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Questions to and Answers from Applicant for .biz, .ebiz, .firm, and others




ICANN Questions:

ICANN is in the process of reviewing Affinity Internet's TLD Application. As outlined in the October 23, 2000 TLD Application Review Update which appears at http://www.icann.org/tlds/tld-review-update-23oct00.htm, ICANN may "gather the additional information [it] require[s] by posing specific questions to applicants in e-mail and requesting a written response."

Keeping in mind the goal to evaluate applications to operate or sponsor new TLDs in as open and transparent a manner as possible, both the questions posed by ICANN and the Applicant's responses will be publicly disclosed on the ICANN website.

Accordingly, ICANN requests your reponses to the following questions:

1. Identify and summarize Applicant's assumptions with respect to the existence of other general purpose TLDs in determining the total number of registrations in your application.

2. State in detail your position as it relates to possible legal claims by certain applicants and/or non-applicant third parties based on alleged trademark, patent or other violations of purported rights in the TLDs identified in your application

3. If you receive a new TLD, state whether you will indemnify ICANN for claims arising from legal challenges regarding your right to operate the new TLD. If you will indemnify ICANN, identify and describe in detail the resources you propose to utilize for the indemnification.

4. Hypothetically, if you receive .ebiz as a new TLD instead of .biz, describe in detail the effect, if any, on the pro forma financial statements submitted with your application.

5. Hypothetically, if you receive .firm as a new TLD instead of .biz, describe in detail the effect, if any, on the pro forma financial statements submitted with your application.

6. Hypothetically, if you receive .inc as a new TLD instead of .biz, describe in detail the effect, if any, on the pro forma financial statements submitted with your application.

7. Hypothetically, if you receive .real as a new TLD instead of .biz, describe in detail the effect, if any, on the pro forma financial statements submitted with your application.

Affinity Internet Responses:

1. We assumed that one general purpose TLD, not specifically related to business, will be granted in this round, and that this will probably be ".web", ".info" or some other general name. We also assumed that if we are granted one of the strings that we applied for, (.biz, .firm, .inc, etc,) then no other specifically business oriented TLD string would be awarded at this time.

In general, we assumed that from five to ten new TLDs will be created in this round. We expect that a number of these will be specialized TLDs (.kids, .xxx, .tel, etc.) which we believe will not materially effect our success in obtaining registrations in our target market.

We therefore believe that much of the initial rush for names will be diverted to the cheaper and unrestricted TLD (.web etc.). We however expect that the same problems that have existed with .com, that is the prevalence of domain name hoarding, speculation and cybersquatting, will quite quickly become apparent in this unrestricted TLD. It is for this reason that we forecast a relatively low number of registrations in the first year rising very rapidly in year 2 as names in the unrestricted TLD are rapidly used up by frivolous registrations.

We also expect that the growth of our TLD will be moderated as other business related TLDs, which are either general in nature or cover specific areas of business, are granted in subsequent rounds of TLD additions.

If no unrestricted TLD is granted in this first round we would expect our number of registrations to be closer to our 10% "optimistic scenario" than to the "expected scenario" detailed in our application materials.

2.

(a) Position as it relates to possible legal claims by certain applicants and/or non-applicant third parties based on alleged trademark violations

Our position in this regard is to review any validity in any such claim and to address the claims in light of any legal concerns. The main issues relate to intellectual property rights and national boundaries. We generally view trademarks from our own world view. This, however, is not a reasonable perspective given the global nature of the Internet.

With respect to the TLD, it appears that trademark rights do not exist in respect of the TLD .biz at present registered in all countries of the world. Of course, should someone register .biz before a trademark office for use in registration of domain names, etc., we would address the issue in that country. We do not believe that this is a serious concern based on recent jurisprudence. That said, this is a matter of civil litigation between us and another party and should not involve ICANN in any way.

It will be our strict policy in our operation of the TLD to not knowingly infringe on valid intellectual property rights of third parties.

(b) Position as it relates to possible legal claims by certain applicants and/or non-applicant third parties based on alleged patent violations

It appears that patent rights do not exist in respect of the TLD .biz at present. Of course, should someone register a patent that prevents the use of .biz domain names in a specific jurisdiction, we would effectively be banned from registering domain names in that country unless the patent is invalidated. It is however very unlikely that someone would be granted a patent preventing us from operating the TLD based on the nature of Patent Law. That said, this is a matter of civil litigation between us and another party and should not involve ICANN in any way.

It will be our strict policy in our operation of the TLD to not knowingly infringe on valid intellectual property rights of third parties.

(c) Position as it relates to possible legal claims by certain applicants and/or non-applicant third parties based on alleged violations of purported rights in the TLDs identified in your application.

