.nba New gTLD Application
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New gTLD Application Submitted to ICANN by: NBA REGISTRY, LLC
String: nba
Originally Posted: 13 June 2012
Application ID: 1-1763-23748
Applicant Information
- Full legal name
NBA REGISTRY, LLC
- Address of the principal place of business
645 Fifth Ave
New York New York 10022
US
- Phone number
+1 212 407 8000
- Fax number
+1 212 888 7931
- If applicable, website or URL
Primary Contact
6(a). Name
Mr. Sacha J. Tarrant
6(b). Title
Director, Digital Rights Strategy & Enforcement, NBA Properties, Inc.
6(c). Address
6(d). Phone Number
+1 212 407 8000
6(e). Fax Number
+1 212 223 5159
6(f). Email Address
Secondary Contact
7(a). Name
Mr. KENNETH DEGENNARO
7(b). Title
Vice President, Information Technology, NBA Media Ventures, LLC
7(c). Address
7(d). Phone Number
+1 212 407 8000
7(e). Fax Number
+1 201 974 3517
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 jursidiction that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a).
DELAWARE, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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.
NBA REGISTRY HOLDINGS, LLC
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
11(b). Name(s) and position(s) of all officers and partners
AYALA DEUTSCH SECRETARY
CAROL ANN SAWDYE TREASURER
KENNETH DEGENNARO VICE PRESIDENT
MICHAEL S. GLIEDMAN PRESIDENT
NBA Registry Holdings, LLC Sole Member
11(c). Name(s) and position(s) of all shareholders holding at least 15% of shares
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.
nba
14(a). If an IDN, provide the A-label (beginning with "xn--").
14(b). 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.
14(c). If an IDN, provide the language of the label (in English).
14(c). If an IDN, provide the language of the label (as referenced by ISO-639-1).
14(d). If an IDN, provide the script of the label (in English).
14(d). If an IDN, provide the script of the label (as referenced by ISO 15924).
14(e). If an IDN, list all code points contained in the U-label according to Unicode form.
15(a). If an IDN, Attach IDN Tables for the proposed registry.
Attachments are not displayed on this form.
15(b). Describe the process used for development of the IDN tables submitted, including consultations and sources used.
15(c). List any variant strings 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.
NBA Registry, LLC (ʺNBA Registryʺ) foresees no known rendering issues in connection with the proposed .nba string which it is seeking to apply for as a gTLD. This answer is based upon consultation with NBA Registryʹs preferred backend provider, Neustar, Inc., which has successfully launched a number of new gTLDs over the last decade. In reaching this determination, the following data points were analyzed:
- ICANNʹs Security Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) entitled Alternative TLD Name Systems and Roots: Conflict, Control and Consequences (SAC009);
- IAB - RFC3696 ʺApplication Techniques for Checking and Transformation of Namesʺ
- Known software issues which Neustar has encountered during the last decade launching new gTLDs;
- Character type and length;
- ICANN supplemental notes to Question 16; and
- ICANNʹs presentation during its Costa Rica regional meeting on TLD Universal Acceptance.
- (OPTIONAL) Provide a representation of the label according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/).
Mission/Purpose
18(a). Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD.
Applicant Background
Founded in 1946, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media business that features three professional sports leagues: the NBA with 30 teams in the United States and Canada, the Womenʹs National Basketball Association (WNBA) with 12 teams, and the NBA Development League (NBA D-League) with 16 teams, each of which is affiliated with one or more NBA team. Additionally, the NBA has a longstanding relationship with USA Basketball, the national governing body for basketball in the United States.
Together, these unique and diverse properties represent the highest level of basketball in the world, featuring exhilarating games and intense competition. NBA basketball and its associated trademarks enjoy enormous popularity with sports fans and the general public alike. Hundreds of millions of fans have attended NBA games, enjoyed television and radio broadcasts of games, and other NBA events. Millions of fans have purchased merchandise bearing the trademarks of their favorite NBA teams. The NBAʹs trademarks are some of the most renowned and immediately recognizable marks in professional sports today.
The NBAʹs reach is truly global. Current NBA rosters feature 75 players from 36 countries and territories. On average, millions of viewers worldwide tune in regularly to watch televised NBA games, which are broadcast in more than 40 languages, reaching fans in 215 countries and territories, including on NBA TV - the NBAʹs own channel, which was available in over 60 countries during the 2010-11 season. Domestically, more than 230 live NBA regular season games this year will be broadcast nationally on ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV.
