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Username: DomeBase
Date/Time: Sat, December 22, 2001 at 4:52 AM GMT
Browser: Netscape Communicator V4.7 using Windows NT
Subject: old and new .info Sunrise Challenge rules

Message: 		 

 
If I am not mistaken, under the original .info Sunrise Challenge rules, anyone could challenge a Sunrise registration and request that the name be either: (1) transferred to the challenger; or (2) freed up to go into the "pot" for public registration.  Oddly enough, the challenge was then evaluated only on whether the original registrant had a trademark which met the original Sunrise criteria or not, not based on the trademark claim of the challenger.  For names without any valid trademark, this could lead to what I called the "Musicial Chairs Lottery" -- wherein one fraud gets the name from the original fraud, who in turn can lose the name to another fraud... and so forth and so forth, until the "music stops" and the last fraud left standing gets the name.  The music stopping would have been the end of the Sunrise challenge period and/or Afilias' final challenge.  As best I can tell, this is what was unfolding until Afilias changed the regs in December... and this is why we see one fraud replacing another for Sunrise Challenges before then.  Accordingly, while I do not think that it is good, I am not surprised that one fraud has replaced another via Sunrise Challenges before December.

In December, Afilias changed the Sunrise Challenge rules to require (stricter? any?) check on trademark claim by the challenger.  As best I can tell, this should stop the "Musical Chairs Lottery" and from now on we should not see one fraud displacing another via Sunrise Challenges.  Of course, one could say... "Why Didn't Afilias and WIPO check trademarks to being with... either during original Sunrise or for Sunrise Challenges before now?"  I would not disagree with those who ask this and shake their heads slowly.   I asked this myself.  However, one could also be glad for any positive change... ANY movement in a positive direction.  If you believe that behavior is best changed by both a carrot and a stick, then one should recognize a modest positive move with modest positive reinforcement... which is why I offered positive words in the press concerning Afilias' December changes and would be willing to offer positive words again if LandRush I participants are given some decent standing in LandRush II. 

The main show will be what Afilias does in 2002 with the names which they challenge.



 

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