Mission and Purpose of .ZIPPO
Zippo Manufacturing Company (“Zippo”) is an innovative and renowned manufacturer of durable, diverse, and functional products, serving the needs of global consumers in more than 160 countries. Zippo products are available for purchase online in the United States and around the world. Zippo’s online content is viewable in the .COM, .NET, and .ORG gTLDs, and also in the .EU, .FR, and .RU ccTLDs, among many others. In order to apply for the .ZIPPO gTLD, Zippo has selected its subsidiary company, Zadco Company (“Zadco”), as the entity to file this application and bring the .ZIPPO gTLD to market. Zadco is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zahara, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Zippo.
Zippo will be analyzing general market adoption to determine short and long-term potential best-in-class use options to most effectively serve and enhance Zippo’s online strategy.
The intended future mission and purpose of the .ZIPPO gTLD is to serve as a trusted and intuitive namespace for the Zippo company and its consumers. However, to date, there has not been enough time or market information available to fully analyze and evaluate all potential use options.
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 .ZIPPO gTLD is planned as a .BRAND gTLD with the goal of protecting Zippo’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 Zippo.
Zadco intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .ZIPPO gTLD to Zippo and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates, and potentially to distributors and commercial partners. This initial limited use will allow Zadco 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 Zadco from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.
After Stage Two (see below), Zadco and Zippo will evaluate whether opportunities exist to carry out the business strategy for the gTLD through expansion that continues the registry’s sustainable operations through fee-based registrations to parties other than Zippo and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates.
Zadco currently plans a four-stage rollout for the .ZIPPO gTLD:
1. Stage One
The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve Zippo registering a limited number of .ZIPPO second-level domain names.
This initial use will provide Zippo’s IT and security personnel the time to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access using the .ZIPPO 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 Zadco staff to coordinate with the internal and external staff responsible for the delegation and setup phases of the .ZIPPO gTLD to ensure a proper transition from delegation to full operation.
2. Stage Two
Once all testing has been successfully completed, Zadco will begin allocating domain names in .ZIPPO to Zippo for more widespread internal corporate use. During this same period of time, Zippo 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 TLDs, to the .ZIPPO gTLD.
It is in Stage Two that Zippo will evaluate expanding the operations of the gTLD to permit registration by other registrants such as licensees or 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. However, any expansion would be conditioned upon a review of the Specification 9 (Registry Code of Conduct) set forth in the template Registry Agreement to ensure compliance with Zadco’s business model.
3. Stage Three
Depending on the analysis of the evaluations undertaken in Stage Two, Zadco may implement the permanent migration of Internet traffic away from the TLDs in which Zippo’s domain names are currently registered, and toward the .ZIPPO gTLD. It is in this stage that Zadco also may implement Zippo’s decision to extend registration rights to licensees or strategic parties, 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 Zippo’s existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that Zippo will have full control over the number of registrations in the .ZIPPO gTLD namespace, Zadco 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 3, Zadco and Zippo will assess whether its business plan and expansion strategy should be augmented by extending registration rights to a broader class of licensees, including potential clients and policyowners of Zippo. It is anticipated by Zippo 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 use will take into account this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion.
Utilizing current projections based upon Zippo’s existing businesses, future business plans, current domain name portfolio, and other strategic factors, Zadco estimates second-level domain name registrations to be in line with the projections set forth in the response to Question 46 of this application. |