National Association Of Realtors Reminds ICANN .Realtors Is a Brand App & Should be Outside Of GAC Advice

In a letter sent to the Chair of the new gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) The National Association Of Realtors reminded ICANN that its application for the new gTLD .Realtors is a brand application, not a generic application and should be freed from GAC Advice.

Oh by the way they would also like a response to their letter of over a month ago on the same subject:

“We send this correspondence for consideration for your upcoming meeting on August 13, 2013.

“This communication is in follow-up to our July 11, 2013, correspondence (located at http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/correspondence) to which we have received no response.”

“That letter requested:

1. That .REALTOR be removed from the Category 1 Professional Services list; and

2. That the application for .REALTOR be unfrozen.

“To summarize, the term REALTOR® is a distinctive mark that identifies a member of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). REALTOR® is not a generic term and cannot be used to generally describe real estate professionals.”

“For example, the words “real estate agent”, “broker”, or “estate agent” are not interchangeable with the term REALTOR®. As set forth in the TLD application and PICs, NAR will continue to enforce proper use of its famous brand, REALTOR®, online as it has been doing offline for nearly 100 years. For these reasons, we believe that inclusion of the term in Category 1 Professional Services may have been in error and that there is no reasonable purpose for the ICANN Board to hold up or “freeze” the advancement of .REALTOR to delegation.”

“The .REALTOR application has no objections or contention and, in addition, the applicant supports the GAC advice, including the language contained in the Registry Agreement.

“We further note that since the NGPC’s July 2, 2013, resolution to freeze strings in a one-size-fits-all manner, ICANN staff has been authorized to make unilateral changes to the Registry Agreement based on GAC Advice. ”

“We respectfully request that you utilize that authority here, and remove .REALTOR from the Category 1 Professional Services list and unfreeze the .REALTOR application.”

Sounds right to me.