We are unaware of existing rights in .biz. That said, we have the above stated policy to not knowingly infringe on valid intellectual property rights of others.

It will be our position that any claims by third parties will be independently evaluated. Clearly, those with .biz in other roots will continue to operate in those roots without complications. The use of .biz in a new TLD in the ICANN root is neither confusing nor likely to result in confusion since most individuals cannot even access the other root systems.

Finally, we hold a position similar to that of ICANN in regards to the general intellectual property rights available to third parties with respect to domain name registration. Quoting a letter written by Mr. Louis Touton.

"The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), which is responsible for examining claims to service-mark rights in the United States, has made clear that a domain name, when used as a registry under which lower-level domain names are registered, does not function as a source identifier subject to service-mark rights, but instead is an informational description of the names being registered. Particularly pertinent to - assertion of rights to the "service mark .BIZ" as applied to registration services, in September 1999 the PTO issued Examination Guide No. 2-99 concerning the procedures for examining applications for trade and service marks composed of domain names. Section II.D of the Guide states: "‘If a mark is composed solely of a TLD for 'domain name registry services' (e.g., the services currently provided by Network Solutions, Inc. of registering .com domain names), registration should be refused under Trademark Act §§1, 2, 3 and 45, 15 U.S.C. §§1051, 1052, 1503 and 1127, on the ground that the TLD would not be perceived as a mark. The examining attorney should include evidence from the NEXIS® database, the Internet, or other sources to show that the proposed mark is currently used as a TLD or is under consideration as a new TLD.’

" This conclusion that there are no service-mark rights in domain names with respect to registration services under those domain names is supported by judicial decisions as well. In Image Online Design, Inc. v. CORE Ass'n, Case No. CV 99-11347 RJK (C.D. Cal. June 22, 2000), the plaintiff asserted trademark rights in the name "web" as applied to the service of registering domain names under the top-level domain .web. The court granted summary judgment to the defendants, finding as a matter of law that there could be no trademark rights in the name "web" based on its use in connection with the provision of registration services under the .web domain:

"’In sum, Plaintiff's use of the mark .web in connection with domain name preregistration services does not confer trademark protection. As a gTLD, .web does not indicate the source of the services; instead, it indicates the type of services. The Court finds that .web, as used here, falls out of the ambit of trademark categorization. Further, even if it could be categorized, .web is simply a generic term for websites related to the World Wide Web. Accordingly, the mark is not protectable.’ (emphasis in the original)

"This result appears to apply not only in the United States, but in other major countries as well. ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which consists of representatives of approximately 30 governments (including the United States) and intergovernmental organizations (including the World Intellectual Property Organization) issued a communiqué to ICANN in August 1999 which gives the following advice to ICANN: "’The GAC reaffirmed its May resolution that the Internet naming system is a public resource and that the management of a TLD registry must be in the public interest. Accordingly, the GAC considers that no private intellectual or other property rights inhere to the TLD itself nor accrue to the delegated manager of the TLD as the result of such delegation.’ "In sum, it would appear that - activities in registrating third-level domains under the domain name "biz.com" do not confer on it any rights to exclude others from engaging in the registration of second-level domain names under the possible top-level domain .biz, either in the United States or elsewhere."

For the above reason, we view our policies as sufficient to address the issues of intellectual property rights of domain name owners, applicants and third parties.

3. Affinity in will be prepared to indemnify ICANN for claims arising from legal challenges regarding our right to operate the new TLD. We expect that the specific wording of this indemnity would be subject to negotiation, but would protect ICANN from the same types of intellectual property and other liabilities dealt with in ICANN's contracts with Network Solutions regarding the .com TLD. The indemnification would be supported by the financial resources of Affinity Internet, Inc and appropriate insurance policies provided by Affinity Internet, Inc.

4.-6. The following reply also answers questions 5 and 6 which pose the same question in relation to .firm and .inc.

We believe that being granted any of the strings other than .biz would reduce our expected number of registrations by approximately 1/3rd as we do not believe that any of the other strings would be as popular with our prospective customers as .biz.

This has the effect of reducing our projected profits by approximately 40% - 50% in years 1 - 5 and changing our first year from a small expected profit to a loss of $1,800,000.

Even under our pessimistic scenario, however, at levels of registration half those in the expected scenario, our initial capital injection would be sufficient to maintain a positive cash flow balance.

For these reasons we clearly have a very strong preference for the ".biz" TLD string.

As stated in answer to questions previously asked about our assumptions, however, our estimates are based on the assumption that no other TLD specifically for the business community will be granted in this round.

7. We request to withdraw our application for the ".real" TLD at this time and we therefore present no analysis for this string.


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