.llc Pre-Register Domain - .llc Domain Information

Mission and purpose

The mission of the .LLC TLD is to offer the estimated 4,000,000 Limited Liability Companies (or LLCs) worldwide and future owner-members of new LLCs online domain names that closely match their firms' legal names better than today's alternatives. This will allow LLC companies to experience immediate and new, never-before-possible economic, branding and virtual interactive benefits. «TLD» will be an open TLD, generally available to all registrants (except in the Sunrise period). The domains can be used for any purpose, including for business use, for personal use and by organizations. There are no content or use restrictions for this TLD. Although the .LLC TLD is an open TLD, to achieve our business goals and objectives, we plan to focus our marketing and registrar market development investments on future LLC owner-members, existing LLC owner-members and, as the .LLC TLD market matures, new virtual Internet participants.

Future LLC owner-members can use their new .LLC domains to attract investors, develop new websites to win support or announce planned businesses and begin marketing efforts to win business and support their missions as they apply to become an LLC. Current LLC owner-members can use their new online presence to build their brands, win trust and enhance their businesses with customers and other stakeholders. Over time, the .LLC TLD is envisioned to become a well-trusted brand and a welcoming space to enable the creation of a new .LLC TLD business ecosystem designed to foster collaboration and innovative business and social offerings, such as new online groups, online stores and e-commerce, social media functionality, including aggregated buying groups and new infomediary services.

i. General goals

Afilias intends to develop all aspects of the .LLC TLD marketing mix to build the brand and position the .LLC TLD as the best-known TLD for LLCs and aspiring entrepreneurs on the Internet. The company plans to engage in market planning, logo, tag line and brand development, and in building and maintaining websites complete with investments in SEO, PPC, PR, social media, blogs, promotions and making registrar market development investments to build mindshare with potential registrants and market share with registrars. Offline, Afilias plans global events to foster networking and relationship-building between registrars and the .LLC TLD brand. The online presence for .LLC shall be designed and maintained to be educational, SEO-friendly and user friendly, engaging, and professionally relevant to drive leads to the registrar channel.

During the first three years of our plan, we plan to help registrars capture a small percentage of the innovators and early adopters of the emerging .LLC TLD market. As the .LLC TLD grows in numbers, we expect to reach an inflection point when the .LLC TLD supports a market with enough critical mass to attract innovative investments. We envision that visionary registrars and entrepreneurs will begin to realize the marketing potential that large numbers of .LLC registrants represent and begin to invest in innovative membership services to serve the disaggregated and unmet needs of LLC owners.

We plan to work with registrars to see the market to enable visionary registrars of the new .LLC TLD to win a significant number of registrants to foster the necessary market evolution of the new .LLC TLD market so the registrars and entrepreneurs can enable new and never-before-possible benefits to .LLC TLD registrants. As a result of our investments and market development efforts with registrars, we estimate winning approximately 50,100 Domains Under Management (DUMs) by the third year of operation. Our responses to the financial questions #45 through #50 detail our funding, cost and revenue projections.

While the LLC designation is only used in certain countries in the world, there are no location nexus requirements associated with this TLD, because registrants will want to have global reach with their chosen domains.

ii. How .LLC adds to the current space

The current TLD space is becoming saturated with company names. At the end of 2011, there were 95.5 million registered .com domain names and 220 million total registered domain names (Source: http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/01/17/internet-2011-in-numbers/), affording decreasing ability for a company to establish a meaningful and contextually relevant Internet identity.

The .LLC TLD not only opens up more options for companies seeking to establish an Internet identity, but also allows them an option to create an identity more in line with their existing name. Thus, a company called Company LLC could acquire a web address that reads "www.company.LLC," more closely matching the registered name of the business than current options allow.

iii. User experience goals

One of the primary benefits to registrants of participation in the .LLC TLD is that they can build clear, easily accessible identities that will facilitate potential clientele to be more likely to find the information they are seeking. Limited liability companies will be able to establish Internet identities which are more closely aligned with their existing identities and branding, rather than modifying their name or brand to adapt to the current choices available, making it easier to be searched for and discovered by customers and Internet users. This will help to build confidence and reduce ambiguity for users, since a company's Internet identity will more closely match its registered name.

iv. Registry policies

.LLC will be an open TLD, generally available to all registrants (except in the Sunrise period).

