NEWTOWN, PA – July 25, 2001 — Afilias, the registry selected by ICANN to operate the new .INFO top-level domain (TLD), today announced the opening of the Sunrise Period, the first stage of registration for the .INFO top-level domain (gTLD).

The Sunrise Period is an exclusive period of time, prior to the opening of public registration, where trademark and service mark holders will be able to reserve their exact marks in the .INFO domain and preserve their brands in the new .INFO Internet real estate. On September 12, 2001, Afilias will open registration to the general public, which will be governed without restrictions on who may register.

"Afilias is deeply committed to the protection of intellectual property and brand identity," said Afilias CEO, Hal Lubsen. "Our comprehensive Sunrise Period is a window of opportunity for millions of trademark holders worldwide to protect their brands and translate them into .INFO Web sites that will resonate with customers around the world. We encourage trademark holders to take advantage of this simple registration process and prevent a replay of the .COM rollout, in which speculators were able to register any number of world-class brand names, many of which are still in dispute today."

"The Sunrise Period is a watershed event for the Internet," said Michael Palage, intellectual property expert and Secretariat of the ICANN Registrar Constituency. "If trademark holders take advantage of this opportunity to register their marks, they will have the best opportunity to avoid costly litigation, and secure new, intuitive domain names they were previously not able to obtain."

Rollout Schedule

• July 25, 2001 – Sunrise Period begins for trademark holders and service mark holders to submit registrations for their exact marks in the .INFO domain. To maximize fairness registrations will be processed via four queues of a randomized, round robin system, which will close on July 31, August 4, August 7, and August 10 respectively. Following this, Afilias expects the balance of Sunrise registrations to be awarded in real-time.
• August 27, 2001 –The Sunrise Period will close and will be followed by a Quiet Period for testing and evaluation.
• August 28, 2001 –Sunrise Challenge process begins for challenges to names registered during the Sunrise Period, and will continue for a duration of approximately 120 days.
• September 12, 2001 –Registration in the .INFO domain will be opened to the general public and will be governed without restrictions on who may register.
• September 19, 2001 – .INFO domain names begin to resolve through standard Web browsers.

Sunrise Period Requrements & Restrictions

Those wishing to reserve their marks in the .INFO domain during the Sunrise Period must own a current trademark or service mark having national effect prior to October 2, 2000. Requests for domain names of corresponding trademarks or service marks must be for only the ASCII characters identical to the textual or word elements of the mark only; however, hyphens may be used between spaces within a registered mark.

Each Sunrise registration will require a minimum term of five years.

Trademark holders interested in reserving their trade or service marks should contact an Afilias-authorized registrar of choice on or before July 25, 2001. A current list of registrars who are authorized by Afilias to register .INFO names is available at www.info.info.