2002-12-02 - Amendment to .pro Registry Agreement

Whereas, on 15 November 2002 RegistryPro, Inc., which plans in the first quarter of 2003 to launch the registry for the .pro top-level domain under the registry agreement it entered with ICANN on 3 May 2002, requested that its registry agreement be amended to provide for it to offer three types of defensive registrations (Premium Intellectual Property Defensive Registrations, Basic Intellectual Property Defensive Registrations, and Standard Defensive Registrations) within the .pro top-level domain;

Whereas, in his 15 November 2002 letter, RegistryPro CEO Timothy Gelman explained that by offering defensive registrations, Registry Pro seeks to provide professionals located outside of the initial launch jurisdictions with an opportunity to protect their professional name and to decrease the number of potential claims filed by trademark registration owners;

Whereas, the .pro Advisory Board, which as contemplated by the .pro Registry Agreement is composed of representatives of professional associations and is intended to provide advice concerning the operation of the .pro registry from the perspective of professionals, its intended registrants, submitted a statement of support for the RegistryPro request for amendment;

Whereas, the intellectual property parts RegistryPro's proposed defensive registration offering are similar to that previously provided, with few controversies, in the .name and .coop top-level domains;

Whereas, the ICANN General Counsel has presented the Board with an analysis concluding that because the proposed offering is unlikely to harm legitimate interests of third parties, streamlined consideration of the amendment, without resort to the formal consensus-development process, is appropriate and recommending that the proposal for an amendment be approved;

Whereas, the General Counsel has presented the Board with proposed substitutes for Appendices G and L to the .pro registry agreement intended to implement RegistryPro's proposal, and has indicated that conforming and supporting revisions to several other appendices will be necessary; and

Whereas, the Board concludes that amendments to the .pro registry agreement to allow defensive registrations as proposed would promote fairness and stability in the introduction of the .pro top-level domain;

Resolved [02.143] that the President is authorized to enter an amendment to ICANN's .pro registry agreement with RegistryPro revising the appendices to that agreement to implement RegistryPro's proposal to offer defensive registrations.

(The Board approved the above resolution by a 10-0-4 vote, with Dr. Blokzijl, Mr. Chapin, Mr. Mueller-Maguhn, and Dr. Pisanty abstaining.)