.pharmacy

Status:	Proposed
Type:	Community
Category:	Health
More information:

.pharmacy is a proposed TLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. It is a Community Priority Application, and it "is submitting this application with the support of international pharmacy coalitions and national pharmacy associations to ensure that the .PHARMACY gTLD shall serve as a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace for legitimate Internet pharmacies." The organization is already involved in verifying and accreditating different types of online pharmacies, and its registration policies inted to restrict the sell of domains to such legitimate pharmacies. The domains registered will have to correspond to a registered trademark, service mark, or business name. There is not a clear plan in its application for what to do with generic and geographic names, but the applicant plans to consult its community on these issues.

European Commission Objection

The European Commission objected to the application for .bio outside of ICANN's defined remediation processes.

Just after ICANN's GAC issued its Early Warnings, which are advice given from one GAC member country to an applicant warning it of potential issues within its application, the European Commission issued a letter to all applicants within the new gTLD program. The letter highlights 58 applications that "could raise issues of compatibility with the existing legislation .. and/or with policy positions and objectives of the European Union." It notes a desire to open a dialogue with each offending applicant.

The Commission specifically notes that this objection is not a part of the GAC Early Warning process, and goes on to note that "the Commission does not consider itself legally bound to [ICANN] processes," given that there is not legal agreement between the two bodies.

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).