Yes, I did mean 5 December 2001, not the 6th.The "challenge of last resort" allows
Afilias the right to bring, after the conclusion of the Sunrise Challenge Period,
a final challenge. There is no time limit set for this. However, this term is only
in the revised (5 December 2001) policy and only for challenges brought about after
5 December 2001. I doubt it if Afilias could succesfully apply this to challenges
and registrations brought about before this date.
However, where there are multiple
challenges that were made before 5 December 2001, and the priority challenger wins,
the rest of the challenges are considered terminated, and a new challenge needs to
be brought about before another date if the challenger wants to challenge the newest
registrant and stay in the same queue. If that newer, subsequent challenge is made
after 5 December 2001, then the new policy applies to that challenge, even though
there was a related initial challenge made before 5 December 2001.
My guess is
that because there are, in theory, a maxium of 60 days for each challenge process,
Afilias realised that without a challenge of last resort, they couldn't challenge
any illegitimate trademarks for challenges made shortly before December 26, 2001
(the end of the Challenge period) because they wouldn't be aware of TM details until
well after their own bulk challenge of December 27 2001 (which is now well overdue).
They also introduced the requirement of a TM certificate for proof of a TM which
no doubt will speed up the processing of domains with multiple challengers.
With
the old policy, it would be well after the final "December 27" bulk challenge until
the final registrant emerged, and if that personal didn't have a trademark, Afilias
couldn't touch them (as someone here referred to it: domain name version of musical
chairs).