.aigo New gTLD Application
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New gTLD Application Submitted to ICANN by: aigo Digital Technology Co,Ltd.
Application Downloaded On: 17 Jul 2015
String: aigo
Application ID: 1-942-46156
Applicant Information
- Full legal name
aigo Digital Technology Co,Ltd.
- Address of the principal place of business
1st Floor East Gymnasium of the National Olympic Sports Center, No.1 ANDING Road, ChaoYang District beijing - 100100 CN
- Phone number
+86 010 62606666
- Fax number
+86 010 62606123
- If applicable, website or URL
http://en.aigo.com/
Primary Contact
6(a). Name
qing peng
6(b). Title
business manager
6(c). Address
6(d). Phone Number
+86 01065985888 ext.16581
6(e). Fax Number
6(f). Email Address
Secondary Contact
7(a). Name
Xin Yi Li
7(b). Title
Special Assistant to the President
7(c). Address
7(d). Phone Number
+86 010 62606666
7(e). Fax Number
+86 010 62606123
7(f). Email Address
Proof of Legal Establishment
8(a). Legal form of the Applicant
Limited Liability Company
8(b). State the specific national or other jurisdiction that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a).
Beijing,China
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.
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
Feng Jun Chairman and CEO
Yang Qiong shareholder
11(b). Name(s) and position(s) of all officers and partners
Name
Position
Gavin Gao Vice chairman
Ma Jie Chief Finance Officer
Paul Yang Vice president
Qi Yan Vice chairman
Wang Xing Dong General manager
Xiao Lin Fan Director of Human Resources
11(c). Name(s) and position(s) of all shareholders holding at least 15% of shares
Name
Position
Feng Jun Chairman and CEO
Yang Qiong shareholder
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.
aigo
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.
Aigo Digital Technology Co, Ltd. (“the Applicant”) 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 intention of the aigo Digital Technology Co, Ltd. (ʺaigoʺ) in filing this application is to proactively protect the ownership of its “AIGO” trademark at the Internet Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) name space, and to provide a trusted, hierarchical and intuitive namespace for businesses and consumers that use aigo’s broad range of consumer electronic products.
The Aigo Digital Technology Co, Ltd.
The aigo brand is a trade name created by Beijing Huaqi Information Digital Technology Co. Ltd in 1993. The company designs and manufactures various consumer electronic products such as tablet PC, portable hard drive ⁄ storage, portable projector, digital camera, digital photo frames, digital camcorder, projector, MP4⁄5⁄6 multi-media players, ebook ⁄ readers, mobile phones, batteries, data security products and various computer peripherals and accessories. These products enjoy significant market shares and leadership in China as well as worldwide – with domination on portable devices (90% market share; No.1 in China), digital photography products (70% market share; No.1 in China) and recently handheld devices.
In recent years aigo has invested substantial resources on international branding. Today, the aigo mark is a nationally registered and protected mark in over 140 countries. Listed below is a representative sampling of the truly international footprint of the aigo brand:
- aigo’s subsidiary aifly was the Official Language Training Services Provider of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, providing training to fifteen thousands of volunteers;
- aigo has partnered with the International Olympic Museum as its official tour guide system with the proprietary aigopen;
- aigo’s F1 partnership with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team has been crucial in raising awareness of aigo in the European marketplace. aigo is McLaren’s first Chinese partner in the world and the first time Chinese characters have appeared on an F1 car;
- In June 2009, aigo entered into a multi-million dollar sponsorship agreement with Manchester United, as its official portable media player, digital camera, and portable storage partner; and
- In January 2011, announced in CES 2011, aigo entered to a sponsorship agreement with Bryan Herta Autosport for the 2011 Indycar season. The deal will see aigo branding on the BHA Indycar at the Indianapolis 500 as well as other events throughout the year.
In addition to these international branding events, aigo’s storage and recording solutions were tasked to provide equipment and installation in the No.6 and No. 7 ShenZhou Spacecraft missions (神州六号与神州七号). These recording devices were able to keep track of all the voice material that occurred during the entire space journey.
