With the Sunrise Period for trademark and service mark holders to register their marks in the new .INFO domain slated to end on
Monday, Aug. 27, Afilias Thursday claimed that registrations to date mark .INFO as the first “truly global” domain.
Afilias is a consortium of registrars selected by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to serve as the registry
for .INFO. The Sunrise Period was initiated on July 25, 2001, in order to give trademark and service mark holders a chance to
protect their marks before the registry is opened to the general public on Sept. 12, 2001.
That policy was instituted in an attempt to prevent the “land grab” mentality that befell the opening of the dotcom domain, in which
speculators (now known by the less flattering cognomen “cybersquatter”) bought domains featuring top brands and sold them to the
brand holders for millions of dollars. While a multitude of lawsuits have been filed against cybersquatters over the years, a number
of brand domains have not been reclaimed by brand holders. Microsoftword.com is not owned by Microsoft, and Palm does not own
PalmV.com or Palm5.com. Whitehouse.com is currently a porn site.
This apparently has led many companies to act during the Sunrise Period. The consortium said Thursday that more than 60 percent of
registrations made during the Sunrise Period have been filed outside of the U.S., and more than 80 percent of companies on
Interbrand’s list of the world’s 100 most valuable brands have already registered a .INFO domain. Examples of companies and brands
include Sony, MTV, Microsoft, Starbucks, Porsche, Budweiser, Mercedes, Coca Cola, Viacom, Clearchannel, USA Networks, Metro Goldwyn
Mayer, Merck, Johnson and Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb. Some companies have even gone so far as to register their taglines, like
wheresthebeef.info, nokiaconnectingpeople.info, fedexpriorityovernight.info and dell4me.info.
“In the legacy domains (.com, .net and .org), more than two thirds of names were registered by U.S. companies,” said Roland
LaPlante, vice president and chief marketing officer for Afilias. “The early results from .INFO registrations confirm our early
research on the global appeal of .INFO, with 62 percent of registrations from registrants outside the United States. As the first
truly global top level domain, .INFO will help fuel the growth of the Internet outside the U.S. and satisfy the demand for domain
names that resonate internationally.”
The U.S. accounted for only 39 percent of .INFO registrations. The top three markets outside the U.S. were Germany (which accounted
for 20 percent of registrations), Switzerland (7 percent) and the U.K. (6 percent). On the regional level, the U.S. and Canada
accounted for 40 percent of registrations, and Europe accounted for 52 percent. Another 5 percent came from Asia, 3 percent from
Latin America and 1 percent from Australia.
“We are very encouraged with the number of global brands that have already registered a .INFO domain name,” LaPlante said. “Tens of
thousands of these names have been registered so far and with the Sunrise Period ending on August 27, there are only a few days left
for the remaining trademark holders to protect their marks. However, there are still millions of great names available for the
general public to register beginning on Sept. 12, 2001.”