NBA merchandise is sold in 100 countries, on six continents and in more than 125,000 retail locations; NBA distribution channels include sport retailers, and department, specialty, mass, food, home goods and drug stores. Overall, more than 300 licensees manufacture, sell and market NBA products worldwide.
The NBA trademark portfolio is equally global in scope. It contains over 1100 trademark registrations in countries throughout the world of marks that contain or consist of NBA or NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION and that cover a wide spectrum of goods and services - from basketballs and clothing to basketball entertainment services and broadcasting services.
Internationally, the NBA hosts basketball tournaments, exhibition games, community events, and other grassroots programs in more than 90 cities and nearly 30 countries outside the United States. Events have included successful NBA exhibition games at the NBA China Games and NBA Europe Live.
The NBA also seeks to give back to its fans and their communities. NBA Cares, the leagueʹs social responsibility initiative, builds on the NBAʹs long tradition of addressing important social issues and promoting a healthy and active lifestyle in the United States and around the world. Through this program, the NBA, its teams, and NBA players have donated more than $175 million to charity, completed more than 1.8 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 675 places where children and families can live, learn, and play. Specific initiatives include promoting wellness through NBA Fit, raising environmental awareness through NBA Green, and sponsoring camps for talented young athletes worldwide through Basketball without Borders.
The NBA is as well-known online as it is offline. Its principal website, accessible at www.nba.com, averages tens of millions of page views per day, with more than 50 percent of the siteʹs visitors coming from outside North America. For international fans, the NBA offers 14 customized, language-specific international web destinations as part of NBA.com. During the current 2011-12 NBA season, NBA.com has already received nearly 3 billion page views and hosted 1.35 billion video streams. The NBA is also the highest ranked U.S. sports league on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, with the most likes, followers, and videos viewed on each site, respectively.
The purposes of the .nba gTLD are to create an online space exclusively dedicated to the NBA, to promote the NBA, its affiliated leagues and their teams, and to protect the NBA family of brands.
We are evaluating the opportunities that may exist to actualize these purposes of a .nba gTLD.
18(b). How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?
The NBA brings the excitement of basketball to millions of fans around the world. We expect NBA fans and Internet users will benefit if we are able to use the .nba gTLD to create a secure and trusted environment for fans to access official content and services, and to purchase authorized NBA product. Additionally, NBA fans and Internet users whose language scripts do not use Latin characters will benefit if we are able to use the .nba gTLD to easily employ IDN domain names and script-specific content and then integrate those domain names and content seamlessly with ASCII domains and Latin character content on .nba websites. Registration and use of .nba domain names will be limited to NBA Registry, LLC (NBA Registry) and its Affiliates (which include NBA Development League, LLC, NBA Digital, Inc., NBA Hong Kong Operations Limited, NBA Media Ventures, LLC, NBA Properties, Inc., and NBA Sports and Culture Development (Beijing Co., Ltd.)) and entities that have contractual relationships with NBA Registry or its Affiliates.
NBA partners will benefit from enhanced branding opportunities associated with our ability to offer NBA fans a completely immersive brand environment. If, over time, consumers come to recognize and rely upon a ʺbrandedʺ TLD such as .nba as a signpost of authenticity, we hope that such recognition and reliance may eventually disincentivize cybersquatters, counterfeiters, and others who seek to abuse the NBA brand online.
Areas of specialty, service levels, and reputation
The goals of the proposed .nba registry in terms of specialty are to: offer NBA fans and Internet users a secure and trusted experience when they interact with the NBA, NBA teams, and NBA partners through .nba websites; promote the NBA and its member teams; and protect the NBA family of brands. The service levels and reputation of the .nba gTLD will be of the highest level - commensurate with the NBAʹs reputation and the goodwill associated with the NBA brand.
