.gea New gTLD Application
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New gTLD Application Submitted to ICANN by: GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft
Application Downloaded On: 02 Sep 2014
String: gea
Application ID: 1-1337-68453
Applicant Information
- Full legal name
GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft
- Address of the principal place of business
Peter-Mueller-Str. 12 Duesseldorf - 40468 DE
- Phone number
+49 211 9136 0
- Fax number
+49 211 9136 3 1087
- If applicable, website or URL
http://www.geagroup.com
Primary Contact
6(a). Name
Rainer Dr. Lowack
6(b). Title
Head Intellectual Property GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft
6(c). Address
6(d). Phone Number
+49 211 9136 1440
6(e). Fax Number
6(f). Email Address
Secondary Contact
7(a). Name
Martin Kuechenthal
7(b). Title
Geschaeftsfuehrer/CEO (LEMARIT GmbH)
7(c). Address
7(d). Phone Number
+49 461 5050350
7(e). Fax Number
+49 461 50503535
7(f). Email Address
Proof of Legal Establishment
8(a). Legal form of the Applicant
Aktiengesellschaft (= corporation), abbreviated AG
8(b). State the specific national or other jurisdiction that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a).
Aktiengesellschaft (abbreviated AG) is a German term that refers to a corporation that is limited by shares. The German national jurisdictional law (AktG) that defines this type of entity can be found on the German Ministry of Justice website URL at http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/aktg/
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.
Frankfurt_Stock_Exchange / G1A.DE
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
Ahmad Mohamed Bastaki Member of the Advisory Board
Dr. Helmut Perlet Member of the Advisory Board
Dr. Jürgen Heraeus Chairman of the Advisory Board
Eva-Maria Kerkemeier Member of the Advisory Board
Hartmut Eberlein Member of the Advisory Board
Jean E. Spence Member of the Advisory Board
Klaus Hunger Member of the Advisory Board
Kurt-Jürgen Löw Member of the Advisory Board
Michael Kämpfert Member of the Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Ing. Werner Bauer Member of the Advisory Board
Rainer Gröbel Member of the Advisory Board
Reinhold Siegers Member of the Advisory Board
11(b). Name(s) and position(s) of all officers and partners
Name
Position
Dr. Helmut Schmale CFO
Dr. Stephan Petri Executive Board Member
Jürg Oleas CEO
Markus Hüllmann Executive Board 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.
gea
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.
We anticipate the introduction of the .GEA 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, GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft (“Aktiengesellschaft” German for: stock corporation; “GEA” in the following), is one of the largest system providers for food and energy processes and a world market leader in its business areas with a 2011 turnover of about € 5.4 billion and close to 24.000 employees worldwide. GEA – or its predecessor Metallgesellschaft AG, respectively – has been listed at the Frankfurt stock exchange on the DAX from 1990 until 1996 and on the MDAX thereafter. GEA has a history in engineering and innovative technology for more than 100 years and has been founded according to the company register on May 17, 1881. The Company has its registered office and principal place of business in Düsseldorf, Germany. The duration of the Company is not restricted to a certain period. The object of the company is process technology and components for demanding production processes in six main segments: Food Solutions, Farm Technologies, Heat Exchangers, Mechanical Equipment, Process Engineering and Refrigeration Technologies. GEA has been awarded the price “Best Innovator 2010⁄11” for its successful and sustainable management of Innovation.
GEA is applying for the .GEA top-level domain with the following mission and purpose:
The .GEA top-level domain is intended to serve the needs of its community and to benefit its community 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 .GEA top-level domain will provide easy recognizable domain names for Internet users in general.
The .GEA top-level domain has the purpose to support the goals of the GEA in growing its footprint as a high-tech system provider through continuous growth and by positioning the company as a highly attractive employer and delivering innovative high-tech products. The .GEA top-level domain shall support the vision, that GEA is a global engineering group recognized for its excellent technologies, its dedication to provide best solutions to its customers, and its management principles. The .GEA top-level domain shall further support GEA in strengthening and extending their position as world market leader in the majority of its fields of business. The .GEA top-level domain will also aim to substantiate the GEA brand claim “engineering for a better world”.
GEA hereby states that according to Specification 9 Para. 6 in the New gTLD Agreement
(i) all domain names in the .GEA top-level domain will be registered to, and maintained by, GEA for its own exclusive use,
(ii) GEA will not sell, distribute or transfer control or use of any registrations in the .GEA top-level domain to any third party that is not an Affiliate of GEA, and
(iii) the application of the Code of Conduct to the .GEA 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 .GEA top-level-domain and its .GEA domain names are dedicated and thereby specialized to create content, facilitate communication, information and distribution in connection with the brand GEA between all parties involved in the business of GEA worldwide.
The most important service level of the .GEA top-level-domain is the certainty for Internet users that all .GEA domain names are exclusively registered and maintained by a trusted source, the GEA. They will understand that only GEA can register a domain name and all domain names which end on .GEA are owned by GEA and not by someone who just pretends to be GEA. Aim is that Internet users worldwide will be aware that domain names branded by the famous brand extension .GEA are a hoard of security, stability and reliability. This will lead to awareness among Internet users that .GEA is a trusted namespace on the Internet. Thus it will become a symbol of quality for Internet users worldwide.
