The .nab Dot Brand
The National
Australia Bank Ltd (NAB) is ranked as the world's 17th largest bank
by market capitalisation and it has more than 40,000 employees. NAB
operates a wide range of major financial service businesses in Australia,
New Zealand, Asia, the UK and the USA.
As a major
global bank, maintaining the highest level of consumer trust and protecting
the valuable NAB brand are constant and paramount concerns for National
Australia Bank. The .nab extension will allow the company to create
domain names that assure visitors of the authenticity and security of
the products and services offered on NAB websites. This factor will
add to the positive experience of customers.
The majority
of the anticipated domain name registrations in the .nab gTLD will
be used in the communication of the NAB brand, its banking and financial
services and related services. In this regard, .nab will be used to
promote trust and convenience to its customers.
The .nab
string will initially be available to the company and its associated
affiliates and partners. NAB will consider allowing customers to use
a subset of domains for their own secure and personal experiences at
a later date.
In the
first few years, the Applicant projects that only a small number of
registrations will be made.
It is
anticipated that a more limited number of domain names (up to 50)
will be registered in the first year. However, over the next few years,
the number of registrations is likely to increase to about 100 domain
names as NAB further utilises the .nab gTLD to increase branding potential...
The bank
will publicize the .nab TLD with a media plan that will emphasize its
trustworthiness and authenticity. The initial launch will be carefully
monitored and in the first stage internet users will be re-directed
to current websites.
The .nab
string will allow NAB to communicate more effectively and directly with
customers. The bank will be able to create domain names on demand to
meet the needs of marketing deals, sponsorship arrangements and specialty
products & services. The TLD presents the opportunity to create
innovations. Navigation will be streamlined. The problem of desirable
domains being unavailable or overly expensive to acquire will be overcome.
The use
of simpler and intuitively trustworthy domains should also encourage
a higher degree of interaction with users.
Internet
users will be able to directly navigate to .nab gTLD site with easy
to use .nab domain names such as banking.nab or faq.nab, thus saving
time and resources searching for an official site. The short and user
friendly .nab domain names will strengthen NAB's online brand presence...
New, short
names will have particular appeal to mobile device users.
Maintaining
trust & consumer confidence and building the company's online corporate
& brand reputation are primary concerns. To help achieve this NAB
will comply with the different rights protection mechanisms as described
in the gTLD Applicant Guidebook and the Registry Agreement. The Applicant
will enforce strict controls to ensure that .nab domains are not used
inappropriately, in bad faith, or constitute abuse.
"Abuse"
is defined as an action that causes "actual and substantial harm,
or is a material predicate of such harm, and is illegal, illegitimate,
or otherwise contrary to registration policy".
Areas of
possible concern include: fraud, defamation, privacy, trademark protection,
law compliance, phishing, pharming, botneck control and "hacking".
To counteract these challenges, NAB intends to create a "secure
internet space to interact and transact with its customers, promoting
increased consumer trust and confidence in the authenticity of the NAB
brand". Privacy and confidentiality will be protected.
The use
of friendly .nab domains will help differentiate NAB branded websites
and reduce confusion on the internet.
NAB is
intending to operate .nab for the benefit of Internet users that would
like to interact with NAB. There is no incentive for NAB to confuse
Internet users, nor otherwise use domain names in bad faith, since
NAB's branded keyword gTLD is inherently intertwined with all uses
of .nab domain names.
 Geographic
Dot Brands
In accordance
with Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, National Australia Bank
will initially reserve all two-character labels and country & territory
names from its new TLD implementation.
However,
NAB is interested in seeking the release of these geographic terms.
The bank believes they can "provide great benefit and simplicity
to internet users because these terms are intuitive ways to resolve
to National Australia Bank's content". They could be very helpful
for intuitive navigation in various regions.
The Applicant
makes the point that the rationale for initial restriction is valid
for generic TLDs but less so for the brand domains who have a strong
disincentive from allowing misleading domain names.
...National
Australia Bank assumes that several of the recommendations directed
towards new registry operators, in general, are less applicable in
the case of Single-Registrant operational models such as .nab than
in a completely open Registry model.
NAB intends
to seek permission to deploy geographic domains and proposes several
possible avenues to work with ICANN, the GAC and individual governments
to achieve this.
Upon
approval from ICANN and any other guidelines by applicable governments
and ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee, the Registry may release
the two-character labels and country and territory names in accordance
with NAB's response to Question 22 Geographic Names.
Geographic
names will not be used until ICANN has approved them.
Possible .nab Brand
Domains
banking.nab
(specifically mentioned in the application)
faq.nab (specifically mentioned)
FinancialPlanning.nab
Insurance.nab
Telecommunications.nab
Credit.nab
ManagedFunds.nab
Consulting.nab
ShareTrading.nab
uBank.nab
Notes
Brand
names mentioned on this site are registered trademarks or trademarks
of their respective corporations. This site claims no association
with or endorsement by any of these corporations and their marks are
mentioned only to illustrate opinion presented in the public interest.
All quotations
on this page are from the respective companies' official ICANN brand
TLD applications unless otherwise stated.
Many possible
theoretical dot brands are mentioned (in English). There are also countless
possibilities in other languages. This has significant potential value
for international navigation.
This site
is focused on reporting the strategic impact of the brand domains on
internet communication, competition and commerce, and some comment is
speculative.
It is not
a comprehensive overview of what some of the world's largest corporations
have chosen to reveal about their plans for the implementation of their
proprietary domain strings.
ICANN is
particularly concerned with the technical, financial, security and legal
issues associated with the new TLDs. These issues are beyond the scope
of this website.
For a comprehensive
overview of the brand domains and their impact on the web, refer to
ICANN's website and the individual applications (large parts of which
are publicly published).
If you
have a particular interest in an individual company, the public aspects
of their applications are available for download via these ICANN links:
You can also search a complete list of applicants there.
ICANN
new gTLD applications
ICANN
official website
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