Elminate Restriction on Ownership of Registrars/Registries

["Mary Iqbal" <media@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At present, there
are restrictions stating that, in effect, a Registry cannot own a
Registrar or vice versa.  I believe that this restriction must be
removed because it is problematic for the upcoming gTLD open
application process.  

Case 1
For example,
if someone with a long-standing trademark wants to create a new top
level domain for their trademark, and wants to allow certain, approved
entities to purchase domains with the trademarked extension, how will
this be done without the Registry in effect acting as a Registrar?

In
certain instances, trademarked domains owners will not want their
trademarked domain to be listed on a site like GoDaddy or Network
solutions.  Does this mean that they should not be able to distribute
the domains as they choose?

Case 2
My second
example involves someone who is approved to run a new top level domain
Registry, but is not able to get any Registrar to list their domain. 
Should that Registry owner then be just "out of luck" because no one
wants to sell their domain?  I think that the Registry should have the
opportunity to sell their own domains if they so choose, in the same
way as brick and mortar distributors may sell their own products or
choose to distribute them through a chain retailer for broader
exposure, at the property owner's own discretion.

Summary
It
comes down to opening up the market.  With the upcoming proliferation
of top level domains, the risk of one Registry creating a monopolistic
situation in the Registrar market is over.  While you may keep the
restriction in place for .com, given their dominance, I believe that
the Registry/Registrar ownership restriction should be completely
eliminated for all other top level domains.

Thank you,
Mary