ICANN lays down the law

April 2005

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is calling a domain name registrar and a registry operator on the carpet in a dispute over the distribution of .pro domain names.

The Associated Press wrote up the spat between ICANN and EnCirca, a domain name registrar in Reading, Mass., that hawks its services particularly to trademark owners. The gist of the row? ICANN thinks EnCirca is exploiting a loophole in its rules to offer the tightly restricted .pro domains to nonprofessionals.

Documents posted to the ICANN Web site reveal that EnCirca isn't the only recipient of testy ICANN correspondence in the .pro controversy; RegistryPro, the Chicago-based company that operates the .pro registry, is also being asked to pony up data related to EnCirca's activities.