Professionals spend years in school to further their education, pass strict exams and (finally) achieve a license to practice in their field of specialty. Along with maintaining their image and credibility, a professional must earn the trust of his / her client. This is relatively easy to establish in person, but difficult to convey over the Internet. In the physical world, professionals and their clients can have private and confidential discussions, face to face or telephonically. To ensure trust online and conduct business with propriety, communications and transactions must remain private and secure. Domainsite.com, in coordination with RegistryPro, offers a way to solve this challenge with the new Top Level Domain (TLD) extension .Pro, a unique domain name with a bundled ProCert professional digital certificate.

Exclusivity
The .Pro TLD will offer professionals a distinctive presence on the Internet. Unlike other more common domain names, such as .com, .net and .org, RegistryPro’s .Pro names will be uniquely valuable since they will be available only to professionals who self-certify that they meet certain eligibility requirements. Additionally, Domainsite.com and RegistryPro will offer profession specific domain strings, such as .law.pro, .med.pro and .cpa.pro, allowing the online community to immediately identify the professional field they seek.

Verification
RegistryPro offers Registrars, such as Domainsite.com, a bundled Verification Service and .Pro digital certificate toolkit that will automate and expedite the process of screening .Pro Registrants to cross-verify their identity and professional information against appropriate licensing databases (i.e. state or jurisdiction specific) and the process of issuing digital certificates.

Security
The RegistryPro bundle is designed to extend trust through the verification process. The same verification mechanism used to confirm that .Pro domain Registrants have provided information that meets certain professional eligibility requirements can also be used to validate the digital certificates issued in conjunction with the domain names. Under the .Pro system, digital certificates will provide a common platform to enable Registrants to benefit from a security-enhanced Internet.

Why register .Pro?

Professional communications and transactions must be secure online.
.Pro is the first ever bundled domain name and professional level digital certificate package, and it offers an easy to implement security solution that may provide the ability for private and encrypted email. New legislative mandates regarding security and private make these important issues for professionals. For example, stiff penalties have been established for healthcare professionals who are not compliant with the new doctor / patient confidentiality requirements. As well, ore accountability and security requirements have been placed on accountants and financial planners who collect personal data from clients in order to ensure that such information is kept confidential and private. Fortunately, Domainsite.com and RegistryPro offer professionals easy to use tools so that they can begin to communicate securely online.

Timing is everything for trademark holders - protect your brand now.

For United States and International trademark holders:
There is a window of time, from April 23, 2003 to June 30, 2003, in which you can defensively register your brand to protect the integrity and investment that you’ve made in building and securing that image. During the .Pro Defensive Registration period, you should register your trademark and protect it within the .Pro space. Protecting a mark is good practice for trademark owners, especially for owners of distinctive marks. Based on the launches of other new Top-Level Domains (TLDs), owners of intellectual property may find it more cost effective to protect their names defensively than filing actions to regain domains that have been registered by a cyber squatter.

What's offered with .PRO

Value Proposition
Professional integrity is important to you, and so is providing confidential communication to your clients and / or patients. The .Pro bundle, which includes the .ProCert professional level digital certificate, offers you a solution for identifying yourself as a concerned professional who takes electronic security seriously. .Pro provides the efficiency of the digital economy with the latest security to support it.

Product Description
.Pro is unlike any other domain name extension to date. It is exclusively available to professionals who certify that they meet the requirements of their profession. To facilitate private and confidential communications, .Pro will be the first registry to bundle a digital certificate with every domain name, which will provide the ability to send encrypted and non-repudiated email. Other security services such as time-stamping and electronic notarization are also possible.

The .Pro product includes a web address for the following professions:
• (johnsmith.med.pro)
• (johnsmith.law.pro)
• (johnsmith.cpa.pro)

Sunrise Intellectual Property defensive registration (for United States and International trademark holders only)
During the Sunrise period, April 23, 2003 - June 30, 2003, we accept only Intellectual Property defensive registrations for professionals with registered trademarks. Defensive name registrations are being offered to allow Registrants to block domain names that match their trademarks. There are two defensive products that are being offered depending on the needs of Registrants. Defensive Name Registrations will not resolve on the Domain Name System, but will serve to block registrations of a domain name matching a Defensive Name Registration. All defensive registrations during the Sunrise period have a term either 4 or 8 years.

If you do not have a registered trademark, you do not qualify for Intellectual Property defensive registrations during the Sunrise period. If you are an International professional without a trademark, please skip to the .ProReserve section below to read about the options for reserving your domain. If you are a United States professional without a trademark, please move to the .ProLive Open Registration section below.

