Registry Operator, which may occur prior to or after registration of the Domain Name.
9 Proxy and Privacy
This section describes the requirements for proxy or privacy services.
Proxy or Privacy Services are not permissible.
10 Rights in Domain Names
The registration of a Domain Name by Registrant shall not give any rights in the Domain Name that survive the termination of the registration in relation to Registry Operator. Registrant is granted the revocable and terminable right to use the Domain Name in accordance with the applicable policies for the TLD .VOLKSWAGEN.
11 Reserved Names
Applicant intends to reserve all names required in accordance with the gTLD Agreement, in particular Specification 5 thereto. The list of reserved names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins.
12 Enforcement
In case of any policy violations (including violation of eligibility criteria) the following Enforcement Procedures apply:
* Notification of Policy Violation
Registry Operator maintains an email address as point of contact for information about potential violations of the Policy. If Registry Operator receives such notification or is informed otherwise of a potential violation of the Policy it will undertake the necessary steps to evaluate complaints and to ascertain any Policy violations.
* Interim Measures
During the notice period, Registry Operator may - without establishing any obligation to do so or liability to any other party - suspend, cancel, delete or otherwise alter or amend the respective Domain Name registration as deemed appropriate to reduce the effect of the Policy violation.
* Opportunity to Correct or Respond
If reasonable, Registry Operator notifies the parties involved in the alleged Policy violation and gives them the opportunity to remedy the violation or to respond to the allegations. Registrant and the Registrar of record for the Domain Name shall be copied on all such requests and notices where reasonably practical and appropriate. Notice periods should be oriented to the following scheme:
(1) If the registration data appears to be incorrect or incomplete, Registrant shall be given a thirty (30) days’ notice period to correct such data
(2) In other cases of a Policy violation the infringer shall be given a fifteen (15) days’ notice period to comply with the relevant Policy
(3) If the violation constitutes an imminent threat to third parties` rights, the stability of the domain name system or the registry or if the violation cannot be remedied a notice period may be inappropriate.
* Decision of Registry Operator
Registry Operator decides whether a particular issue is of concern. If Registry Operator concludes that the Registration or use of the Domain Name violates the Policy Registry Operator may take the appropriate measures, in particular the measures specified in Section 14.
If Registry Operator receives no or merely insufficient response within the notice period Registry Operator may revoke the Domain Name registration without any further notice.
Decisions of the Registry Operator are subject to the right of the concerned party to judicial review at the competent courts.
13 Dispute Resolution
Registry Operator is committed to ensure the compliance of Registrations with the conditions set forth in this policy and to protect the intellectual property of third parties. The Dispute Resolution Policies include Uniform Domain Name Dispute Policy (UDRP), Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS), Trademark Post Delegation Dispute Resolution Policy (Trademark PDDRP) and an Eligibility Requirements Dispute Resolution Policy (ERDRP). The ERDRP will give third parties the opportunity to challenge registrations that do not fulfil the eligibility requirements as specified above. The only remedy under ERDRP shall be cancellation of the domain name. Please refer to response to #29 for further details on rights protection mechanisms.
14 Reservation of Rights, Revocation
This section describes the general rights of the Registry to handle non-fulfillment of the eligibility requirements and other breaches of policies or laws. Registry Operator shall have the right to reject, suspend, cancel, revoke or transfer any application for or registration of a Domain Name if it deems necessary in its sole discretion to enforce (1) this Policy, including its eligibility criteria, name selection policies or restrictions and use restrictions, in particular decisions under the enforcement regulations as described above (2) the Abuse Policy and⁄or (3) other applicable Policies.
15 Role of Registrars
This section describes the cooperation with ICANN accredited registrars in general. Applicants for a Domain Name must select a Registrar that is accredited by Registry Operator who will interact with the Domain Name Registry System on behalf of the Applicant. Registrars are bound by the Registry-Registrar Agreement, incorporating this Policy. A List of the registrars offering the registration of Domain Names is provided on the Website of Registry Operator.
In addition the registration of domain names in .VOLKSWAGEN will follow the standard practices, procedures and policies Afilias currently has in place. This includes in particular
- domain registration polices (for example, grace periods, transfer policies, etc.) as defined in response #27.
- abuse prevention tools and policies, for example, measures to promote WHOIS accuracy and efforts to reduce phishing and pharming as detailed in our response #28.
- The WHOIS data of all “.volkswagen” domains will be visible to the public, although a captcha module prevents from automated inquiries. Bulk access to WHOIS data will not be allowed according to ICANN specifications. In addition Volkswagen Group of America will establish an abuse point of contact. The “.volkswagen” TLD will not offer or allow privacy of confidential information of registrants.
- Volkswagen Group of America invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually of its products, brands and services to end-customers and Internet users which means that domain names are included on nearly all promotional materials.
In the future after the approval of .volkswagen this marketing power will be used for the promotion of domain names with the extension .volkswagen in order to create a quick uptake in awareness of the new .volkswagen domain names worldwide.
18C. What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences/costs imposed upon consumers?
- Multiple applications for a particular domain name will be resolved through a first-come, first-serve process within Volkswagen Group of America. However the only eligible registrant will be Volkswagen Group of America. Since all domain names are registered for Volkswagen Group of America as domain name owner, transfers are not allowed.
- Since all domain name are exclusively registered and maintained by Volkswagen Group of America there are no cost benefits.
- All domain names are exclusively registered and maintained by Volkswagen Group of America. Volkswagen Group of America does not plan to make contractual commitments to registrants with regards to price increases or decreases, domain names will be sold to the only registrant Volkswagen Group of America for a price which will be defined on the discretion of the Registry. Volkswagen Group of America will comply with the rules ICANN set up in the New gTLD Registry Agreement for price increases. Domain names can be registered for periods of 1 to 10 years on the discretion of the registrar.