.bestbuy

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

.bestbuy is a Brand TLD being proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is BBY Solutions, Inc.

Application Details

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

"BBY Solutions, Inc. is the intellectual property subsidiary of Best Buy Co., Inc. (“Best Buy”) the multinational retailer of consumer electronics, home office products, entertainment products, appliances, and related services. Best Buy has over 1,000 retail locations in the United States alone, employs approximately 130,000 individuals worldwide, and has operations across North America and Europe. Best Buy operates under a number of brand names including Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, Five Star, Future Shop, Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, and others. Recognizing the potential dynamic evolution of a .BESTBUY gTLD as a trusted brand namespace, Best Buy has decided to use a wholly owned subsidiary, BBY Solutions, Inc. (ʺBBY Solutionsʺ) as the entity to file this application and bring the .BESTBUY gTLD to market.

The intended future mission and purpose of the .BESTBUY gTLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace provided by Best Buy for Best Buy’s customers, and Internet users in general.

Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a .BRAND gTLD specification in the current version of the Applicant Guidebook, it is widely anticipated within the brand-owner community that this will become a specialty subset of gTLDs. The .BESTBUY gTLD is intended to be one of those .BRAND gTLDs, with the goal of protecting Best Buy’s online presence and identity, expanding its marketing and promotion efforts, providing a secure channel for online products and services, and offering a platform through which to consolidate many of the intellectual property activities of Best Buy.

BBY Solutions intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .BESTBUY gTLD to Best Buy and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow BBY Solutions to establish its operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution, coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the template Registry Agreement, is intended to exempt BBY Solutions from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements."