.INFO Sunrise Challengers Are Registering Challenged Domains Without Trademarks!
Is this the next chapter in the great .INFO debacle?Despite the written sunrise
challenge policies, which allow transfer of a domain name to a successful challenger
only under the sunrise rules (i.e. with a registered trademark), some challengers
have managed to skirt the requirements and obtain ownership of domain names without
entering any trademark information.
Case in point, RETIREMENT.INFO. This
domain was first registered during the sunrise period, and HAD trademark details
listed in the Afilias WHOIS. Then it was challenged, and transfer was awarded
by WIPO to the challenger. Now the WHOIS shows no trademark information, apparently
making it impossible for anyone to challenge the challenger's registration.
What
this seems to mean is that for the price of a sunrise challenge, a fraudulent sunrise
registration can be "laundered" to remove all trademark information, possibly protecting
it from future action.
Anyone know of any other cases? (Interestingly, the WHOIS
record for RETIREMENT.INFO still has the July registration date, but has a sixth
year added to the registration term. This may be a way to identify laundered
domains.)