18.1 Mission and Purpose of .MRMUSCLE
Johnson Shareholdings, Inc.’s (“Johnson Shareholdings”) parent company, S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. (“SC Johnson”), is a leading global manufacturer of household brands with operations in more than 70 countries and products sold virtually in every country around the world. As a family company with 125 years of history, SC Johnson employs nearly 13,000 people globally and generates more than $9 billion in sales annually.
SC Johnson markets a variety of home cleaning, pest control, air care, home storage, and shoe care products. SC Johnson’s product portfolio includes global brands such as Pledge®, Duck®, Mr. Muscle®, Windex®, Scrubbing Bubbles®, Glade®, Raid®, OFF!®, Baygon®, Kiwi® and Ziploc®. In all of its global operations, SC Johnson maintains its focus on environmental sustainability and its role as a community leader, as well as striving to create a positive work environment for its employees.
Recognizing the potential dynamic evolution of a .MRMUSCLE gTLD as a trusted brand namespace, SC Johnson has decided to use a wholly owned subsidiary, Johnson Shareholdings, as the entity to file this application and bring the .MRMUSCLE gTLD to market.
Through a unified approach, Johnson Shareholdings intends to submit eight gTLD applications. In addition to .MRMUSCLE, Johnson Shareholdings is submitting applications for .SCJOHNSON, .RIGHTATHOME, .GLADE, .OFF, .RAID, .DUCK, and .AFAMILYCOMPANY.
SC Johnson’s Mr. Muscle® brand lineup includes products for bathroom and toilet cleaning, glass and surface cleaners, floor cleaners and polishes, kitchen cleaners and degreasers, and other home cleaning products. Known throughout the world as “Mr. Muscle” or “Mr. Musculo,” these products are sold in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Similar SC Johnson products are marketed in other parts of the world under the Duck® and Scrubbing Bubbles® brands.
The intended future mission and purpose of the .MRMUSCLE gTLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace provided by SC Johnson for SC Johnson’s customers, and Internet users in general.
Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a .BRAND gTLD specification in the current version of the Applicant Guidebook, it is widely anticipated within the brand-owner community that this will become a specialty subset of gTLDs. The .MRMUSCLE gTLD is intended to be one of those .BRAND gTLDs, with the goal of protecting SC Johnson’s online presence and identity; expanding its marketing and promotion efforts with a focus on Mr. Muscle® products; providing a secure channel for Mr. Muscle® and other SC Johnson products and services; and offering a platform through which to consolidate many of the intellectual property activities of SC Johnson.
Johnson Shareholdings intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .MRMUSCLE gTLD to SC Johnson and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow Johnson Shareholdings 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 Johnson Shareholdings from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.
After Stage 3 (see below), Johnson Shareholdings will evaluate whether opportunities exist to carry out the business strategy for the .MRMUSCLE gTLD through expansion that continues the sustainable operations of the registry through fee-based registrations to parties other than SC Johnson and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates.
Johnson Shareholdings currently plans a four-stage rollout for the .MRMUSCLE gTLD:
1. Stage 1
The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve Johnson Shareholdings registering a limited number of .MRMUSCLE second-level domain names.
This initial use will provide Johnson Shareholdings’ IT and security personnel the time to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access using the .MRMUSCLE 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 Johnson Shareholdings’ staff to coordinate with the internal and external staff responsible for the delegation and setup phases of the .MRMUSCLE gTLD to ensure a proper transition from delegation to full operation.
2. Stage 2
Once all testing has been successfully completed, Johnson Shareholdings will begin allocating domain names in .MRMUSCLE for more widespread internal corporate use. During this same period of time, SC Johnson will begin evaluating strategies to potentially migrate Mr. Muscle®-related Internet traffic away from SC Johnson’s current patchwork network of second-level domain names, which are registered in a variety of TLDs, to the .MRMUSCLE gTLD.
It is in Stage 2 that SC Johnson will evaluate expanding the operations of the .MRMUSCLE 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 3, 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 Johnson Shareholdings’ business model.
3. Stage 3
Depending upon the analysis of evaluations undertaken in Stage 2, SC Johnson may begin to implement the permanent migration of Mr. Muscle®-related Internet traffic away from the TLDs in which SC Johnson’s domain names are currently registered and toward the .MRMUSCLE gTLD. It is in this stage that Johnson Shareholdings also may implement SC Johnson’s decision to extend registration rights to licensees and 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 SC Johnson’s existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that Johnson Shareholdings will have full control over the number of registrations in the .MRMUSCLE gTLD namespace, Johnson Shareholdings is confident that the number of domain name registrations will be less than 10,000 in the first five years of operation.
4. Stage 4
Based on its experience with any expansion implemented in Stage 3, Johnson Shareholdings and SC Johnson will assess whether their business plan and expansion strategy should be augmented by extending registration rights to a broader class of registrants, including potential suppliers, partners, or customers. It is anticipated by Johnson Shareholdings 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 and qualified subsidiary⁄affiliate use will take into account this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion.
The potential use of the .MRMUSCLE gTLD by these or other business segments will primarily be driven by SC Johnson’s future business strategies.
Utilizing current projections based upon SC Johnsonʹs existing businesses, future business plans, current domain name portfolio, and other strategic factors, Johnson Shareholdings 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. |