RegistryPro

Industry:	Registry
Founded:	2002
Ownership:	Afilias
Headquarters:	425 West Randolph Street, 8th Floor Chicago, IL 60606
Country:	USA
Website:	Registry.pro, Nic.pro
Facebook:	RegistryPro
LinkedIn:	RegistryPro
Twitter:	@RegistryPro
Key People
Karim Jiwani, Outgoing CEO Matt Buckland, Director of Operations

RegistryPro is the registry for .pro names. The TLD is marketed to professionals and professional firms worldwide, as the word "professional" starts with "pro" in many languages.

RegistryPro checks a customer's professional and business qualifications before assigning a .pro domain; this gives the .pro domains they administer greater weight and standing. RegistryPro also offers registration for second level domains specifying professional trades, such as .law.pro, .med.pro, and .aca.pro.

History

RegistryPro became the exclusive, ICANN accredited administrator of .pro extensions in May 2002. However, the company did not become active until 2004.

At first, all usage of .pro was restricted to qualified professionals in medicine, engineering, lawyers, and accountants. But in 2008, RegistryPro changed its policy to allow the .pro extension to be used by a variety of qualified professionals.

In November 2010, RegistryPro reduced the price it charges registrars for its .pro extensions by more than 25% for 2011. The company has reduced its prices every year since 2002. As prices lower and the .pro extension becomes more accessible, it is expected that sales volumes of the extension domains will continue to increase.

RegistryPro announced its official sponsorship of the 40th ICANN meeting in San Francisco in March 2011. Comments by their Director of Operations, Matt Buckland, show that they consider their sponsorship of ICANN, and of this unaffiliated site, ICANNWiki.com, to be part of the same move to thank the ICANN community, and participate in its grass-roots operations.

In May 2011, RegistryPro announced Karim Jiwani as its new CEO.

In January 2012, RegistryPro was acquired by Afilias, who took over the back-end registry services for all .pro domain names. Hostway, the company's previous owner, retained ownership of their Zip.pro collection of .pro domains, effectively becoming Registry.pro's biggest customer. Under this agreement, Jiwani will continue to head RegistryPro, using Afilias' technologies.

Products and Services

• Public: RegistryPro's basic service is the public registration of .pro domains. Applicants must submit certain certification verification, but once this is submitted, the registration is complete, and the registrant is free to build their site.

• Registrars: RegistryPro partners with select registrars, allowing them to sell .pro names. They offer technology, policy, billing and marketing guides, 24/7 customer support, and business development assistance to all of their partner registrars.

Advisory Board

RegistryPro consults with an independent advisory board about policies that are critical to the development of the .pro TLD.

Current Board Members are:

• Stephen Wright, Board Chair
• Amy Cheng
• Jon Nevett
• Arthur Schwartz
• Catherine Sigmar

Trademark Applications

In November 2011, it was announced that RegistryPro was seeking trademark rights over med.pro and law.pro, though they notably claimed .med and .law, and dotmed and dotlaw, as well. It was interpreted by some as a preemptive move against any proposed .med and .law new TLD applied for in ICANN's new gTLD program. RgistryPro is claiming it used the intellectual property as far back as 2004.