Last month we reported the brand new arrangements and deadlines for these exciting new domain name suffixes. Now, within a month, there are major changes to the dates for action.
Topic: Domain names
Who: Neulevel, Inc. and Afilias Ltd.
When: June 2001
Where: US
What happened:
Neulevel and Afilias, the consortia who won the right to run the new domain name suffixes .biz and .info respectively, quietly moved the goalposts. Before the move, the time window for lodging a .biz "IP Claim" (entitling a brand owner for a fee of $ 90 to nothing more than notification that somebody else is trying to register a domain name consisting of the same brand and ".biz" at the end) was from now to 9 July. Now, the IP Claim period ends Monday 6 August. Also, the initial "sunrise" period for applying to register .biz domain names was changed. We won’t confuse readers still more by giving the old dates, but now the period runs from 24 July to 17 September, while the first day for standard .biz applications is now 16 October, not 1 October.
For .info fans the "sunrise" period for applications by owners of registered trade marks as of 2 October 2000 now runs from 25 July to 28 August, while opening day for the first ordinary applications will now be 19 September.
Why this matters:
Perhaps "Keystone Cops" is too strong, but these changes are hardly going to fill brand owners with confidence. They are also unlikely to stem concerns that these and the five more new suffixes soon to be available (.pro, .name, .museum, .coop and .aero) are nothing more than a new source of aggravation and cost for brand owners who have just got to grips with .com, .gov and .org. Nevertheless, like it or not, inaction now in respect of .biz and .info may only lead to a need for more costly and time consuming action later.
