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.fage New gTLD Application

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New gTLD Application Submitted to ICANN by: Fage International S.A.

 

Application Downloaded On: 13 Nov 2014

 

String: fage

 

Application ID: 1-2125-19961

 

Applicant Information

 

  1. Full legal name

Fage International S.A.

 

  1. Address of the principal place of business

5 rue du Kiem, L-1857 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

 

  1. Phone number

+352 2704 8872

 

  1. Fax number

+352 2704 8872 1

 

  1. If applicable, website or URL

www.fage.eu

 

Primary Contact

 

6(a). Name

Gretchen Olive

 

6(b). Title

Director, Policy & Industry Affairs

 

6(c). Address

 

6(d). Phone Number

 

6(e). Fax Number

 

6(f). Email Address

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Secondary Contact

 

7(a). Name

Robert Shea

 

7(b). Title

CFO

 

7(c). Address

 

7(d). Phone Number

518 952 4415

 

7(e). Fax Number

 

7(f). Email Address

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Proof of Legal Establishment

 

8(a). Legal form of the Applicant

Société Anonyme (S.A.)

 

8(b). State the specific national or other jurisdiction that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a).

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

 

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

Athanasios Filippou Vice-Chairman, Manager/Director

Athanasios-Kyros Filippou Chairman/Manager/Director

Christos Koloventzos Chief Financial Officer, Manager-Director

Ioannis Ravanis Manager-Director

Jeff Scipione VP of Sales

Robert Shea Manager/Director

 

11(b). Name(s) and position(s) of all officers and partners

Name

Position

Athanasios Filippou Chief Executive Officer

Christos Koloventzos Chief Financial Officer

Robert Shea Financial Controller

 

11(c). Name(s) and position(s) of all shareholders holding at least 15% of shares

Name

Position

Alpha Phi S.à r.l.

Theta Phi S.à r.l.

 

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

 

  1. Provide the applied-for gTLD string. If an IDN, provide the U-label.

fage

 

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.

 

 

  1. 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.

 

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.

 

  1. 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.

 

(a) Describe the mission⁄purpose of your proposed gTLD

 

In 1926, Athanassios Filippou opened a small dairy shop on 213 Patision Street in Athens, Greece. At the time, the shop’s location was part of the countryside and only had a single train station nearby. Little by little, as travelers would come and go, Filippou’s store became known for its delicious, creamy, one-of-a-kind yogurt.

 

FAGE (pronounced “fa-yeh”) has come a long way since its humble beginnings. Our corporate headquarters and largest production facility remain to this day in Metamorfosi, Athens, producing milk, cheese and yogurt for customers worldwide. In fact, FAGE is now Greece’s leading yogurt company and operates three production facilities in Greece.

 

FAGE began exporting Total yogurt to the United States in 1998. In June 2000, we established the subsidiary GREEK FOODS IMPORTS, Inc. (which became FAGE USA, Corp., which became FAGE USA Holdings, Inc.) to import and further promote FAGE Total in the U.S. Once people started tasting our authentic Greek strained yogurt with its famous taste and texture, demand started to grow. After only four years of sales in the U.S., and with sales of over 2,000 tons of imported yogurt in 2004, we saw an opportunity. So, in February 2005, the decision was made to build a state-of-the-art production facility for FAGE Total in Johnstown, New York, and to manufacture our products in the United States.

 

The 220,000-square-foot plant is located in Johnstown Industrial Park, 200 miles north of New York City. We invested $200 million into creating a highly-automated, state-of-the-art plant that would allow us to make our authentic recipe, but at the same time use technology to achieve the highest standards of hygiene and safety. The U.S. FAGE plant currently has over 230 full-time employees, who, by way of two production shifts, work around the clock to craft our famous yogurt.

 

Currently, FAGE yogurt is distributed in many specialty and natural—food stores, including supermarket chains across the country. It’s our hope that wherever FAGE Total is introduced, it will get into the hearts and stomachs of Americans the way it has enraptured ours for the past 85 years.

 

With our 85-plus years of history, FAGE is dedicated to this vision: to be a dairy company that contributes, through continuous development of innovative and high-quality products, to the balanced nutrition and healthy lives of our consumers around the world.

