I believe Afilias has to wait until the quiet period starting
August 28 before purging the registry of fraudulent Sunrise registrations because
they are still accepting registrations until that time. They can not purge
now as they will continue to get fraud registrations replacing the ones they are
deleting. They can not lock the name after deleting the fraud entry as a bona
fide trademark applicant may want to register the name while still in the Sunrise
period. The solution is simple, delete the fraud entries in the quiet period,
let the landrush customers have the names at start-up and then let bona fide trademark
holders challenge them for the names anytime in a 120 day period. Landrush
customers are honest people and are happy to release the names to trademark holders
but NOT cheating fraudsters. In the end all the names will be owned by Landrush
customers and Trademark cusomers.
If Afilias does not delete the fraudulent entries
in the quiet period and lets anyone challenge in the 120 day challenge period then
we are going to get the silly "Musical Chairs Lottery". This way some fraudsters
may yet win by being the last ones holding the names when the challenge period ends
and sell them on BEFORE Afilias can take any action against them.
Afilias must
respect Landrush customers, who are as important as Trademark customers. Afilias
registars have been charging pre-request fees to Landrush cusomers with the promise
of some good generic names. Honest Landrush customers trusted Afilias to ensure
fraudsters did not hijack the system. If Afilias does not make the names
available at the Landrush period then registrars must return the money they accepted
under false pretences or risk having legal proceedings started against them.
All
Landrush customers KNEW they may not have the names they pre-requested available
for registering at the start-up period as BONA FIDE trademark holders may have got
the names first. What they are not prepared to tolerate is having the chance
to get a good name STOLEN by a Sunrise Fraudster. Afilias must not ignore its
Landrush customers!