During a special meeting of the ICANN Board of Directors this month, some changes to .PRO’s registry operator agreement were approved. They included the internationalization of the TLD and the introduction of an End User Terms of Use Agreement (TOU). Also among the changes discussed was the release of one and two-letter domain names with the .pro TLD, and the registry is already seeking feedback on its plans to release these names for public registration.
Previously, all one and two-letter .pro domain names were initially reserved as part of their initial registry operator agreement. The proposed plan to release these domain names is currently as follows:
“RegistryPro anticipates a three phase implementation to be executed in the following order:
1. An Request For Proposals (RFP) round to invite interested registrants to propose specific plans for use and promotion of
these names;
2. An auction round that offers domains not allocated during the RFP round; and
3. A first-come, first-served (FCFS) release of any domains not allocated during the RFP or auction rounds.
These three components will include requirements related to eligibility and activation similar to those found in our current agreements, including our End User Terms of Use Agreement (TOU). A copy of the current TOU is available at http://registry.pro/legal/user-terms.shtml. All requirements related to eligibility and proper use must be met as a condition of registering these names.”
RegistryPro proposes to amend their registry operator contract language and implement this phased allocation program to permit the introduction of one, two and character .PRO names in the DNS.
So what does this mean for you? Well, for starters there may be some 1,2, and 3 letter domain names that make it through to the public phase of the plan, so there could be some very valuable .pro domains that will be publicly available. We will keep our readers and customers updated as more information come available.
(Source: http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/registry-pro-08apr09-en.pdf)