 

To further enhance its reputation and leadership position, Fage International S.A. seeks the proposed .FAGE gTLD as a restricted, exclusively-controlled gTLD for the purpose of expanding Fage International S.A.’s ability to:

  • create a connected digital presence and personalized brand experience for customers and other business partners;
  • deliver product and service marketing⁄advertising;
  • enable marketing campaign activation;
  • facilitate secure interaction and communication with individuals and entities with whom Fage International S.A. has a business relationship;
  • improve business operations;
  • simplify Internet user navigation to information about Fage International S.A. products and services;
  • demonstrate market leadership in protecting customer privacy and confidential information online; and
  • meet future client expectations and competitive market demands.

 

 

18B. How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

 

(b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

 

Answers should address the following points:

  1. What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?
  • The goal of the proposed .FAGE gTLD in terms of specialty, service levels and reputation are:
  1. Specialty – Fage International S.A.owns the leading dairy group that contributes, through continuous development of innovative and high-quality products, to the balanced nutrition and healthy lives of consumers around the world. In the course of its business with customers, highly-sensitive, personal and confidential information is collected and shared between authorized parties. To further demonstrate Fage International S.A.’s commitment and market leadership in the area of data security and privacy within its industry, Fage International S.A. intends to utilize the .FAGE gTLD to create a restricted, exclusively-controlled online environment for customers and other business partners with the goal of further securing the collection and transmission of personal and other confidential data required for contracted services and other product-related activities.
  2. Service levels –One of the key goals of the proposed .FAGE gTLD is to create a restricted, exclusively-controlled online environment for customers and other business partners which will increase customer confidence and trust in conducting business online. Through greater use of online tools by customers, Fage International S.A. expects to further streamline business processes, reduce turn-around times, provide more personalized service and improve overall client service delivery and satisfaction.
  3. Reputation – Fage International S.A. has a reputation of stellar client service, innovation and market leadership. With the online channel growing in importance, one of the goals of the proposed .FAGE gTLD is to position Fage International S.A.to meet future client expectations and competitive market demands to ensure it can continue to grow its reputation in the entertainment, media and technology industries, as well as in the global marketplace.

 

 

  1. What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
  • Fage International S.A. plans to operate the proposed .FAGE gTLD as a restricted, exclusively-controlled TLD and as such, will not be commercially offered for registration by the general public. Thus, Fage International S.A. will have exclusive ownership and control over all second-level registrations within the TLD and their use. As a result, we believe the proposed .FAGE gTLD will add to the current names space in three (3) areas:

o Competition – As technology advances, so too do client expectations of companies online. They expect that companies will utilize the latest and greatest technology and online practices to improve the user experience, protect their information and deliver quality service. Fage International S.A. anticipates that the proposed .FAGE gTLD will enable it to communicate, interact and protect data in ways and under conditions not possible under the existing namespace, thus enabling Fage International S.A. to meet future client expectations and competitive market demands.

o Differentiation – While today companies like Fage International S.A. can register brand strings at the second-level (eg., http:⁄⁄www.fageusa.com⁄), the proliferation of cybersquatting and typosquatting has placed a great burden on consumers to carefully tread online because there is no guarantee that what looks like a branded website is indeed an authorized website of the brand owner. The proposed .FAGE gTLD will enable customers and other business partners and Internet users to distinguish on the face of the domain name alone whether the site is an authorized company site because the gTLD will be a restricted, exclusively- ontrolled online environment where only authorized Fage International S.A. web properties and e-mail will exist and operate online.

Innovation - The proposed .FAGE gTLD as a restricted, exclusively-controlled TLD will provide Fage International S.A. with a new platform on which to build future innovation of its online brand presence.

