Owners of the .info generic top level domain (gTLD) announced Thursday
their submission of 741 suspect Sunrise entries to an arbitration
organization for review.
The registry started a Sunrise registration policy last year when they
announced the launch of their gTLD, a move to eliminate cybersquatters from
taking advantage of popular domain names and holding them for “ransom” to
the highest bidder.
Roland LaPlante, Afilias’ chief marketing officer, said the 741 names are
not the entire list of names under review, just the first to be submitted
for arbitration, a process that will last through April.
“Afilias is committed to returning ineligible Sunrise names to the general
public,” he said. “Our task force will continue its review and expects to
challenge thousands of additional names in the coming weeks. ”
The initial list of names comes earlier than expected. Afilias officials
had previously announced they would send an early list of questionable
names to mediators sometime in February or March.
Afilias officials say the World Intellectual Property Organization, one of
four domain name dispute companies formed to mediate contested domain
names, will spend the coming weeks trying to contact the owners of the
Sunrise registrants. The WIPO was
named the exclusive arbitrator for all .info disputes last May.
WIPO officials will spend the next week contacting the 741 names on
Afilias’ list, informing them of the domain name challenge and seeking a
response. If they get no response in 10 days, another attempt at getting
in touch with the registrants will be made. If they haven’t replied within
another 10 days, the domain name will go back in the “pool” of eligible
domain names.
All told, Afilias officials expect the process to take 30 days. Each
“batch” sent to WIPO in the coming weeks will take approximately 30 days to
resolve, they said.
Afilias, a registry that’s gotten off the ground fitfully, seems to be
heading in the right direction to weed out cybersquatters before those
domains go “live” later this year.
Heather Carle, Afilias spokesperson, said the purpose of their domain
dispute task force the past several months has been to eliminate the
obviously-fake domain registrations, not involve innocent parties.
“There are always some errors involved (in the registration process),”
Carle said. “What we don’t want to do is make challenges done in good
faith, that’s why we contacted registrars back in December to contact their
customers who might have made errors in their submission. We are going
over every registration thoroughly.”
She pointed out some of the more questionable entries submitted to the
World Intellectual Property Organization, like airplane.info’s
registration, whose owners who not only failed to come up with a patent
number, but put “unknown” in its place. There were several entries for
domains located specifically in one area of the world, she said, registered
from individuals in Chile or from other parts of the world.
“We are only going after the domains that have obvious errors in their
Sunrise registration,” she added.
.Info got off to a rocky start late last year when advocates claimed the
Sunrise policy used by Afilias was ineffective in keeping cybersquatters
out. Dr. Robert Connor, an associate professor at the University of
Minnesota, found that as many as 25 percent of the domain names filed in
the Sunrise period were bogus.
This came after .info’s technicians underestimated the amount of domain
name requests from registrars trying to access the live registration
process Oct. 1, causing the entire network to collapse for three days. All
told, in 90 days the registry received and processed more than 500,000
domain names in three months and have more than 700,000 registered to date.
The registry responded by revamping
their early sign-up policy and beefing up their network, making it
easier for legitimate trademark owners to grab their virtual turf.
Since then Afilias, a company formed by a group of 18 worldwide registrars,
has been proactive in getting the support of the domain name community,
notably Connor and certain members who voice their concerns with online
communities like ICANNwatch.org.
Carle said the company is always on the lookout for comments made about
their registration process and will make every effort to respond to charges.
“We’re always watching the message boards,” Carle said, “and are always
looking for comment from members of the domain community. We’ve set up
phone numbers and email addresses for anyone who wants to contact us.”
