The mission and purpose of the new restricted .latrobe gTLD is to benefit internet users by ensuring increased trust and confidence through the elimination of user confusion and assurance of brand authenticity. The new .latrobe gTLD will operate as a restricted registry, in which La Trobe... Read more
The mission and purpose of the new restricted .latrobe gTLD is to benefit internet users by ensuring increased trust and confidence through the elimination of user confusion and assurance of brand authenticity.
The new .latrobe gTLD will operate as a restricted registry, in which La Trobe University (La Trobe) can create and control domain spaces that promote its identity and authenticity as an educational institution. In this regard, .latrobe will be used by La Trobe to provide information, services and resources to users in a way that promotes trust, convenience and utility. The .latrobe gTLD will provide an authoritative internet space for La Trobe, and its affiliates. Second and third level domains can then be utilised for marketing, promotional and other market engagement purposes, with internet users interested in accessing La Trobe's information, services and resources, assured of brand authenticity.
Established in 1967 under the La Trobe University Act 1964 (Victoria, Australia), La Trobe is one of Australia's pioneering universities. La Trobe was named after Charles Joseph La Trobe, who was the first Superintendent of the Port Phillip District and the first Lieutenant-Governor of the new colony of Victoria in Australia. La Trobe has grown to become a multi-campus university in Victoria, Australia in locations such as Albury-Wodonga, Bendigo, Mildura, Melbourne City and Shepparton to accommodate over 30,000 students including approximately 7,600 international students from over 90 countries. Today, La Trobe is renowned for its academic excellence and research achievements. Since 2003, La Trobe has consistently been ranked by the Academic Ranking of World Universities, Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings among the top 500 universities in the world. La Trobe is dedicated to serving the global community through internationalisation, innovative teaching and learning methods, and research. In this regard, user trust and continuous innovation are paramount considerations in all of La Trobe's activities.
The range of activities increasingly conducted over the internet result in greater levels of interaction between various parties in that forum. All parties, whether end users or those providing services and information over the internet, benefit from an increased ease of interaction, a broader range of choices and ultimately lower transaction costs. At the same time, however, recent developments in this area in the current domain name system has resulted in increased incidences of criminal activities over the internet, including data breach, identity theft, hacking and phishing. These types of criminal activities can result in financial and non-financial loss, as well as reputational damage to organisations; and individuals, and ultimately results in a loss of user confidence and trust in the internet. The .latrobe gTLD will facilitate greater trust and assurance amongst internet users wanting to access La Trobe's services and resources online and to connect and transact with La Trobe in that environment, without impacting the convenience and efficiency of the online interaction relative to the current system.
La Trobe's mission and purpose for the proposed new gTLD shares ICANN's initiatives to promote public interest. La Trobe is committed to contributing towards the achievement of initiatives which are consistent with ICANN's Affirmation of Commitments. These include:
- user trust: the .latrobe gTLD registry will be operated in a centralised manner with a restrictive registration policy. Registration of domain names will only be available to La Trobe and parties related to La Trobe (including potentially its student body). This will promote user trust that .latrobe domain names are trustworthy. The registration standards, policies and procedures which La Trobe intends to impose upon registrations will eliminate the likelihood of malicious conduct within the .latrobe domain space;
- competition: .latrobe is not intended to instigate competition and user choice at the level of registration of domain names among prospective registrants. Instead it is anticipated to contribute to ICANN's initiatives to promote public interest through its operation focused on promoting user trust. Increased trust in the .latrobe gTLD will drive existing and new top level domain (TLD) registry operators to make improvements in mechanisms to improve user trust of their TLDs; and
- user choice: .latrobe will enable user-driven improvements and innovations assisting La Trobe's marketing efforts and educational reach goals, through its ability to create new second and third level domain names on demand. These names will provide the users with more choices for interacting with La Trobe. As La Trobe has effective control over the registration and use of domain names under the .latrobe domain space, this will also contribute towards general service innovations on the internet.
Given the restricted nature of the .latrobe gTLD, the projected number of registrations is likely to be limited. It is anticipated that a limited number of 50 domain names will be registered in the first year. However, over the following years, the number of registrations is likely to increase to about 500 domain names as La Trobe develops and implements not only new services, additional resources and increased scope for marketing campaigns but also increases the scope of services it can provide to its student body by making available registrations for domain names in a related and trusted space. This includes the ability to create related domain names in the second or third level.
As the .latrobe gTLD expands and evolves, La Trobe will continue to comply with all operational, technical and policy requirements, as well as maintaining user trust and the stability of the internet. La Trobe will keep ICANN reasonably informed of any material developments relating to the .latrobe gTLD including compliance with the continued operations instrument obligations as set out in Specification 8 of the Registry Agreement.
At this stage, La Trobe does not intend to use geographic names and/or Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) at the second level. However, as the use of .latrobe evolves, La Trobe may utilise these names supporting the mission and purpose of the .latrobe gTLD. The use of geographic names will be in accordance with the registration policy and the proposed measures for protection of geographic names as outlined in response to Question 22.
La Trobe is an internationally-acclaimed university brand. La Trobe has registered the "La Trobe University" trademark in about 8 countries and territories such as Australia, China, India and Saudi Arabia for the following categories including: Classes 9 (Computer Software); 16 (Printed matter); 41 (Education and training services) and 42 (Research services). La Trobe has pending applications for the "La Trobe University" trademark in Vietnam for Classes 16 and 41.
Further, La Trobe has 3 existing domain names with an exact match to the applied-for .latrobe string including those in the latrobe.edu.au and latrobe.edu spaces, recognising La Trobe as an education provider. La Trobe also holds 8 existing domain names containing the applied-for .latrobe string in latrobemelbourne.edu.au, latrobesydney.edu.au, latrobeonline.com, latrobeonline.net, latrobeonline.com.au, latrobeuni.com.au, latrobeuni.org.au and latrobeuni.net.au.
La Trobe believes that the .latrobe gTLD is unlikely to cause confusion with either a generic term or any existing TLDs. La Trobe is a leading and pioneering university brand with significant reputation in countries all around the world. La Trobe has used the term "La Trobe" in conjunction with its provision of its learning, teaching and research since its establishment in 1967. As such, the La Trobe brand is well known for being a higher education provider.
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