4. NetNames News

Afilias announces Sunrise Period registrations for .info begins on July 25, 2001
Trademark holders should register now to protect their marks prior to public registration

Afilias, the registry selected by ICANN to operate the new .INFO top-level domain (TLD), today announced the opening of the Sunrise Period, the first stage of registration for the .INFO top-level domain (gTLD).

The Sunrise Period is an exclusive period of time, prior to the opening of public registration, where trademark and service mark holders will be able to reserve their exact marks in the .INFO domain and preserve their brands in the new .INFO Internet real estate. On September 12, 2001, Afilias will open registration to the general public, which will be governed without restrictions on who may register.

"Afilias is deeply committed to the protection of intellectual property and brand identity," said Afilias CEO, Hal Lubsen. "Our comprehensive Sunrise Period is a window of opportunity for millions of trademark holders worldwide to protect their brands and translate them into .INFO Web sites that will resonate with customers around the world. We encourage trademark holders to take advantage of this simple registration process and prevent a replay of the .COM rollout, in which speculators were able to register any number of world-class brand names, many of which are still in dispute today."

"The Sunrise Period is a watershed event for the Internet," said Michael Palage, Intellectual Property expert and Secretariat of the ICANN Registrar Constituency. "If trademark holders take advantage of this opportunity to register their marks, they will have the best opportunity to avoid costly litigation, and secure new, intuitive domain names they were previously not able to obtain."

"The new .INFO TLD will give UK companies the opportunity to be part of the global Internet jigsaw and to explore new ways for communicating with consumers worldwide", commented Jonathan Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of NetNames, part of the NetBenefit Group, a UK-based Afilias-authorised registrar with a seat on Afilias board.

Sunrise Period Requirements & Restrictions
Those wishing to reserve their marks in the .INFO domain during the Sunrise Period must own a current trademark or service mark having national effect prior to October 2, 2000. Requests for domain names of corresponding trademarks or service marks must be for only the ASCII characters identical to the textual or word elements of the mark only; however, hyphens may be used between spaces within a registered mark.
Each Sunrise registration will require a minimum term of five years.

5. Fact of the week

Research out this week by Nielsen//NetRatings has shown that seventeen out of the top 20 sites visited by UK Internet surfers are British-owned, proving that old economy companies have finally got their online acts together.

Channel 4's website showed the highest growth over the last six months, thanks to the return of Big Brother. AutoTrader, EasyJet, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Lloyds TSB and Nationwide have all come close to doubling their audience in the last six months. The top 20 looks as follows:

1. Microsoft.com
2. bbc.co.uk
3. btinternet.com
4. virgin.net
5. lloydstsb.co.uk
6. channel4.com
7. bt.com
8. tesco.com
9. barclays.co.uk
10. nokia.com
11. autotrader.com
12. easyjet.com
13. nationwide.co.uk
14. whsmith.co.uk
15. argos.co.uk
16. britannica.com
17. hsbc.co.uk
18. warnerbros.com
19. natwest.com
20. comet.co.uk