 

  1. What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

 

  • The Internet has been plagued by cybersquatting, typosquatting, phishing, pharming and identity theft scams. This malicious online conduct has shaken the trust and confidence of consumers to share information and transact business online. Thus, the proposed .FAGE gTLD has the following user experience goals:
  •  
  1. Simplify purchase and unify the full breadth of products and services offered by Fage International S.A.;
  2. Improve and streamline the manner in which customers and other business partners can interact with Fage International S.A. in the online digital space;
  3. Foster trust and confidence in online interactions by customers and other business partners with Fage International S.A.;
  4. Reduce the risk of Internet users being misled, believing and⁄or acting on erroneous, information about Fage International S.A., its business partners and⁄or its products and services presented online by unauthorized 3rd parties; and
  5. Simplify online navigation to Fage International S.A. products, services and business partner information.

 

  1. Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

 

The proposed gTLD will be a restricted, exclusively-controlled gTLD where only Applicant, affiliated entities and authorized business partners will be permitted to register second-level domains for Applicant business purposes only for a term of one to ten years. Affiliated entities who are part of the same corporate organization as the Applicant who seek registrations for second-level names under the TLD will be required to present evidence in writing to accredited registrar(s) for the TLD demonstrating explicit authorization from an officer of the Applicant company to register second-level names within the TLD to protect against unauthorized registration within the TLD by unaffiliated third parties. Applicants and affiliated entities owned and⁄or controlled by the same corporate parent company will supply corporate contact and ownership information, not personal information, for each registration obtained under the TLD for display in the TLD WHOIS.

To the extent second-level domain names are ever registered to Applicant’s business partners and⁄or affiliates that are not owned by Applicant or its corporate parent company, registrants will be required to execute a registration agreement that incorporates 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. Such registration may also be subject to additional terms and conditions under separate business partner and⁄or affiliate agreements with Applicant entity. Registrations by business partners or affiliates not owned by Applicant or its corporate parent company will require written, pre-approval by designated individual(s) at Applicant company, must provide corporate contact information, not personal information, for WHOIS purposes and must be made with Applicant’s registrar of choice. Registrants must not use the domain name in any way that may damage or diminish Applicants brand reputation, business relationships or other business interests. Failure to do any of the above, will result in the immediate suspension of registrant’s registration agreement and⁄or all deletion of all domain names currently registered in the TLD.

 

  1. 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.

 

The proposed .FAGE gTLD will be a restricted, exclusively-controlled TLD where Fage International S.A. will have exclusive control. Corporate contact information will be clearly listed in the WHOIS record for each registration within the TLD. Thus, there are no measures that need to be proposed to protect the privacy or confidential registration information of registrants⁄users of the TLD.

 

Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

 

Prior to using the proposed .FAGE gTLD for product and service marketing⁄advertising, marketing campaign activation, interaction and communication with individuals and entities with whom Fage International S.A. has a business relationship, and⁄or implementing new online navigation strategies, Fage International S.A. anticipates incorporating messaging regarding .FAGE as part of appropriate company and product communication campaigns that will likely involve all communication channels, including but not limited to, TV, radio, mobile, print, social media, direct mail, online advertising and marketing via our active, client and affiliate-facing websites and other public relations activities to:

  • Further communicate Fage International S.A.’s commitment to online consumer safety and data privacy;
  • Inform the market of Fage International S.A.’s ownership and planned use of the proposed .FAGE gTLD;
  • Clearly define the expected benefits to client⁄members, prospective client⁄members, contractors, other business partners and Internet users at large.

Future outreach and communications campaigns will be carried out as when needed to reaffirm and clarify the above. Fage International S.A. believes outreach and communication will be critical to building trust and confidence in the legitimacy of the TLD.

 

 

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?

 

(c) 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?

 

Answers should address the following points:

  1. How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first serve basis?
  2. There will not be multiple applications for a particular domain in the proposed .FAGE TLD because this will be a restricted, exclusively-controlled where only Fage International S.A. and its affiliated, authorized entities will be able to seek and obtain registrations.
  3. Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).
  4. This question is not applicable to a restricted, exclusively-controlled, self-funded TLD, like the proposed .FAGE TLD.
  5. 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.
  • The proposed .FAGE TLD will be a restricted, exclusively-controlled, self-funded TLD available only to Fage International S.A. and its authorized, affiliated entities. Thus, there will be no per domain name registration cost incurred by any party for this TLD and thus, no price changes and⁄or escalations for which registrants will need to be notified.