.stroke

Status:	Proposed
Type:	Generic
Category:	Health
Priority #:	395 - American Heart Association, Inc.
More information:

.stroke is a proposed TLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is American Heart Association, Inc..

The application was issued a GAC Early Warning from the representative of Australia and GAC Chair, Heather Dryden. The warning system is noted as a strong recommendation on behalf of national governments to the ICANN Board that a given TLD application should be denied as it stands. Applicants are encouraged to work with objecting GAC members.

The warning states that the applicant is "seeking exclusive access to a common generic string .. that relates to a broad market sector," which Ms. Dryden notes could have unintended consequences and a negative impact on competition.

Application Details

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

"The mission of the .STROKE TLD is to provided a unified and consistent communications and fundraising platform which will be used to communicate and carryout the American Stroke Associationʹs mission of saving people from heart disease and stroke.

Under the unified and consistent communications, fundraising and advocacy platform of .STROKE, the American Stroke Association (ASA) will aggregate its educational and fundraising campaigns, promote and publicize outstanding research, make accessible information about hospitals and local centers providing a high standard of care for stroke patients, and highlight other activities designed to support ASA’s mission which is to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.

The ASA is a division of American Heart Association. The ASA was created in 1997, and is dedicated to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of stroke, a leading cause of serious disability and America’s number 4 killer. At ASA, we fund scientific research, help people better understand and avoid stroke, encourage government support, guide healthcare professionals and provide information to enhance the quality of life for stroke survivors.

Our parent organization, and the applicant for .STROKE is the American Heart Association (AHA). From here on out in the document, we will refer to the AHA rather than the ASA, even if, strictly speaking, the activities or campaigns we refer to are being undertaken by the ASA. We will refer only to the AHA because:

• The ASA is a division of the larger organization, the AHA
• The AHA is the actual applicant for .STROKE

The AHA was founded in 1924 by six cardiologists in New York.  We relocated our current headquarters to Dallas, Texas, in 1975. AHA is proud to be the oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting cardiovascular diseases in the United States. Since 1949, we have funded more than $3.3 billion in research on cardiovascular disease, more research than any organization in the US outside the federal government. We have 150 local offices, 2600 employees, and 22.5 million volunteers and supporters, all of whom will be served by the .STROKE platform. 

More than 82 million people around the world suffer from one or more forms of cardiovascular disease, and stroke is Americaʹs No. 4 killer – killing more than 140,000 annually in the US, and many more worldwide. The .STROKE TLD will serve as a united platform to allow us to aggregate all of our campaigns, communication, education, research and key stakeholders in a unified and consistent way that will directly advance our aggressive health goal of reducing heart disease in the US by 20% by 2020 and saving people worldwide from heart disease.

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Overall, with a .STROKE platform to unify our communications, fundraising, education and campaign efforts, AHA will have control over all aspects of the namespace, be able to avoid and mitigate abuse, and reach out more extensively and fully to the public. As noted above, second-level domains will only be registered by the AHA for its own use. This fact, plus the limited number of .STROKE second level domains (less than 25 in total) envisioned will ensure the integrity of .STROKE, and the reputation of AHA and its community. In addition, the .STROKE TLD will enable predictable, intuitive and easy navigation for any and all users.

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Specifically, AHA will allow organizations, institutions or individuals affiliated with AHA (the AHA community) to register domain names in two ways. First the AHA will allow registration of names to core members of the AHA community at zero cost, namely: top-tier donors, Get with the Guidelines Award-Winning hospitals (bronze level and above), Scientific organizations which serve institutional members, local centers and hospitals providing ECC treatment, top-tier corporate customers, and schools who work very closely with AHA on campaigns and development."

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