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".info" domain tightens trademark rules

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CIOL Bureau
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Andy Sullivan

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WASHINGTON: The company that manages the new ".info" Internet

domain said on Wednesday it would tighten up registration rules as it prepared

to challenge the validity of one out of every five names registered since the

summer.

Domain manager Afilias, whose .info Internet suffix joined .com, .net and

other established "top level" domains this fall, said it would modify

its rules to ensure that disputed domains could only be awarded to legitimate

trademark holders. Thousands of applicants abused a preregistration process for

trademark holders this summer in order to grab generic names like "finance.info"

before they were made available to the public.

Afilias said it would require other challengers to produce proof that they

owned a valid trademark, in order to prevent one dishonest applicant from taking

a domain name from another. The move comes as Afilias plans to file a "bulk

challenge" of 10,000 of the 50,000 names submitted so far, according to

Afilias Chief Marketing Officer Roland LaPlante. "We're trying to

strengthen the process," LaPlante said.

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Afilias will also allow domain-name retailers to fix any errors in

application forms before the bulk challenge period and allow domain-name holders

who did not mean to file during the preregistration period to withdraw their

applications. At least one batch of names filed in the preregistration period

was due to an error by the retailer.

Afilias allowed trademark holders an opportunity to preregister names like

"disney.info" when it rolled out its domain this summer. But it soon

became apparent that thousands of applicants had abused the process, using

questionable trademark claims to register generic terms like "sports.info."

Afilias said early in the fall that it would allow legitimate trademark

holders to challenge the registrations before the company itself mounted a

"bulk challenge" of remaining suspect names.

The rule change will avoid a scenario in which one fraudulent claimant could

win a generic name like "computer.info" from another fraudulent

claimant, said Robert Connor, a professor at the University of Minnesota's

Carlson School of Management. "They've at least stopped this musical chairs

kind of effect," Connor said. Connor said Afilias should also give priority

to applicants who played by the rules and waited to apply for a domain name

until the preregistration period was over.

Roughly 700 challenges have been filed so far, LaPlante said. Most cases

listed on the Web site of the World Intellectual Property Organization, which is

hearing the disputes, show that the challengers have won their cases and had

domains such as "google.info" and "portfolio.info"

transferred to them. The challenge period will remain open until December 26,

LaPlante said, at which point Afilias will file its challenge. Trademark claims

would be verified by WIPO, LaPlante said.

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