In general, domains will be offered for periods of one to ten years, but no greater than ten years. Initial registrations made in the Sunrise period may have a minimum number of years required. For example, there may be a policy that all Sunrise names must be registered for an initial term of at least five years.






The roll-out of our TLD is anticipated to feature the following phases:
• Reservation of reserved names and premium names, which will be distributed through special mechanisms (detailed below).
• Sunrise — the required period for trademark owners to secure their domains before availability to the general public. This phase will feature applications for domain strings, verification of trademarks via Trademark Clearinghouse and a trademark verification agent, auctions between qualified parties who wish to secure the same string, and a Trademark Claims Service.
• General Availability period — real-time registrations, made on a first-come first-served basis. Trademark Claims Service will be in use at least for the first 60 days after General Availability applications open.

The registration of domain names in the .LLC TLD will follow the standard practices, procedures and policies Afilias, the back-end provider of registry services, currently has in place. This includes the following:
• Domain registration policies (for example, grace periods, transfer policies, etc.) are defined in response #27.
• Abuse prevention tools and policies, for example, measures to promote WHOIS accuracy and efforts to reduce phishing and pharming, are discussed in detail in our response #28.
• Rights protection mechanisms and dispute resolution mechanism policies (for example, UDRP, URS) are detailed in #29.

Other detailed policies for this domain include policies for reserved names.


Reserved names

Registry reserved names
We will reserve the following classes of domain names, which will not be made generally available to registrants via the Sunrise or subsequent periods:
• All of the reserved names required in Specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement;
• The geographic names required in Specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement, and may be released to the extent that Registry Operator reaches agreement with the government and country-code manager;
• The registry operator's own name and variations thereof, and registry operations names (such as registry.tld, and www.tld), for internal use;
• Names related to ICANN and Internet standards bodies (iana.tld, ietf.tld, w3c.tld, etc.), and may be released to the extent that Registry Operator reaches agreement with ICANN.

The list of reserved names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins, so that registrars and potential registrants will know which names have been set aside.


Premium names

The registry will also designate a set of premium domain names, set aside for distribution via special mechanisms. The list of premium names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins, so that registrars and potential registrants will know that these names are not available. Premium names may be distributed via mechanisms such as requests for proposals, contests, direct sales, and auctions.

For the auctioning of premium names, we intend to contract with an established auction provider that has successfully conducted domain auctions. This will ensure that there is a tested, trustworthy technical platform for the auctions, auditable records, and reliable collection mechanisms. With our chosen auction provider, we will create and post policies and procedures that ensure clear, fair, and ethical auctions. As an example of such a policy, all employees of the registry operator and its contractors will be strictly prohibited from bidding in auctions for domains in the TLD. We expect a comprehensive and robust set of auction rules to cover possible scenarios, such as how domains will be awarded if the winning bidder does not make payment.

v. Privacy and confidential information protection
As per the New gTLD Registry Agreement, we will make domain contact data (and other fields) freely and publicly available via a Web-based WHOIS server. This default set of fields includes the mandatory publication of registrant data. Our Registry-Registrar Agreement will require that registrants consent to this publication.

We shall notify each of our registrars regarding the purposes for which data about any identified or identifiable natural person ("Personal Data") submitted to the Registry Operator by such registrar is collected and used, and the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data (the data in question is essentially the registrant and contact data required to be published in the WHOIS). We will require each registrar to obtain the consent of each registrant in the TLD for the collection and use of such Personal Data. The policies will be posted publicly on our TLD web site. As the registry operator, we shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in any way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars.

Our privacy and data use policies are as follows:
• As registry operator, we do not plan on selling bulk WHOIS data. We will not sell contact data in any way. We will not allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations.
• We may use registration data in the aggregate for marketing purposes.
• DNS query data will never be sold in a way that is personally identifiable.
• We may from time to time use the demographic data collected for statistical analysis, provided that this analysis will not disclose individual Personal Data and provided that such use is compatible with the notice provided to registrars regarding the purpose and procedures for such use.

