18.1 Mission and Purpose of .HONEYWELL
Honeywell is a major international conglomerate with more than 130,000 employees worldwide producing a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for customers ranging from private individuals to governments and corporation.
Honeywell gTLD, L.L.C.’s parent company, Honeywell International, Inc., (ʺHoneywellʺ) is a diversified technology and manufacturing company with products and services offered through the following business segments:
HONEYWELL AEROSPACE: Honeywell Aerospace provides critical aircraft components such as auxiliary power units, engine systems and accessories, avionic systems, and logistical management and overhaul services.
HONEYWELL AUTOMATION & CONTROL SOLUTIONS: Honeywell’s Automation and Control Solutions division offers products such as environmental controls, personal protective equipment, security and life safety products, process automation products, and building solutions⁄services for homes and businesses.
HONEYWELL PERFORMANCE MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGIES: This division’s product and services include nuclear services, chemicals, fibers and composites, technology and equipment for petroleum refining, semiconductor material services, and catalysts among others.
HONEYWELL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS: Honeywell’s Transportation Systems division offers products for vehicles such as engine boosting systems and turbochargers, friction materials and functional fluids.
Some of Honeywell’s most noteworthy products include the iconic “Round” thermostat that has become a fixture of offices and homes around the world as well as the first electronic autopilot for aircraft.
Recognizing the potential dynamic evolution of a .HONEYWELL gTLD as a trusted, branded namespace, Honeywell has decided to create a wholly owned subsidiary, Honeywell gTLD, L.L.C., as the entity to file this application and bring the .HONEYWELL gTLD to market.
The intended future mission and purpose of the .HONEYWELL gTLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace provided by Honeywell and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates, for Honeywell customers and Internet users in general.
Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a .BRAND gTLD specification in the current gTLD application round, it is widely anticipated in the brand owner community that this will become a specialty subset of gTLDs. .HONEYWELL is intended to be one of those .BRAND gTLDs, with the goal of protecting Honeywell’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 Honeywell.
Honeywell gTLD, L.L.C. intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .HONEYWELL gTLD to Honeywell and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow Honeywell 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 Honeywell from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.
After Stage 3, Honeywell will evaluate whether opportunities exist to carry out the business strategy for the .HONEYWELL gTLD through expansion that continues the sustainable operations of the registry through fee-based registrations to parties other than Honeywell and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates.
Honeywell gTLD, L.L.C. currently plans a four-stage rollout for the .HONEYWELL gTLD:
1. Stage One
The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve Honeywell GTLD LLC registering a limited number of .HONEYWELL second-level domain names.
This initial use will provide Honeywell’s IT and security personnel the time to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access using the .HONEYWELL gTLD domain names, interoperability with various software and Web-based applications, and unbroken and secure use of all names. This initial allocation will also allow the appropriate Honeywell staff to coordinate with the internal and external staff responsible for the delegation and setup phases of the .HONEYWELL gTLD to ensure a proper transition from delegation to full operation.
2. Stage Two
Once all testing has been successfully completed, Honeywell GTLD LLC will begin allocating domain names in .HONEYWELL for more widespread internal corporate use. During this same period of time, Honeywell will begin evaluating strategies to potentially migrate traffic away from its current patchwork network of second-level domain names, which are registered in a variety of gTLDs, to .HONEYWELL.
It is in Stage Two that Honeywell GTLD LLC will evaluate expanding the operations of the .HONEYWELL gTLD to permit registration by other registrants such as licensees or other strategic partners. Should an assessment of its expansion strategy lead to a decision to extend registration rights to other parties, this expansion is currently planned to take place during Stage Three, and likely after the first three years of operation. However, any expansion would be conditioned upon a review of Specification 9 (Registry Code of Conduct) set forth in the template Registry Agreement to ensure compliance with Honeywell GTLD LLC’s business model.
3. Stage Three
Depending upon the analysis of the evaluations undertaken in Stage Two, Honeywell GTLD LLC may begin to implement the permanent migration of Internet traffic away from the gTLDs in which Honeywell’s domain names are currently registered, and toward the new .HONEYWELL gTLD. It is in this stage that Honeywell GTLD LLC. also may implement its decision to extend registration rights to Honeywell licensees or strategic partners, depending upon compliance with Specification 9 as noted above. The dates of such expansion are subject to change depending upon business, strategic, and industry factors at the time.
After consideration of the following factors: analysis of Honeywell’s existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that Honeywell will have full control over the number of registrations in the .HONEYWELL gTLD namespace, Honeywell GTLD LLC is confident that the number of domain name registrations will be less than 10,000 in the first five years of operation.
4. Stage Four
Based on its experience with any expansion implemented in Stage Three, Honeywell GTLD LLC will assess whether its business plan and expansion strategy should be augmented by extending registration rights to a broader class of licensees, including potential customers of Honeywell. It is anticipated by Honeywell that changes to the domain name industry, and particularly the impact of .BRAND gTLDs, will take at least five years to be realized and assessed.
Any decision to expand the gTLDs beyond corporate, qualified subsidiary and affiliate, and licensee use will take into account this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion.
The potential use of the .HONEYWELL gTLD by these or other business segments will primarily be driven by Honeywell’s future business strategies as identified in its annual report and investor filings, http:⁄⁄investor.honeywell.com⁄phoenix.zhtml?c=94774&p=irol-irhome.
Utilizing current projections based upon Honeywellʹs existing businesses, future business plans, current domain name portfolio, and other strategic factors, Honeywell GTLD LLC estimates that second-level domain name registrations will be in line with the projections set forth in the Financial Template provided in the answer to Question 46 of this application.
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