ICANN’s new gTLD program offers aigo a great opportunity to demonstrate its position as an industry pioneer and a truly global enterprise. Mr. Feng personally attended the historical ICANN 41 meeting in Singapore and witnessed the approval of the New gTLD Program. The delegation of .AIGO TLD would elevate the brand value and consumer confidence in aigo as a leading Chinese brand while providing consumers a trusted, hierarchical and intuitive namespace for aigo’s broad range of consumer electronic products.
Potential Business Models
The preservation of its brand is of paramount importance to aigo Space in all aspects of its operations, including and especially on the Internet. Operating the brand as a gTLD will likely be an important part of its digital strategy in the future. aigo will be analyzing and evaluating other .BRAND gTLD applications as well as general market adoption to determine short and long-term potential best-in-class use case options to most effectively serve and enhance aigo’s online strategy as a global leader in consumer electronic products.
Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a .BRAND gTLD specification in the current round, it is widely anticipated in the brand community that this will become a specialty subset of gTLDs. The .AIGO TLD is intended to be one of those .BRAND gTLDs, with the goal of protecting aigo’s online presence and identity, expanding its marketing and promotion efforts, providing a secure channel for online products and services.
aigo intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .AIGO gTLD to aigo and its qualified affiliates. This initial limited use will allow aigo to establish its operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the Template Registry Agreement is intended to exempt aigo from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.
aigo currently plans a four-stage rollout for the .AIGO gTLD:
- Stage One
The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve aigo registering a limited number of .AIGO second-level domain names.
This initial use will provide aigo’s IT and security personnel the time to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access using the .AIGO gTLD domain names, interoperability with various software and Web-based applications, and unbroken and secure use of all names. This initial allocation will also allow the appropriate aigo staff to coordinate with the internal and external staff responsible for the application, delegation and setup phases of the .AIGO gTLD to ensure a proper transition from delegation to full operation.
- Stage Two
Once all testing has been successfully completed, aigo will begin allocating domain names in .AIGO for more widespread internal corporate use. During this same period of time, aigo will begin evaluating strategies to potential migrate traffic away from its existing second-level domain names.
It is in Stage Two that aigo will evaluate expanding the operations of the gTLD to permit registration by other registrants such as licensees or other strategic parties. Should an assessment of its expansion strategy lead to a decision to extend registration rights to other parties, this expansion is currently planned to take place during Stage Three. However, any expansion would be conditioned upon a review of the Specification 9 (Registry Code of Conduct) set forth in the template registry agreement to ensure compliance with aigo’s business model.
- Stage Three
Depending upon the analysis of the evaluations undertaken in stage two, aigo may begin to implement the migration of Internet traffic away from aigo’s legacy domain names, and toward the .AIGO gTLD. It is in this stage that aigo also may implement its decision to extend registration rights to licensees or strategic parties, depending upon compliance with Specification 9 as noted above. The dates of such expansion are subject to change depending upon business, strategic, and industry factors at the time.
After consideration of the following factors: analysis of aigo’s existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that aigo will have full control over the number of registrations in the .AIGO gTLD namespace, aigo is confident that the number of domain name registrations will be less than 3,000 in the first three years of operation based upon its current business plan.
- Stage Four
Based on its experience to the end of Year 3, and based on its experience with any expansion implemented in Stage Three, aigo will assess whether its business plan and any future expansion strategy to include a much larger universe of domain name registrants, e.g. individual consumers. However, it is anticipated by aigo that changes to the domain name industry, and particularly the impact of .BRAND gTLDs, will take several years to be realized and assessed. Therefore, any decision to expand the gTLDs beyond corporate, qualified subsidiary and affiliate, and licensee use, and to potential include end consumer user will take into account this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion.
18B. How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?
AIGO believes that the proposed .Aigo gTLD has the potential to offer the following benefits to Internet users and consumers:
- Committed to providing high-quality services to its users with the elevated level of user confidence at the top-level;
2.Provide intuitive and memorable domain names that will facilitate the ease by which consumers can locate information online;
What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?
While Applicant’s intention of filing this application is to proactively protect this ownership of the “AIGO” trademark at the Internet Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) name space, and to provide a trusted, hierarchical and intuitive namespace for businesses and consumers that use AIGO’s broad range of consumer electronic products. To accomplish this mission, AIGO aim to make our online marketplaces the most effective and user friendly for buyers and sellers in the world.