As the registry operator we shall take significant steps to protect Personal Data collected from registrars from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or destruction. In our responses to Question 30 ("Security Policy") and Question 38 ("Escrow") we detail the security policies and procedures we will use to protect the registry system and the data contained therein from unauthorized access and loss.

Please see our response to Question 26 ("WHOIS") regarding "searchable WHOIS" and rate-limiting. That section contains details about how we will limit the mining of WHOIS data by spammers and other parties who abuse access to the WHOIS.

In order to acquire and maintain accreditation for our TLD, we will require registrars to adhere to certain information technology policies designed to help protect registrant data. These will include standards for access to the registry system and password management protocols. Our response to Question 30, "Security Policy" provides details of implementation.

We will allow the use of proxy and privacy services, which can protect the personal data of registrants from spammers and other parties that mine zone files and WHOIS data. We are aware that there are parties who may use privacy services to protect their free speech rights, or to avoid religious or political persecution.

Afilias has adopted the above-mentioned and other policies to ensure fair and equitable access and cost structures to the Internet community, including:
• no new burdens placed on the Internet community to resolve name disputes
• utilization of standard registration practices and policies (as detailed in responses to questions #27, #28, #29)
• protection of trademarks at launch and on-going operations (as detailed in the response to question #29)
• fair and reasonable wholesale prices
• fair and equitable treatment of registrars

As per the ICANN Registry Agreement, we will use only ICANN-accredited registrars, and will provide non-discriminatory access to registry services to those registrars.


Pricing Policies and Commitments

Pricing for domain names at General Availability will be $15 per domain year for the first year. Applicant reserves the right to reduce this pricing for promotional purposes in a manner available to all accredited registrars. Registry Operator reserves the right to work with ICANN to initiate an increase in the wholesale price of domains if required. Registry Operator will provide reasonable notice to the registrars of any approved price increase.

We will protect names with national or geographic significance by reserving the country and territory names at the second level and at all other levels within the TLD, as per the requirements in the New TLD Registry Agreement (Specification 5, paragraph 5).
We will employ a series of rules to translate the geographical names required to be reserved by Specification 5, paragraph 5 to a form consistent with the ʺhost namesʺ format used in domain names.
Considering the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice "Principles regarding new gTLDs", these domains will be blocked, at no cost to governments, public authorities, or IGOs, before the TLD is introduced (Sunrise), so that no parties may apply for them. We will publish a list of these names before Sunrise, so our registrars and their prospective applicants can be aware that these names are reserved.
We will define a procedure so that governments can request the above reserved domain(s) if they would like to take possession of them. This procedure will be based on existing methodology developed for the release of country names in the .INFO TLD. For example, we will require a written request from the country's GAC representative, or a written request from the country's relevant Ministry or Department. We will allow the designated beneficiary (the Registrant) to register the name, with an accredited Afilias Registrar, possibly using an authorization number transmitted directly to the designated beneficiary in the country concerned.
As defined by Specification 5, paragraph 5, such geographic domains may be released to the extent that Registry Operator reaches agreement with the applicable government(s). Registry operator will work with respective GAC representatives of the country's relevant Ministry of Department to obtain their release of the names to the Registry Operator.
If internationalized domains names (IDNs) are introduced in the TLD in the future, we will also reserve the IDN versions of the country names in the relevant script(s) before IDNs become available to the public. If we find it advisable and practical, we will confer with relevant language authorities so that we can reserve the IDN domains properly along with their variants.
Regarding GAC advice regarding second-level domains not specified via Specification 5, paragraph 5: All domains awarded to registrants are subject to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), and to any properly-situated court proceeding. We will ensure appropriate procedures to allow governments, public authorities or IGO's to challenge abuses of names with national or geographic significance at the second level. In its registry-registrar agreement, and flowing down to registrar-registrant agreements, the registry operator will institute a provision to suspend domains names in the event of a dispute. We may exercise that right in the case of a dispute over a geographic name.