When you read the minutes of ICANN's Board meeting on April 30th, you come accross a section that describes RegistryPRO, the registry responsible for the .pro domain extension, and their request to change its registration agreement with ICANN.

The minutes indicate that, "The TLD has had limited success to date, with registrations in the low thousands." Only a few thousand .PRO domains have been registered to date, primarily due to complex and restrictive registration rules...

The ICANN Board agrees that .PRO needs to "relaunch" and agreed to allow RegistryPRO to:

• increase the number of eligible professions
• simplify the validation procedures
• open the extension up to more countries

According to Kurt Pritz, "The .PRO has struggled as a registry and is seeking to reinvigorate the registry and staff supports the efforts to make it successful while maintaining appropriate restrictions," .

We will keep you informed as these rule changes are being implemented...

Source: ICANN Board Meeting Minutes - April 30th, 2008