What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
As a brand gTLD, the primary driving factors of AIGO are providing a safe and secure online marketplace for its customers. The success of this gTLD will not be measured by the number of domain name registered. Instead it will be measured by the level of consumer recognition and trust that is placed in .Aigo gTLD. Using this benchmark, Applicant strives to build consumer recognition and trust that rise to the level of that found in the .EDU and .GOV.CN domain names.
As noted above, AIGO is a leading consumer electronic products designer and manufacturer that relies upon emerging Internet technologies and the domain name system to deliver services to its consumers both domestically and abroad. A .Aigo gTLD would elevate its existing market leadership to another level.
While many customers of e-commerce websites are subject to a never ending barrage of spam and phishing activities, Applicant aims to build up and maintain .Aigo gTLD as a trusted source of goods and services for consumers looking for information regarding AIGO Group’s services.
What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
Applicant believes that the .Aigo gTLD will provide an enhanced experience for the hundreds of millions of consumers both domestically and internationally that use its consumer electronic products and services. This will also provide increased confidence and predictability for new customers and partners as AIGO continues to expand into other markets around the world as a leading global online marketplace.
In addition to providing consumers with shorter, memorable, and intuitive domain names to help customers navigate the website, Applicant has adopted measures so as to safeguard and minimize any potential phishing, pharming, or spam that have plagued the customers of other consumer electronic products companies.
Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.
As documented in Section 18a, during the first three years of operation, AIGO is intending to restrict registration and use of domain names with the gTLD to limited number of CIU. Because of this condition precedent, any registration and use requirements are more appropriately vested in these corporate⁄subsidiary agreements and not in a domain name registration agreement. The “AIGO” brand is a valuable brand whose protection is of paramount importance, any registration and use (e.g. trademark quality control provisions) must be vested in these other agreements.
Aside from these concerns, AIGO will incorporate all required ICANN consensus policies and other legal⁄policy requirements imposed on new gTLD applicants into the terms and conditions of the domain name registration agreement. Based on ICANN Registry Agreement, Applicant sets and enforces .Aigo registration policies. General Registry Policies will be developed and made available prior to launch of TLD. Such policy decisions, based on ICANN Registry Agreement and relevant industry best practices, including but not limited to:
- Registration eligibility requirements
- Which registrars may become accredited and sell domains
- Wholesale prices offered to registrars
- Reserved names
- Phased allocation (Sunrise, Landush, etc.) of the domain space at the second and third levels
- Dispute policies
- Technical policies, including SRS security and access.
This .Aigo General Registry Policies pertain techno-operational policies in the following areas:
- Domain Registrations (Domain Objects) and the .Aigo Zone File
- Domain Contacts (Contact Objects) and WHOIS Service
- Dispute Resolution Policies
- Obligations of Registered Name Holders
The General Registry Policies provides the framework for the general operations of the .Aigo Registry. Other policies, such as the .Aigo Eligibility, Reserved Name Policies, Sunrise Policies and other relevant policies are described separately in other documents published at the AIGO TLD registry Websites. Pricing and technical specifications are published for Accredited Registrars only and provided separately.
The AIGO TLD registry is committed to maintaining the integrity of the data within the .Aigo Registry and to implement policies that deter infringements. The .Aigo Registry adopts the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) for facilitating the resolution of disputes over the registration and use of a second-level domain name registered under the .Aigo Registry. All domain name registrations must submit to the mandatory proceedings commenced under UDRP, which is available for review at http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄dndr⁄udrp⁄policy.htm. Complaints under the UDRP will be required to be submitted to an approved dispute-resolution service provider listed at http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄dndr⁄udrp⁄approved-providers.htm.
Beyond the UDRP, all domain registrations will be required to be submitted to proceedings commenced under formally adopted dispute policies as set forth by Applicant from time to time and published on the .Aigo TLD registry Website(s). Such dispute policies will take effect at the time they are announced on the .Aigo TLD registry Website(s), with or without prior notice to registrars or registrants.
Such dispute policies may include, for example, including but not limited to, expedited processes for suspension of a domain name by claims sought by intellectual property right holders (URS), Internet engineering and security experts or other competent claimants in the purpose of upholding the stability, security and integrity of the .Aigo Registry. Dispute policies may also include, for example, challenge processes adopted by the .Aigo Registry for special programs when occurred.
