.icu

Status:	Delegated
Date Implemented:	02 May 2015
Type:	Generic
Priority #:	578 - ShortDot SA
More information:

.icu is a Generic TLD delegated in ICANN's New gTLD Program. ShortDot SA manages the TLD and is its registry. The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 02 May 2015.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

"The Applicant, One.com is an innovative supplier of web hosting services. One.com (previously B-one) was established in 2002 in Denmark and is today one of the leading companies in Europe within the provision of domain names and sales of web hosting services.

Since the foundation of One.com (B-one at the time) in 2002 by Jacob Jensen, One.com has experienced constant growth and has today more than 900.000 customers in 149 countries.

One.com is part of a group with B-ONE FZ-LLC, One.com Webhosting Ltd. and One.com India Private Limited (collectively referred to as the ‘One.com Group’). Today, the One.com Group has more than 150 employees, the majority of which (about 88 employees) is working for the Applicant, One.com. One.com (and the entire One.com Group) has a healthy, strong financial position and is fully geared to meeting the potentials and challenges of the future. Services provided by the Applicant, One.com, are sold through B-ONE FZ-LLC. The Applicant, One.com, operates engineering and support departments, placed in Denmark, and is offering support in the following languages: Danish, German, Dutch, French, Norwegian, Swedish and Italian. Support in English is provided by B-ONE FZ LLC. The support departments of the One.com Group answer more than 90.000 inquiries monthly. Apart from development and support services, the Applicant also provides hosting facilities, administration and registration services to customers of the One.com Group.

According to the Applicant, the purpose of the TLD is manifold, as will be further explained below: i. Reflect and operate a distinctive that is aimed to identify the Applicant’s services (“ICU”)at the top level of the DNS’ hierarchy; ii. Provide customers and other stakeholders of the One.com Group, including, subsidiaries, and their respective suppliers, sponsorships, and their respective directors, officers, employees, with a recognizable and trusted identifier on the Internet; iii. Provide such stakeholders with a secure and safe Internet environment that is mainly under the control of the Applicant, the One.com Group and its subcontractors; iv. Provide selected stakeholders in ‘ICU’ brands with the opportunity to create a secure and safe Internet environment that is to a large extent under control of the Applicant and⁄or such stakeholders;

..

i. The Applicant has international exposure in relation to Internet hosting services with more than 900.000 customers in 149 countries. The proposed gTLD aims at consolidating the reputation of the Applicant through a new identifier that can easily be recognized; ii. From the Applicant’s perspective, .ICU will bring a high degree of recognition and specialization to the currently existing name space. Where in most cases the specific connotation that has been initially given to the gTLDs (or even ccTLDs) has disappeared, the .ICU top-level domain will be unambiguous as regards the identity of the Registry Operator, the source or nature of the content and services offered under the .ICU and⁄or the affiliation between the Registry Operator and the TLD; iii. As mentioned in the vision ⁄ mission statement before, some of the key reasons why Applicant is applying for .ICU are: 1. Marketing and branding: reflect the Applicant’s newest key brand ‘ICU’ at the top-level of the DNS’ hierarchy, 2. Safety and security, given the fact that the Registry Operator will be able to quickly intervene if and when it discovers abuses of the registration policy; 3. Affiliation between the ‘ICU’ brand and the hundreds of product brands registered and⁄or used by One.com and⁄or its subsidiaries in their day-to-day business; iv. The Applicant intends to implement the following policies and procedures with respect to the registration of domain names in the .ICU top-level domain include but are not limited to: 1. Reservation of domain names in the name of the Applicant. These names include:

a) descriptive names, referring to the actual day-to-day business activities of the Applicant and⁄or its subsidiaries; b) descriptive names, referring to the internal departments of the Applicant; c) descriptive names, referring to the subsidiaries of the Applicant; d) product and service brands promoted by the Applicant and⁄or its subsidiaries now and in the future; e) etc.

