Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. is a subsidiary of Hyatt Corporation (“Hyatt”). Hyatt’s parent company, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, is a leading global hospitality company with 483 properties across multiple segments in 45 countries as of December 31, 2011.
Hyatt’s parent offers a variety of brands in various hotel segments ranging from small- to large-scale and residential-style to luxury and upper upscale properties. The company’s hotel brands include Hyatt, Park Hyatt, Andaz, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Place, and Hyatt House. The portfolio also includes resort properties across multiple Hyatt brands, in addition to vacation ownership opportunities under the Hyatt Residence Club brand.
Recognizing the potential dynamic evolution of a .HYATT gTLD as a trusted brand namespace, Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. was created to file this application and bring the .HYATT gTLD to market.
The intended future mission and purpose of the .HYATT gTLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace provided by Hyatt and potentially its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates, for Hyatt 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, .HYATT is intended to be one of those .BRAND gTLDs, with the goal of protecting Hyatt’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 Hyatt.
Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .HYATT gTLD to Hyatt and potentially its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. 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 Hyatt from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.
After Stage 3, Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. will evaluate whether opportunities exist to carry out the business strategy for the .HYATT gTLD through expansion that continues the sustainable operations of the registry through fee-based registrations to parties other than Hyatt and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates.
Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. currently plans a four-stage rollout for the .HYATT gTLD:
1. Stage One
The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. registering a limited number of .HYATT second-level domain names.
This initial use will provide Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C.’s IT and security personnel the time to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access using the .HYATT 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 Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. staff to coordinate with the internal and external staff responsible for the application, delegation, and setup phases of the .HYATT gTLD to ensure a proper transition from delegation to full operation.
2. Stage Two
Once all testing has been successfully completed, Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. will begin allocating domain names in .HYATT for more widespread internal corporate use. During this same period of time, Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. 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 .HYATT.
It is in Stage Two that Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C will evaluate expanding the operations of the .HYATT gTLD to permit registration by qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. 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 Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C.’s business model.
3. Stage Three
Depending upon the analysis of the evaluations undertaken in Stage Two, Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. may begin to implement the permanent migration of Internet traffic away from the gTLDs in which Hyatt’s domain names are currently registered, and toward the new gTLD. It is in this stage that Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. also may implement its decision to extend registration rights to qualified subsidiaries and affiliates, 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 Hyatt’s existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that Hyatt will have full control over the number of registrations in the .HYATT gTLD namespace, Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. 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 through Stage Three, and based on its experience with any expansion implemented in Stage Three, Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. and Hyatt will assess whether their business plan and expansion strategy should be augmented by extending registration rights to third parties such as licensees or other strategic partners. It is anticipated by Hyatt 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⁄affiliate, and licensee⁄partner use will take into account this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion.
The potential use of the .HYATT gTLD by these or other business segments will primarily be driven by Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C.’s future business strategies.
Utilizing current projections based upon Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C.ʹs existing businesses, future business plans, current domain name portfolio, and other strategic factors, Hyatt GTLD, L.L.C. 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. |