.sas Domain

18.1 MISSION AND PURPOSE OF .SAS

Research IP LLC has filed this application for a .SAS gTLD to serve as a secure, trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace for general and business software-related information, as well as the goods and services that its parent company, SAS Institute, provides to its customers on a global basis. As a Registry Operator, Research IP LLC will be entrusted to provide domain name registration services to SAS Institute, its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates, and/or any other designated third party.

Although Research IP LLC is committed to moving forward with a .SAS gTLD application, at the time of filing this application there has not been enough time or market information available to fully analyze and evaluate all potential use case options.

18.1.1 RESEARCH IP LLC AND SAS INSTITUTE

Research IP LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of SAS Institute. SAS Institute is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. SAS Institute provides an integrated set of software products and services to more than 45,000 customer sites in 118 countries. SAS Institute is a global company with more than 12,500 employees in local and regional offices in 54 countries.

18.1.2 Mission and Purpose

Research IP LLC currently plans a four-stage rollout for its .SAS gTLD:

1. Stage 1
The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve SAS Institute registering a limited number of .SAS second-level domain names.

This initial use will provide Research IP LLC and SAS Institute's IT and security personnel the time to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access using the .SAS 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 Research IP LLC and SAS Institute staff to coordinate with the internal and external staff responsible for the delegation and setup phases of the .SAS gTLD to ensure a proper transition from delegation to full operation.

2. Stage 2
Once all testing has been successfully completed, Research IP LLC will begin allocating domain names in .SAS to SAS Institute for more widespread corporate use. During this same period of time, SAS Institute 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 .SAS gTLD.

It is in Stage 2 that SAS Institute 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 3. 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 Research IP LLC's business model.

3. Stage 3
Depending on the analysis of the evaluations undertaken in Stage 2, Research IP LLC may implement the permanent migration of Internet traffic away from the TLDs in which SAS Institute's domain names are currently registered, and toward the new .SAS gTLD. It is in this stage that Research IP LLC also may implement SAS Institute's decision to extend registration rights to licensees or strategic partners, depending upon compliance with Specification 9 as noted above.

After consideration of the following factors: analysis of SAS Institute's existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that SAS Institute will have full control over the number of registrations in the .SAS gTLD namespace, Research IP LLC 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 during the initial stages of operation and upon its experience with any expansion implemented in Stage 3, Research IP LLC and SAS Institute will assess whether the business plan and expansion strategy should be augmented by extending registration rights to a broader class of registrants, potentially including other third parties and customers of SAS Institute. It is anticipated by SAS Institute 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 gTLD beyond corporate, qualified subsidiary/affiliate, and licensee/partner use will take into account this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion.

The potential use of the .SAS gTLD will also be driven by SAS Institute's future business strategies as identified in its publicly available corporation information, see http://www.sas.com/company/.

Utilizing current projections based upon SAS Institute's existing businesses, future business plans, current domain name portfolio, and other strategic factors, Research IP LLC estimates second-level domain name registrations to be in line with the projections set forth in the Financial Template provided in its response to Question 46 of this application.
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