Turning Pro?

Doctors, lawyers, and accountants will soon be able to get specialized .pro namespace on the Web. Could your Internet service benefit from turning .pro, too?

by Julie Wheeler [May 16, 2002]

November 2000 marked an important point in the history of the Internet. At an annual meeting in Marina del Rey, California, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board of directors held a controversial meeting to select seven new top-level domains (TLDs).

A year and a half later on May 8, 2002, ICANN finally signed a contract for the implementation of the seventh new TLD. The final TLD to hit the Net is the previously ill-fated .pro. Originally proposed by RegistryPro, a partnership between Register.com and Virtual Internet, the .pro TLD was expected to be one of the first four new domains implemented along with its more commercial unsponsored kindred .info, .name, and .biz.

However, all of the other unsponsored TLDs have already been signed. In fact, .museum, .aero, and .coop are all currently accepting live applications and functioning as full-fledged registries. These TLDs were sponsored by organizations outside of ICANN, which made their negotiations slightly more complicated than for those registries within the group.

So why did it take so long to sign .pro?

Aside from the problems RegistryPro had with funding during its application process, the .pro contract was one of the most complicated ever produced by ICANN.

Professional courtesies
RegistryPro has an interesting challenge before it. The company's business plan revolves around some of the most prestigious, as well as some of the most demanding, professions in the world (depending on whom you ask). Catering to the needs of doctors, lawyers, and accountants at its launch, with plans to eventually add other professions like engineers, architects, and surveyors, RegistryPro may have its work cut out for it.

The registry plans on offering sub-domain extensions along with .pro for the various professionals to whom it caters. For instance, law offices wanting individual names in front of the .pro extension could register something like www.lawoffices.law.pro. Then they could set up domains for each attorney, like www.joeattorney.lawoffices.law.pro Doctors could do the same by registering .med.pro sub-domains, accountants would want .acct.pro and CPAs would register .cpa.pro sub-domains, accordingly.

While having specialized names catering just to their vocation would probably appeal to these groups of professionals, RegistryPro plans to go much further than to merely registering domains and assigning sub-domains. The registry plans to authenticate the credentials of professionals requesting to register .pro domains before granting a .pro address to any of the 35 million doctors, lawyers and accountants the company claims are in its targeted markets. RegistryPro is working with leading professional organizations to establish an advisory board that will collaborate on shaping professional eligibility requirements for .pro domain names.

RegistryPro believes that .pro addresses will be important to professionals because services will enable the registrants to digitally sign contracts and securely transport contracts over the Internet. Of course, the .pro domain also allows professionals to legitimate themselves through the Web. Imagine the possibilities of consumer applications for the .med.pro or .law.pro categories. If registrations are managed properly, the information could serve as an online directory of physicians, accountants, and professions of a similar ilk.

When it comes to trademark protection, RegistryPro, like all of the other unsponsored TLD registries, has opted for a sunrise period. During this time the "owners of trademarks and service marks having been registered in a national trademark office for at least one year prior to the creation of the new TLD will be able to pre-register on a first-come, first-served basis."

However, not just anybody owning a trademark or service mark can pony up the cash to protect intellectual rights. According to the registry, this pre-registration process also would be subject to compliance with the registration requirements of the .pro TLD.

This means that McDonalds, a company that has gone to all the expense and trouble of purchasing its trademarks in all of the other TLDs, is out of luck on picking up any .pro namespace. Of course, corporate legal departments could pick up .law.pro domains, so be on the look out for mickeyds.law.pro, mcnugget.law.pro or even ronaldmcdonald.law.pro on the Web sometime soon.

Price of turning pro
With a target market populated by some of the better-paid professions, a registry could probably squeeze them for a bit more cash. Especially if the registry made its service very easy for these busy professionals to learn about, buy, and use.

This is just what RegistryPro has intended to do from the very beginning. Though no one will know the pricing model until the registrars start publicizing products, the registry has indicated that polls of its target market support significantly higher prices than one would pay for a domain in another, let's call it—less professional—top-level domain.

Since any registrar accepting registrations in the .pro namespace has to jump through extra hoops to be certified, costs for the .pro domain names are likely to range from $250 to $300, depending on what the registrars want to charge. Meanwhile, the registry will only receive $6 per registration from the registrar and another $6 for each renewal or domain transferred.

Based on some of the numbers that have been kicked around, it sounds like the .pro TLD could be somewhat of a windfall for registrars.

However, RegistryPro's description of its policies to ICANN maintains that registries must establish a set of .pro restrictions in coordination with professional associations, ICANN, and the Advisory Board. These restrictions must include an easy to use menu of qualifications that will be part of the registrant records. Additionally, the registrar must identify registrant's qualifications for .pro based on the menu provided by RegistryPro. Furthermore, during the sunrise period, the registrar must gather information regarding the registrant's trademark or service mark and collect evidence of registrant's professional qualifications.

With RegistryPro's new TLD finalizing its tests, the company anticipates starting to sign up registrants late in 2002. If you enjoy working with doctors and lawyers or your Internet business has a good working relationship with other professional groups, you should consider turning .pro, or at least offering .pro reistry services.

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