As a follow up to ICANN’s Special Meeting of the Board on February 18, 2004, previously reported here on CircleID, the following resolution was reached on the WLS Negotiations with VeriSign:

“The Board reviewed with staff the current status of the negotiations with VeriSign regarding WLS. On 2 June 2003, ICANN’s Board adopted Resolutions 03.79 and 03.80, which partially granted VeriSign’s request for reconsideration by revising the conditions under which ICANN would consent to modifying VeriSign’s registry agreements to allow for the offering of WLS.

On 26 January 2004, ICANN’s General Counsel wrote to VeriSign to document the conclusion of negotiations concerning the conditions on VeriSign’s proposed offering of WLS.

During this Board Meeting, the Board authorized the public posting of the 26 January 2004 letter [PDF] setting forth the results of the negotiations and asked that this matter be placed on the Board’s agenda for the publicly-held Board Meeting for 6 March 2004 in Rome, Italy.”

Resolution on other matters include a report on “Request for Assignment of .pro Registry Agreement” where it states that the “President and General Counsel are authorized to approve the request to assign the .pro registry agreement from RegistryPro, Inc. to Registry Services Corporation”:

“Whereas, on 3 May 2002, ICANN entered a .pro Registry Agreement with RegistryPRO, Inc.;

Whereas, subsection 5.11 of the .pro Registry Agreement provides that “Registry Operator may assign this Agreement as part of the transfer of its registry business if such transfer and assignment are approved in advance by ICANN…”;

Whereas on 11 December 2003, RegistryPRO informed ICANN that it was in the process of selling certain property and assets used by RegistryPRO in the ownership and operation of the .pro registry to Registry Services Corporation, a Nevada corporation fully owned by Hostway Corporation;

Whereas Hostway is a large and established webhosting company, with headquarters in Chicago and facilities in America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific;

Wheras ICANN has received a request from RegistryPro to assign its rights and obligations under the registry agreement to Registry Services Corporation;

Whereas ICANN has reviewed the request for ICANN approval of the assignment, and has determined that granting it would promote the community interest;

Resolved [04.17], that the President and General Counsel are authorized to approve the request to assign the .pro registry agreement from RegistryPro, Inc. to Registry Services Corporation.”

ICANN’s Preliminary Report is posted here.