There are two types of Intellectual Property Defensive registration in the Sunrise period:

• .ProGuard covers a single second level domain (SLD) string, either .law.pro, .med.pro, or .cpa.pro. Example: As a provider of medical related services, General Electric could decide only to block the .med.pro string.The annual cost for .ProGuard defensive registration is $224.00 / year. The mandatory registration term is either four years (at $896.00) or eight years (at $1699.00).

• .ProBlock covers all current and future labels for all second level domain (SLD) strings. If any name of any of the second level domain (SLD) strings is already blocked by another registrant, the registration cannot occur. For owners of distinctive marks, this product may be particularly attractive, since it blocks the mark in all .Pro strings, including future strings that may be added. Example: The Coca-Cola Company could block its Coca-Cola trademark registration across any and all strings. The annual cost for .ProBlock defensive registration is $674.75 / year. The mandatory registration term is either four years (at $2699.00) or eight years (at $5299.00).

Note: Registrants may indicate their consent, at the time of defensive registration, to convert any defensive registration to a regular registration when open registration begins.

To create a defensive registration, your trademark and domain name must match according to the criteria listed below:

a. Letters must match, but case-sensitivity is not considered.
b. Numbers must match exactly.
c. Dashes or hyphens in the trademark must match a dash in the domain name.
d. Spaces in the trademark may either be removed or replaced by a dash.

Examples: the trademark “First-Plus” matches first-plus.law.pro / .med.pro / .cpa.pro, but not firstplus.law.pro / .med.pro / .cpa.pro; the trademark "Right Way" matches either right-way.law.pro / .med.pro / .cpa.pro or rightway.law.pro / .med.pro / .cpa.pro.

You will be charged only for the domains you are awarded. However, if your domain and trademark meet the rules above, but you have invalid trademark, the registration will go through, but you will potentially create a trademark dispute. In this case, you will be charged even though you will not keep the domain name.

.ProReserve (For International professionals without a registered trademark)

This product, which will be available soon, is designed to permit professional Registrants located in any jurisdiction outside the United States to register a .Pro name defensively. For example, if a Japanese corporation would like to protect a domain name that they may seek to register for use when .Pro domains become available in Japan, the corporation may seek a .ProReserve Registration in the interim and at the start of United States Open Registration . A .ProReserve Registration could therefore later be converted to a live name when the appropriate local verification mechanism is established and the Registrant provides all necessary information to satisfy those local verification requirements. Example: The Japan Bar Association may want to protect a name before .Pro is introduced into Japan.

.ProLive Open Registration (for United States professionals without a registered trademark)
At the start of Open Registration, United States professionals may register live web addresses in the .Pro domain without a registered trademark.

All registrants must provide proof of eligibility in order to receive a .Pro domain. In return, registrants will be issued a digital certificate authenticating their online identity and communications.

The annual Open Registration fee of $224.00 includes the domain name registration and a digital certificate of your online identity and communications.

Who can register .Pro?

Presently, only licensed members of the legal, medical, and accounting professions can register .Pro domain names. Registrants must fully disclose accurate information about their professional status when applying for a .Pro domain name. The .Pro professional eligibility requirements restrict domain name registrations within the .Pro top-level domain to persons and organizations that are licensed by the appropriate government agencies to provide professional legal, medical, or accounting services to the public.

The .Pro domain will open with only three major profession-specific domains:

.law.pro
.med.pro
.cpa.pro

Variations of these domains will be available in the future to take into account local, professional, and linguistic differences in the various regions in which .Pro domain names will be offered.

What are the eligibility criteria for .Pro?

Compliance with the professional eligibility requirements for the .Pro domain entails that either:

1.An individual is currently credentialed as (i) a Certified Public Accountant, (ii) a physician (including a medical doctor), or (iii) an attorney at law currently licensed in one the 50 United States or the District of Columbia; or,

2.An organization provides professional legal, medical, or accounting services, and has an employee who satisfies one of the above criteria and registers on the behalf of said organization.

Registrants outside the 50 United States are eligible for .ProReserve, and, at the time of Open Registration in their jurisdiction, will be required to meet some form of the eligibility requirements listed above.
All .Pro domain name registrants must maintain compliance with the professional eligibility requirements at all times during the registration of a .Pro domain name.

The .Pro eligibility criteria are detailed in the Registry's Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Moreover, RegistryPro, the operator of the .Pro top-level domain, will further elaborate the registry policy in consultation with an Advisory Board of representatives of involved professional organizations.

