You make some good points Gary....
BTW: Mount Rushmore is not TM'd (even though the WHOIS record shows
a TM date of 1/1/1900) ...Full Explanation below:
From Afilias website (10/3/01)
On
trademark information ....
You may notice that some Start-Up names have trademark
information which makes them appear similar to Sunrise names. It is important to
note that Registrars had the option of submitting trademark field information during
the Start-Up period. The Registry did not require this information to be submitted
during Start-Up (unlike Sunrise registrations where these fields were mandatory).
If authorized Registrars submitted information in these fields to Afilias for
Start-Up names, they were accepted and processed "as submitted". The information
in the WHOIS is exactly as submitted by the sponsoring Registrar.
On dates ....
You
may find that Start-Up names have creation dates as early as September 12, the date
that Afilias opened the registry for registrars to submit pre-registration requests.
The "CREATED ON" date corresponds to the date that the registrar submitted their
request to Afilias. Afilias processed all Start-Up applications only after the close
of the Start-Up period.