Moreover, based upon Applicant’s commitment and established track record in providing a safe eco-system for businesses and individuals, Applicant intends to provide best in class safeguards that will evolve over time.
Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures
AIGO will conform with section 1.8.6 of ICANN Registry Agreement:
Registry Operator will: 1) implement appropriate measures to avoid abuse of this feature (e.g., permitting access only to legitimate authorized users); and 2) ensure the feature is in compliance with any applicable privacy laws or policies.
Meanwhile, AIGO recognizes that this is an evolving area of law in which there is no international standard, the measures for protecting the privacy and confidential information of registrants or users will be developed based on industry best practice such as Registrar Accreditation: Model Privacy Policy provided by ICANN (see http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄registrars⁄model-privacy-policy.htm)
AIGO as a registry operator shall take reasonable steps to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. AIGO as a registry operator shall not use or authorize the use of personal data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrar(s) ⁄ registrant(s). Personal data shall refer to all data about any identified or identifiable natural person. AIGO as a registry operator will not make commercial use of, or collect, traffic data regarding domain names or non-existent domain names for purposes such as the determination of the availability and health of the Internet, pinpointing specific points of failure, characterizing attacks and misconfigurations, identifying compromised networks and hosts, and promoting the sale of domain names.
Publicly available registrant information such as WHOIS service is intended only for query-based access. Specific WHOIS access policy is listed within the general registration policy in section
Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.
As noted above AIGO’s driving factor in securing a .Aigo gTLD in ICANN’s first round is primarily defensive in nature, and while AIGO sees the potential for the .Aigo gTLD to serve as a cornerstone for its future online strategic initiative, there are a number of unanswered questions concerning consumer recognition, security and stability, and broader industry adoption of new gTLDs within the marketplace that must be satisfactorily answered first. Once these concerns have been answered to AIGO’s satisfaction, AIGO is committed to make prominent use of the .Aigo gTLD in printed and online material as well as across its wholly-owned and affiliated entities. As leading global online e-commerce, trade, and payment services company, AIGO Group currently spends over RMB10 million annually in marketing and advertising.
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?
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)?
AIGO believes the proposed operating rules to initially limit registration to AIGO and its subsidiaries in Stages One and Two (see Section 18a) will provide a trusted online environment for consumers of AIGO’s financial products and services. Therefore there is no need for other trademark and brand owners to defensive register in the gTLD. This verified eco-system also provides consumers with a single trusted source for AIGO with a substantially lower risk of fraud and⁄or scams for its customers. AIGO also believes that the safeguards set forth in the Applicant Guidebook and the proposed business modeled outlined in Section 18a will minimize and potential negative social costs.
What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences⁄costs imposed upon consumers?
AIGO believes that the proposed operation of the .Aigo gTLD as set forth in this application has no known negative consequences or cost implications on consumers. To the contrary, the proposed operation of this registry will likely lead to direct and quantifiable benefits to consumers. AIGO believes that by following the core corporate values as identified in Section 18b it will be able provide real value to consumer, and minimize any potential negative consequences⁄costs.
How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first-serve basis?
AIGO does not envision multiple applicants for the same domain name, as domain names will initially only be allocated to AIGO and its subsidiaries. If and when AIGO decides to permit third party registrations within the gTLD during Stage Three (See 18a), AIGO will evaluate and decide upon a best in class allocation mechanism consistent with its strategic corporate interests.
Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).
AIGO does not envision any pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts because these marketing⁄commercial initiatives are inconsistent with the mission and purpose of the .Aigo gTLD as a trusted online source identifier. Moreover, it is the current best thinking of AIGO that .Aigo domain name registrations will be provided to AIGO subsidiaries at no-cost.
Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.
AIGO is committed to providing the domain name registration periods set forth in the registry agreement. However, as noted above as .brand gTLD the registration and use of the domain name is conditioned upon the registrant being a subsidiary of AIGO. Therefore providing contractual commitments in a domain name registrant agreement regarding the magnitude of price escalations does not seem relevant or appropriate. Additionally, as noted above, the current best thinking of AIGO that .Aigo domain name registrations will be provided to AIGO subsidiaries at no-cost.