The .GEA top-level-domain will be a namespace with support of the whole company, ranging from the engineering, production, administrative, human resources and sales to the marketing department and including the whole management team. It is the aim that such a secure namespace will quickly gain a substantial reputation among the global Internet community and GEA customers.
- The .GEA top-level domain will enhance competition in the global domain name business by introducing a dedicated namespace for the brand GEA. Thus, the global high-tech industry faces the challenge to offer customers a secure, reliable and trustworthy namespace like GEA does with .GEA. Customers will have the expectation that big global high-tech brands will have an own namespace on the internet.
The .GEA top-level domain and its .GEA 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 GEA under one of the existing TLDs really belong to GEA or to someone else who is not affiliated with GEA and merely tries to use this brand for his own purposes. Furthermore, only content which is issued by GEA will be displayed under .GEA domain names which differentiates GEA from all other high-tech companies who will not operate their respective brand name as a top-level domain.
The .GEA top-level-domain and its .GEA domain names are innovative due to the new category of TLDs which brands like GEA are creating: “Domain names with the ending .GEA exclusively belong to GEA”. The novelty is the creation of real trust and reliability for Internet users due to the fact that all .GEA domain names are exclusively registered and maintained by a trustworthy source, the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft. Together with other brand top-level domain registries GEA will work on creating awareness on this new namespace “category”.
- Improved search rankings
Today users do not know whether to search for geausa.com or gea.de, gea-technology.de or geatech.com, or even just gea.com. With a .GEA top-level domain the user will experience a much more intuitive way of finding GEA 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.“
GEA is expecting that such a shift in search engine rankings will also positively affect the search engine positioning of the GEA brand and the respective websites under .GEA.
Umbrella brand strategy
With a .GEA top-level domain GEA will be able to setup an umbrella brand strategy with .GEA acting as the umbrella and all GEA trademarks, service marks or other marks like claims, product names or company names underneath on the second level. Users will then be able to connect the company name with the products even via domain names, for instance through MIone.gea, TCool.gea, lng.gea and cooling.gea.
Enhanced trust and reliability
With the .GEA top-level domain the GEA is expecting to deliver enhanced consumer trust and reliability in the digital space based on content and services under domain names with the extension .GEA since there will be only one authoritative entity able to register domain names – the GEA. Especially the suppliers might access further information about the GEA products via a secured login page, will get the certainty that they log into a real GEA website.
Intuitive access
It is planned that intuitive domain name categories such as division.gea, product.gea, region.gea, services.gea will deliver due to their descriptive nature a much more intuitive access to the resources of GEA 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.
- 1 Preamble
GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft is the operator and thus registry for the top-level domain .GEA. It allows the registration of second level domain names below the TLD .GEA. The TLD .GEA can be exclusive used by GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft (“GEA” in the following) and its affiliated companies in the Internet, especially for the operation of websites, email communications and other DNS-based services. The domain names under the TLD .GEA are not available to the public for registration and active use. GEA will act both as a registry, as well as the sole beneficiary registrant. As far as GEA acts as the registry, it is hereinafter referred to as a registry. If GEA acts as eligible registrant, it is referred to as registrant.
The rights and obligations of the Registry for the operation of the registry are regulated in the contract between the registry and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN below) – the Registry Agreement (at present by the Applicant Guidebook dated January 11, 2012) - and is part of the registration conditions. The following statutes constitute the rights and obligations of the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft to third parties and herself.
2 Domain registration
A domain below the TLD .GEA can only be registered through the Registry-accredited registrars, which are concurrently accredited by ICANN.
The legal relationship between the registry and the registrars are governed in the ʺRegistry Registrar Agreementʺ, which is also subject to these policies.
For registrations, the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft registrant has to pay the required fee at the respective registrar. The same applies for changing the registrar as a provider through the registrant.
3 Eligibility
The right to register domain names under the TLD .GEA only belongs to GEA. Therefore it acts both as a registry for the TLD .GEA, as well as registrant of domain names under the TLD .GEA. As far as the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft acts as registrant of domain names, it is party to the relevant registration by the registrar. The registration and ⁄ or management of domain names through a trustee, so-called proxy service is not permitted.
4 Registrable characters
All characters and strings of ASCII code with 1-63 characters can be registered as a domain name. Domain names with two characters are temporarily not allowed. If at the request of the Registry at ICANN domain names with two characters will be released, these are also available for registration. Also all ʺInternationalized Domain Namesʺ (all available IDN Table) can be registered. This means that all character sets that contain a hyphen both at the third and fourth place, are excluded from registration.
