New gTLD .DOCTOR has entered general availability phase and anyone can register names. Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC ICANN) probably will not be happy about this. Way back during discussion of domains GAC members insisted that it should be a restricted gTLD, meaning that only licensed medical practitioners should be able to register names. GAC’s concern that the domain will be used by fake medical webpages seems very reasonable.
However, Donuts that received the right to manage the domain by winning in a private auction was against such measures. Representatives stated that restricting the registration would harm many other categories of users, for example, scientists holding PhD or technicians who like to cal themselves computer or machine doctors. As a result, ICANN corporation took the side of the registry. However, some restrictions do exist. Registrants, who create webpages in .DOCTOR related to their medical practice, are expected to confirm that they are professional doctors. However, it will be necessary only if some user complains on the webpage: Donuts itself has a right to conduct its own inspections; however, it has stated earlier that it doesn’t plan on doing that.
The Domains report that during Sunrise and Early Access Period by the beginning of November there were 1400 registered names in .DOCTOR. The annual fee is quite high. For example, the largest registrar GoDaddy offers regular (not premium) names in .DOCTOR for about 91 US dollars.