How will eligibility be reviewed and verified for .Pro?

RegistryPro will require that registrants self-certify their professional status and provide appropriate information license and identity information that can be independently verified either through Domainsite.com’s online review or a manual verification process.

Registration eligibility for the .Pro domain will be verified at the time of registration and will also be periodically re-verified at the annual renewal of a Registrant’s digital certificate.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who can register a .Pro domain name?

At this time, only members of the medical, legal and accounting professions will be eligible to register for .Pro domains.The .Pro professional eligibility requirements are intended to restrict domain name registrations within the .Pro top-level domain to persons and organizations that are licensed or otherwise credentialed by the appropriate government agencies or organizations to provide professional services to the public in the legal, medical and accounting fields.

Once we start accepting .Pro domain names for registration, you will be able to register in up to threeprofession-specific domains:

• .law.pro
• .cpa.pro
• .med.pro

In the future, variations of these domains will be available to take into account local, professional and linguistic differences in the various regions in which .Pro domain names will be offered (e.g., .avocat.pro, .bar.pro, .recht.pro, and .jur.pro).

2. Where are the eligibility criteria specified?

The .Pro eligibility criteria is established in the Registry’s Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Moreover, RegistryPro, the operator of the .Pro top-level domain will establish registry policy in consultation with an Advisory Board made up of representatives of professional organizations. It is the responsibility of Registrants to provide truthful and accurate information about their professional status when registering for a .Pro domain name.

3. What are the basic eligibility criteria?

Generally, to be in compliance with the professional eligibility requirements, a registrant must be either:

1. An individual who is currently licensed as (i) a Certified Public Accountant, (ii) a physician (including a medical doctor), or (iii) an attorney at law, who is currently licensed in one of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia; or,

2. An organization, that provides accounting, legal or medical professional services, and has an employee who satisfies one of the above criteria and registers on behalf of such entity or organization. Examples of such organizations include: accounting firms, hospitals, legal publishers, medical supply companies, or even the law department of a large company.

Registrants outside the 50 United States are eligible for .ProReserve, and, at the time of Open Registration in their jurisdiction, will be required to meet some form of the eligibility requirements listed above.

All .Pro domain name registrants must remain in compliance with the professional eligibility requirements at all times during their registration.

4. How will .Pro review the eligibility of Registrants in the .Pro domain?

What distinguishes the .Pro TLD from other domain extensions is its unique registration requirements. RegistryPro will require that Registrants self-certify that they are professionals who meet the requirements of their profession and jurisdiction and provide license and identity information that can be independently cross-referenced either through an online review process or a manual verification process established by Domainsite.com.

5. Will eligibility be reviewed again after registration?

Eligibility for registration in the .Pro domain will be verified at the time of registration and will also be periodically re-verified, at a minimum annually, at the time of a Registrant’s digital certificate renewal.

6. To implement the .Pro Professional Eligibility Requirements, RegistryPro will:

1. Require that each Registrar certify that as a condition to registration of a .Pro domain name that the professional eligibility of each Registrant is verified,

2. Conduct compliance audits of Registrars that self-verify the individual identity and professional eligibility, as well as any providers of verification services, to ensure that verification procedures comport with the Verification Procedures Policy,

3. Require that each registrar’s agreement with Registrants include terms and conditions relating specifically to .Pro domains (for example, regarding professional eligibility and the requirement that the registrant remain in good standing in his / her profession throughout the term of their domain name registration). Examples of such terms and conditions can be found in the Registry-Registrar Agreement, Exhibit E.

7. What is the Verification Process?

Registrars shall enforce the Professional Eligibility Requirements and must verify the personal identity of each registrant as a condition of registration. To satisfy the registration requirements, Registrars may:

(i) contract with RegistryPro for individual identity and professional verification services,
(ii) conduct personal identity and professional eligibility verification manually, or
(iii) contract with other third-parties for automated verification services.

In the event that a RegistryPro Approved Registrar conducts its own personal identity and professional eligibility verification or contracts with a third party operator (other than RegistryPro), the Registrar must agree to indemnify the Registry Operator against any challenges based on the Registrar’s willful, negligent, or other non-compliance with above policies. Registrars who conduct manual verification should (i) review the manual verification requirements set forth in Appendix M of the .Pro Registry Agreement by and between RegistryPro and ICANN, (ii) the RegistryPro Certificate Practices Statement and, (iii) the RegistryPro Certificate Policies.