2. Launch of the TLD:

a) Sunrise: allow physical persons, organizations and entities that meet the eligibility requirements in force at that point in time to choose the domain names that are identical to their trademarks; b) General availability: other available domain names may be registered by physical persons, organizations and entities that meet the eligibility requirements in force at that point in time to choose the domain names in accordance with the applicable terms and conditions. c) Depending on the terms and conditions in force at the time of launch of the TLD, these domain names may or may not be registered in the name of the applicant for the domain name or in the name of the Applicant for the TLD (One.com). In any case, the Applicant reserves the right to impose additional and other restrictions from time to time at its sole discretion;

v. Given the fact that the Applicant is a company that is established in Denmark, it is subject to both national and European privacy and data protection rules and practices.

vi. The Applicant is a webhosting company that has been established in 2002 and has been trading – as part of the One.com Group – under the B-One and One.com brands ever since. Since its establishment, it has developed an important reputation in innovative web hosting services, winning awards in several specialized magazines (Editor’s choice – PC Magazine Netherlands & Belgium, July-August 2009; #1 UK Budget Web Hosting Provider – UK Web Host Directory, June 2009; #1 ‘Unix Web Hosting’ Award Winning Provider – UK Web Host Directory, November 2008; etc.) The Applicant serves more than 900.000 customers in 149 countries. Therefore, the Applicant has different ways in order to make existing and future clients, visitors and stakeholders aware of the.ICU TLD and services offered thereunder, including but not limited to: 1. Internet advertising campaigns; 2. having Internet traffic to its key domain names resolving into domain names registered in the .ICU TLD; 3. email marketing campaigns; etc.

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i. The Applicant will organize the registry operation for the .ICU in such a manner that it will minimize the likelihood of having multiple applications for a particular domain name and⁄or have transparent ways installed to solve contention when multiple applications for a particular domain name occur. This can be achieved in one of the following ways: 1. Given the fact that, at least prior to the launch of the .ICU top-level domain, the Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator will reserve, delegate and use a large number of domain names that are directly or indirectly relevant to Applicant’s business in its own name. Since quite a number of these domain names will be of a descriptive nature, the chances for qualifying ⁄ eligible applicants ⁄ registrants to register such domain names after the launch will be limited; 2. The Registry Operator may release available domain names post launch in a highly controlled manner, which also reduces the likelihood that two or more applicants qualify for the registration of the same domain name in the .ICU top-level domain; 3. The Registry Operator may give existing customers of the One.com Group a right of first offer or first refusal for the registration of certain types of domain names and⁄or during one or more specific launch phases. The duration and⁄or nature of the customer relationship may be used as a criteria to solve contention when multiple applications for a particular domain name occur; 4. The Registry Operator may organize an auction after a particular sunrise period or launch phase, using parameters such as offered price for a domain name registration and guaranteed duration of a domain name registration; 5. As a method of last resort, and subject to the actual domain name registration policy adopted by the Registry Operator and in force at the time of registration, domain names will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. ii. Given the Applicant’s activity as an innovative web hosting provider at low cost, the Applicant intends to make the .ICU top-level domain available to qualifying domain name registrants at a limited cost or at no cost as part of a web hosting or other service package. As the Applicant will be less dependent on the service offerings of existing registries, the pricing of the Applicant’s services will depend less on the pricing of the service offerings from those registries. The per domain name price to be paid by the Applicant for a web hosting service, inclusive of a domain name, is likely to be lower. This may result in a better price offering to Internet users for the Applicant’s value added services. The Internet user and the Internet community would benefit from the Applicant being able to reduce costs, as this may results in better pricing and⁄or more room for investing in customer service, in innovative Internet solutions, etc. It must be noted that this does not preclude the Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator to charge higher fees for the registration of domain names under the .ICU TLD at its discretion, e.g., as part of premium packages or for certain categories of clients and customers. The fact that some may be willing to pay more for the registration of particular domain names would again be beneficial for other potential domain name registrants in the .ICU TLD.

iii. The Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator may at its discretion make contractual commitments to increase or decrease the fees for the registration of domain names under the .ICU TLD. It is however likely that such contractual commitments and the price of a domain name will be part of a larger service offering than the mere registration of a domain name."

Top-Level Domain