.chloe

Status:	Proposed
Registry Provider:	Neustar
Type:	Brand TLD
More information:

.chloe is a Brand TLD being proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is Richemont DNS Inc.

Application Details

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

"Chloé International SAS (“Chloé “) is a French fashion house originally founded in 1952 by Gaby Aghion after moving to Paris in 1945. She coined the term ‘prêt-à-porter’ which means Ready-To-Wear and continued to run the house until 1985.

Its ultimate parent company is Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A. (“CFR”), a Swiss luxury goods holding company, which was created in 1988. This application is being made by Richemont DNS Inc. (“Richemont DNS”), one of CFR’s indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. The group of companies whose ultimate parent company is CFR are referred to herein collectively as “Richemont”. Richemont’s luxury businesses operate globally. The largest market is Asia-Pacific, which generates more than 40 per cent of sales. We believe the diversity of our geographical operations, with a lack of dependency on any one market, represents a long-term competitive advantage. Chloé, through its various divisions, operates through more than 100 boutiques plus numerous third party retailers in more than 31 countries worldwide.

Richemont directly employs more than 20,000 people worldwide and has employees based in all major regions of the world. Two-thirds of Richemont’s employees are based in Europe, but Asia-Pacific and the Americas are also significant and growing areas of employment. The majority of Richemont’s employees in Europe are based in Switzerland, France, and Germany, where the manufacture of luxury goods is concentrated. Asia and the Far East are growing markets. In all regions, employees are engaged in retail, distribution, after sales service and⁄or administrative functions.

Richemont ‘A’ shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, Richemont’s primary listing, and are included in the Swiss Market Index (‘SMI’) of leading stocks. Richemont’s South African Depository Receipts are listed in Johannesburg, Richemont’s secondary listing. Richemont is the eighth largest company in the Swiss Market Index and, as of 2007, Richemont was the third-largest luxury goods company in the world by annual revenues. In the 2010⁄2011 financial year, Richemont sales were €6.892 billion, a rise of 33% on the previous year (at actual exchange rates) and our operating profit rose by 63% to €1.355 billion.

Under the Richemont brands, investments in research, development and innovation extend to watch movements, new product designs and marketing-related activities. The annual accounting charge for research and development costs is some €20 million. Chloé is a registered trademark in jurisdictions throughout the world. Richemont DNS intends to operate the .Chloé registry under a suitable license from Chloé and on Chloé’s behalf.

The .Chloé registry will be a standard, i.e. not a community-based, restricted registry.

..

As previously stated, the .Chloé registry will be a standard registry closed to third parties for use only by pre-validated representatives of Chloé having the Required License or appropriate affiliates. Social costs and negative consequences on customers are therefore likely to be minimised and possibly even eliminated. It is not intended at this time that .Chloé domains will be made available to anyone beyond Richemont, Richemont DNS or Chloé. It could be that we will use .Chloé domains to promote recognition of Chloé’s affiliated network of authorized dealers in time but again Richemont DNS will be in control. As discussed in greater detail above, one major goal of the .Chloé registry is the protection of consumers from confusion. In a sense, the .Chloé registry is itself a tool to eliminate or minimize that particular social cost. Further, since consumers may, in time, come to view .Chloé as the single trusted source for information regarding Chloé goods and services, eventually cybersquatting involving the Chloé brand in open TLDs, such as .com, may become reduced or eliminated due to the lack of traffic that such infringing domain names will be able to attract. By reducing the need to access arbitration services, the courts, and compliance personnel within registrars, it is hoped that Richemont will be further minimizing social costs through the introduction of the .Chloé gTLD."