Fresenius Immobilien-Verwaltungs-GmbH (herein the “Applicant”) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA (herein: “Fresenius” meaning “Parent Company”). Applicant has entered into an agreement with Fresenius to apply for and operate “.FRESENIUS” for the benefit of Fresenius and its several corporate divisions.
Fresenius traces its beginnings to the opening of the Hirsch Pharmacy in 1462, and was established under the name Fresenius in 1912. Around the world, the Fresenius companies have around 145,000 employees in over 100 countries. The companies saw combined earnings of over EUR 15 billion in 2010.
A. The Fresenius Divisions
Fresenius provides medical solutions and cutting-edge patient care through four major service divisions, which function as wholly-owned subsidiary companies: Fresenius Medical Care, Fresenius Kabi, Fresenius Helios and Fresenius Vamed. Some additional information regarding each of these divisions, by way of background information, follows in this section.
A.1 Fresenius Medical Care
Fresenius Medical Care is the worldʹs leading provider of products and services for patients with chronic kidney failure, serving roughly 228,239 dialysis patients. This division maintains a network of 2,874 dialysis clinics located throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.
A.2 Fresenius Kabi
The Fresenius Kabi division is a market leader in infusion therapy and clinical nutrition, and is a leading supplier of accessible, generic-formula drugs. Fresenius Kabi holds a leading position in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific markets, and focuses on therapy and care solutions for critically and chronically ill patients in both hospital and home-care settings. The division has more than 22,500 employees worldwide, a global network of around 55 sales organizations and roughly 60 production sites. In 2010, Fresenius Kabi achieved sales of € 3.67 billion and an operating profit (EBIT) of € 737 million.
A.3 Fresenius Helios
The Fresenius Helios group comprises one of the largest and most advanced hospital systems in Europe. This group contains two main subdivisions - Helios Kliniken GmbH, which specializes in acute medicine, and Wittgensteiner Kliniken GmbH, which focuses on rehabilitation. Additionally, the Helios Research Center provides structure and funding for the company’s clinical research activities, in cooperation with the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), the Berlin Charité University Hospital and the University of Witten-Herdecke. Nine of the Helios group’s hospitals also serve as teaching institutions through partnerships with academic universities.
A.4 Fresenius Vamed
The Fresenius VAMED division is a leader in business and project management of health care facilities worldwide, including hospitals and health care centers as well as spas and wellness centers. The company’s headquartered in Vienna, Austria, has 3,100 of its own employees and is responsible for more than 13,000 employees worldwide. VAMED has completed more than 500 health care projects in 50 countries since its foundation in 1982.
Fresenius maintains trademark registrations for these brands in over 120 countries and provides its lifesaving medical products in more than 100 countries
B. The Mission and Purpose of the “.FRESENIUS” space
Applicant intends to use the new TLD space to provide a comprehensive communications platform for Fresenius, serving its broad-ranging network of patients, researchers, affiliates, health care centers, and medical device production facilities. Through the “.FRESENIUS” TLD, Fresenius and its many subsidiaries and affiliates will be able to showcase their joint achievements, identify their available services and products, and provide the most up-to-date, comprehensive information available to their patients and Internet visitors. This space may act as a point of contact for many first-time patients, physicians, journalists, investors, analysts and the general public who may be unfamiliar with Fresenius’ many activities, as well as for researchers working on similar projects. Additionally, “.FRESENIUS” may serve as a source of trusted information for thousands of Internet users worldwide, who have come to rely on the solutions and care of the Fresenius corporate family.
Accordingly, Applicant believes that use of the “.FRESENIUS” will benefit Fresenius, its patients, and general Internet users alike. Fresenius anticipates increasing the amount of information it will be able to provide about its various divisions and healthcare facilities, in a clear and comprehensive manner. Therefore, the company believes “.FRESENIUS” will experience increased traffic and Internet user interest, as potential clients, patients and affiliates become familiar with the space. Applicant plans to develop a high level of trust among users of “.FRESENIUS”, thus increasing the reputation of the Fresenius brands. Additionally, the new space is expected to enable Fresenius to streamline communications between its many facilities and subsidiaries.
It is expected that Fresenius patients, affiliates and visitors will greatly benefit from “.FRESENIUS”, where they can be assured of the company’s diligent monitoring efforts and privacy protection. As the space will operate under a single-registrant model, Applicant will be able to exercise full control over the content displayed on “.FRESENIUS” sites and, accordingly, consumers will experience much safer, more trustworthy interactions.
General internet users will also benefit from the increased privacy, security and intuitive navigation available in “.FRESENIUS”. General users will be assured that whenever they navigate to a domain name in “.FRESENIUS”, the information displayed on the site will be authentic and accurate. Unlike a search engine hit, which may or may not lead to authentic content, users will know, when visiting these sites, that the information they will be viewing is authorized and correct.
Operationally, the “.FRESENIUS” Registry Service Provider KSregistry GmbH will manage the Internet space under the direct control of the Applicant. This will allow the distribution and exchange of information between the Applicant, Fresenius, constituent divisions, subsidiaries, business affiliates, associates, relevant stakeholders, physicians, researchers and patients, by means of, but not limited to, websites, social networks and forums, email and other technologies that will reside within the “.FRESENIUS” domain name space.
As mentioned above, the Applicant envisages that the “.FRESENIUS” will follow a single-registrant model, wherein all registrations within the space are held by the Applicant itself. Fresenius and its subsidiaries or other affiliated entities may apply to the Applicant to request authorization to license such registrations for their own use. Applicant, in cooperation with a steering committee of allocated resources from Fresenius’ Communication department and Legal department, and the sister company Fresenius NetCare (which is 100% owned by the Fresenius) shall review every registration and licence request and, in its sole discretion, may approve a registration and grant such licenses on a case-by-case basis. Only Fresenius or its subsidiaries and other affiliates, will be allowed to license “.FRESENIUS” domain names, and in every case the registrant of record for all domains shall be the Applicant. In all cases, Applicant shall monitor the use of all “.FRESENIUS” domain names to ensure that the content of the associated websites remains current and appropriate to the “.FRESENIUS” space. |