.ksb

Since its founding in 1871, KSB has been one of the world's leading suppliers of pumps, valves and related liquid transportation systems. KSB specializes in the development and production of high-quality fluid transport mechanisms, used around the globe in a variety of industries including waste water treatment, mining operations, power stations, and in the provision of domestic water supplies. It is an internationally-renowned market leader with annual revenue of nearly 2 billion EUR and over 15,600 employees worldwide.

The company has used its KSB trade name in commerce since 1887, and is the registered owner of numerous KSB trademarks worldwide, with protection in, inter alia, Algeria, Austria, Benelux, China, the Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Romania, the Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, Vietnam, and the United States.

A.1 KSB's Target Industries

KSB is committed to providing leading-edge products and services to serve a broad range of fluid-transport needs, from residential solutions to electric power stations and from rainwater management to oil and gas drilling. Some of the customized and tailored products that KSB engineers include solutions for the chemical industry, food and beverage industry, general process engineering, delivery of heat transfer and cooling systems, surface treatment systems, the oil and gas industry, and marine applications. Its products are used to transport water for use and for water treatment purposes, to conduct away water-waste, transport slurry and liquid chemicals for industrial use, and for the generation of energy through fossil fuel extraction, renewable energy sources, and nuclear power plants. KSB also provides installation and service for residential and commercial buildings, including after-sale service, pump and system maintenance and retrofitting.

A.2 The Mission and Purpose of the ".KSB" space

KSB intends to use the new TLD space to provide a comprehensive communications platform, serving its broad-ranging network of subsidiaries, production facilities, service teams and regional offices. Through the ".KSB" TLD, the company will be able to showcase its achievements, identify its industry-leading services and products, and provide the most up-to-date, comprehensive information available to their customers and Internet visitors. This space will act as a first point of contact for many first-time clients, casual visitors who may be unfamiliar with KSB's many activities, or longstanding customers interested in researching innovative technology to enable new opportunities. Additionally, the TLD is intended to serve as a source of trusted information for millions of Internet users worldwide, who have come to rely in various ways on the solutions, service and maintenance provided by KSB.

Accordingly, KSB believes that use of the new TLD will benefit the company, its customers, and general Internet users alike. KSB anticipates increasing the amount of information it will be able to provide about its various research and development activities, its service departments, and its outstanding products, in a clear and comprehensive manner. Therefore, the company believes the TLD will experience increased traffic and Internet user interest, as potential customers, existing clients and affiliates become familiar with the space. KSB plans to develop a high level of trust among users of the TLD, thus increasing the reputation of the company's brand. Additionally, the new space is expected to enable KSB to streamline communications between its many facilities and subsidiaries.

It is expected that KSB's clients, affiliates and visitors will greatly benefit from the new TLD, 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, KSB will be able to exercise full control over the content displayed on ".KSB" 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 ".KSB." General users will be assured that whenever they navigate to a domain name in the TLD, 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 ".KSB" Registry Service Provider KSregistry GmbH will manage the Internet space under the direct control of KSB. This will allow the distribution and exchange of information between KSB and its subsidiaries, production facilities, service teams, regional offices, clients and potential customers by means of, but not limited to, websites, social networks and forums, email and other technologies that will reside within the ".KSB" domain name space.

As mentioned above, KSB envisages that the TLD will follow a single-registrant model, wherein all registrations within the space are held by KSB itself. Affiliated entities may apply to KSB to request authorization to license such registrations for their own use. The Corporate Communication Department of KSB shall review every registration and license request and, in its sole discretion, may approve registrations and grant such licenses on a case-by-case basis. Only KSB's wholly-owned subsidiaries and affiliates will be allowed to license ".KSB" domain names, and in every case the registrant of record for all domains shall be KSB. In all cases, KSB shall monitor the use of all ".KSB" domain names to ensure that the content of the associated websites remains current and appropriate to the TLD space.×