Competition, differentiation, and innovation
We anticipate several ways in which the .nba gTLD may add competition, differentiation, and innovation to the current space. The .nba gTLD will differentiate the NBAʹs online presence from the host of other basketball-related destinations available online. Moreover, although a branded gTLD is inherently innovative - because there have not been previous opportunities to operate branded gTLDs - the .nba gTLD will provide fans an opportunity to take part in a particularly unique online space centered around the NBA, its Affiliates and partners, NBA member teams and their distinct brands. This space will offer a more targeted online destination for fans of the NBA and basketball, which would be easier to navigate than the current dispersed volume of content on traditional, general interest websites and social network platforms. Finally, the .nba gTLD would stand apart because it would allow fans to access NBA content directly in a secure, NBA-curated environment, rather than on other sites or social-networking platforms, where content and consumer access is not subject to a uniform set of security measures and privacy and confidentiality policies.
User experience
The .nba gTLD will offer fans all facets of the user experience they have come to expect from NBA.com and related sites, whether they crave the latest scores and statistics, digital media content, tickets to games, branded NBA merchandise, access to fantasy leagues, or information on initiatives like NBA Cares. The .nba TLD would facilitate NBA fans in forging a more direct connection with the NBA, NBA Affiliates, NBA partners and NBA member teams. We believe that the .nba gTLD will facilitate this goal, placing NBA content in a branded online space that has the potential to be more secure and authentic.
Intended registration policies
NBA Registry anticipates restricting registration and use of .nba domain names to itself, its Affiliates, and entities that have contractual relationships with NBA Registry or its Affiliates as of the date of registration. In addition to these eligibility requirements, NBA Registry anticipates reserving certain domain names at the second and third levels for use in connection with current or future projects of the NBA, in line with its business interests, and maintaining such domain names as unavailable to other eligible registrants.
NBA Registry also will comply with all relevant ICANN rules and restrictions pertaining to second-level domain names, as well as any restrictions arising out of trademark or other intellectual property law. Specifically, NBA Registry will adopt a .nba Domain Name Policy (nDNP) to govern registration of .nba domain names. Under the nDNP, all .nba domain names must meet the criteria below.
* must not be ʺexampleʺ;
* must be between 3 characters and 63 characters long, inclusively;
* must not contain a hyphen in the third and fourth position;
* may contain only numbers (0-9), letters (a-z), and hyphens, or some combination thereof;
* must not begin or end with a hyphen;
* must not match any character string reserved by ICANN; and
* must not match any protected country or territory name identified in the internationally recognized lists identified in Specification 5 of the New gTLD Agreement, unless NBA Registry secures permission regarding the release of such names from the relevant government, or pursuant to a proposal reviewed by the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee and approved by ICANN.
A name requirements check will ensure compliance with these requirements. Additional steps are eligibility verification, acceptable use assessment, and verification.
Eligibility verification will confirm that only eligible potential registrants - NBA Registry, its Affiliates, and entities that have contractual relationships with NBA Registry or its Affiliates - register .nba domain names.
NBA Registry will adopt and implement industry-standard terms and conditions of use and anti-abuse policies that are appropriate for the scope of the .nba gTLD. NBA Registry expects to include in these terms and conditions a provision that would prevent any registrant from assigning or transferring its .nba domain name without first obtaining approval from NBA Registry that the potential new registrant passes the eligibility verification process.
NBA Registry will require that WHOIS data for all .nba domain names is accurate and complete.
All .nba domain names shall be used solely for purposes that are, in NBA Registryʹs judgment and discretion, consistent with its mission statement and core values. .nba domains may not be used to knowingly infringe, violate, or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.
Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) may be supported at the second level.
Privacy and confidential information of registrants or users
NBA Registry, a Limited Liability Company organized in the state of Delaware, will operate the .nba registry. All data will be processed in accordance with applicable data protection requirements. NBA Registry intends to comply with the Personal Data obligations set forth in Section 2.10 of the Registry Agreement.
Outreach and communications
NBA Registry intends to engage in outreach and communications efforts that it deems are appropriate for actualizing the mission and purpose of the .nba gTLD.
18(c). What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs?
NBA Registry does not anticipate that operating a TLD registry which matches the famous NBA brand of its Affiliate, and in which a limited number of entities are eligible for registration and use of domain names, will impose on consumers any social costs or other negative consequences.
Because it intends to maintain a strict limit over eligibility criteria for second-level registration, NBA Registry does not anticipate a situation in which there will be multiple applications for the same .nba domain name.
We do not currently intend to implement any cost benefits for registrants.
At present, NBA Registry does not intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation. NBA Registry does intend to comply in full with Section 2.10 of the Registry Agreement