The Law Offices of Michael D. Stewart

.INFO DOMAIN NAME

HISTORY OF THE INTRODUCTION OF THE .INFO DOMAIN

The .INFO domain was originally introduced to be an unrestricted domain, like .COM. The .INFO domain Registry attempted to protect Trademark owners during its initial roll-out by having a “Sunrise Period” whereby those owning a trademark or service mark which had been registered on or before October 2, 2000, in any national trademark office, could pre-apply for the identical textual or word element of the mark as a domain name. Applications were randomly selected for registration, e.g. if two companies with the same name applied, only one would be chosen.

Sunrise registrations could be subsequently challenged on narrow grounds. Otherwise, the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) would apply.

Challenges to

Sunrise registrations could be based on the following grounds:

(1) the registrant was the owner of a current trademark or service mark registration;

(2) the trademark or service mark registration did not have national effect. For example, in the United States it is possible to obtain a state trademark or service mark registration in any one of the United States of America, which registrations have only statewide effect, not national effect;

(3) the second-level domain name is not identical to the trademark or service mark registration; or

(4) the trademark or service mark registration did not issue on or before October 2, 2001. If the challenger was successful in the challenge, it would then have the opportunity to register the domain name, or the domain name would remain available for registration. WIPO was the exclusive Dispute Resolution Provider during the

Sunrise challenge period. After the sunrise challenge period, all disputes were to be governed by the ICANN UDRP.

The law Offices of Michael D. Stewart can assist you in these and a variety of other issues. You may contact us at Michael D. Stewart, Esq. * Law Offices of Michael D. Stewart *

335 S. Biscayne Blvd., #UPH00

Miami, Florida

33131 * midstewart@gmail.com * michaelstewartlaw.com * 1-305-394-8546 Telephone * 1-866-438-6574 Toll-free * 1-866-380-8986 Facsimile