5 Reserved Domain Names
Reserved and excluded from registration by an accredited registrar are all domain names defined in ʺSpecification 5ʺ to the ʺRegistry Agreement of the Applicant Guidebook” (currently as of 01⁄11⁄2012). In ʺSpecification 5ʺ, paragraph 4, reserved domain names, according to the ʺSpecification 5ʺ to ʺRegistry Agreement of the Applicant Guidebook” (currently as of 11.01.2012) are registered by the Registry directly. In accordance with ʺSpecification 5ʺ, paragraph 2 and 5, reserved domain names can be registered by an accredited registrar, according to the ʺSpecification 5ʺ to ʺRegistry Agreement of the Applicant Guidebook” (currently as of 01⁄11⁄2012) after release.
6 Assignment of domain names
Although only the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft is entitled to register domain names under the TLD .GEA, according to the requirements of the Registry Agreements of the Applicant Guidebook (as of 11⁄01⁄2012) a so-called ʺsunrise periodʺ for the protection of specific rights is preceded. The ʺsunrise periodʺ is subject to the provisions of the Trademark Clearinghouse Applicant Guidebook (currently as of 01⁄11⁄2012). Prerequisite for applying for a domain name during the Sunrise Period is the eligibility under the TLD .GEA. Moreover, the order of registrations is based on the principle ʺfirst come first servedʺ. The function “Intellectual Property” of GEA coordinates the decision on the registration of a domain.
7 Registration period
Domain names can be registered for 1 - 10 years. The registration of a .GEA domain name follows the normal “gTLD life cycle”.
8 Registration termination of a domain name
A termination of the registration of a domain name shall be carried out by the Registrar, at the discretion of the registrant and requires no justification. If in the notice no actual calendar day on which the termination shall take place is determined, the registration of the domain name is terminated with immediate effect. With the effective date of termination of the terminated domain name is deleted.
9 Transfer of a domain name
The transfer of registered domains, paid or free, to another registrant as the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft is prohibited. Both the corporate transfer (sale of shares), as well as the transfer of the registry as an asset sale must be approved by ICANN according No. 7.5 Registry Agreement with ICANN.
10 Use of registered domain names
The GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft operates services, especially websites and email services, which are associated or connected with a registered domain name, by herself. She is entitled to authorize the use and operation of such DNS-based services to third parties. In this respect the only authorized entities are the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft and all affiliated entities of the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft (in particular parent, subsidiary and affiliated companies, or otherwise connected companies that the ICANN definition of ʺaffiliateʺ in the ʺRegistry Agreement of the Applicant Guidebook”, Version: 11.01.2012, § 2, 9c corresponds to). The use of registered domain names and related services is permitted only for business-related purposes of GEA. A domain name cannot be made available for use by a third party who is not entitled to use.
11 Abusive registration and ⁄ or use of a domain name
It is illegal to use a domain name, either as registrant or user to whom the domain was left to use, abusive. Abusive is any use that is prohibited under German law. This is especially true for domain name registrations which violate trademark or name or personal rights. Examples for abusive use are, but not limited, spamming (sending unsolicited bulk mail), phishing (fraudulent data collection) and the infringing content from websites. For obvious abusive registration or use the Registry is entitled to delete the domain name, without prior consultation of the user.
12 Dispute procedures
The registry has established three arbitration proceedings outside the jurisdiction generally. This is the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄help⁄dndr⁄udrp), Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS according to Applicant Guidebook, Version 11.01.2012) and the Trademark Dispute Resolution Procedures Post-delegation (PDDRP according to Applicant Guidebook, include module 5, §5.4.1, Version 11⁄01⁄2012). All registry accredited registrars are required to include UDRP, URS and PDDRP, as applicable part in the registration agreement. If a UDRP proceedings brought by a non-authorized third party in which the third party prevails, the third party cannot achieve the transfer of the domain name, but only the deletion of the domain.
13 Whois
The Registry maintains a publicly accessible database in which all data of the registrant of a domain name in accordance with the Specification 4 and 10 of the Applicant Guidebook (currently as of 01⁄11⁄2012) and the RFC 3912 will be published. This includes the specification of the registrant of the domain name with name, postal address, email, phone and fax, the appointment of an Admin C, Tech C and optionally a zone manager who is published, with details in the Whois database. Admin C, Tech C and Zone Manager can be specified using the contact details of the company for which they are employed. To prevent misuse of the Whois database, the registry will secure access to Whois data via a CAPTCHA code and limit the access through the number of query requests per IP address, or otherwise.
- Since all domain names will be exclusively registered by GEA no additional protection of privacy or confidential information is needed.
- GEA annually invests a multi-million EURO budget for promoting its products, brands and services to customers and Internet users which means that domain names are included on nearly all promotional materials.
In the future after the approval of .GEA this marketing power will be used for the promotion of domain names with the extension .GEA in order to create a quick uptake in awareness of the new .GEA 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 by internal processes within GEA (in most cases this will be through a first-come, first-serve process within GEA). However the only eligible registrant will be GEA. Since all domain names are registered for GEA as domain name owner, transfers are not allowed.
- Since all domain name are exclusively registered and maintained by GEA there are no cost benefits.
- All domain names are exclusively registered and maintained by GEA. GEA 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 GEA for a price which will be defined on the discretion of the Registry. GEA 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.