Afilias Announces Global Adoption of New .INFO Domain; Trademark Registration Period Ends On August 27, 2001.

Business Editors

NEWTOWN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 23, 2001

60% of The World's Top Brands Have Registered .INFO Sites

With First Movers Emerging in All Major Industry Categories

Afilias, the registry selected by ICANN to operate the new .INFO top-level domain (TLD), today announced, that registrations are coming in from over 60 countries worldwide with 52% in Europe, 40% in North America, and 5% from the Asia Pacific region.

Early data indicates that .INFO -- the first of the new top level domains to rollout -- is a truly global phenomenon. Nearly 60 percent of the world's most valuable brands, according to the Interbrand/Business Week study published in the August 6, 2001 issue of Business Week, have already registered a .INFO domain. According to the public information available in the WHOIS database of .INFO addresses these brands include market leaders ranging from Microsoft, Starbucks and Nokia to Mercedes and Porsche to Vivendi and Seagram's and Johnson & Johnson.

"We are very encouraged with the number of global brands that have already registered a .INFO domain name," said Roland LaPlante Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Afilias. "Tens of thousands of these names have been registered so far and with the Sunrise Period ending on August 27, there are only a few days left for the remaining trademark holders to protect their marks. However, there are still millions of great names available for the general public to register beginning on September 12, 2001."

Industry First Movers

Key players from Fortune Magazine's Annual Ranking of the Fortune 1000 published in April, 2001 have also been among the first movers to register their brands with .INFO. Four of the five leading entertainment companies have registered their .INFO domain names including Viacom, Clearchannel, USA Networks and Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Leading pharmaceutical companies that have also been quick to register their marks include Merck, Johnson and Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb. A number of global brands have also registered their taglines, for instance: wheresthebeef.info, nokiaconnectingpeople.info, fedexpriorityovernight.info, celebratehumanity.info, and dell4me.info.

Global Snapshot

"In the legacy domains, more than two thirds of names were registered by U.S. companies," said LaPlante. "The early results from .INFO registrations confirm our early research on the global appeal of .INFO, with 62 percent of registrations from registrants outside of the United States As the first truly global top level domain, .INFO will help companies communicate with consumers worldwide in a whole new way and satisfy the market demand for domain names that resonate internationally."

Of all registrations filed, the top three markets outside the United States were Germany (20%), Switzerland (7%) and the U.K. (6%). The US accounted for 39% of registrations.

    Regional Breakdown

    -   US & Canada         40%
    -   Europe              52%
    -   Asia                 5%
    -   Latin America        3%

.INFO Roll-Out Schedule

The Sunrise Period, an exclusive period of time for trademark and service mark holders to register their marks, opened on July 25, 2001. On August 27, 2001, the Sunrise Period will close. Any challenges to names registered during the Sunrise Period may be filed directly with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) during the Sunrise Challenge process, which will commence on August 28 and continue until December 26, 2001. On September 12, 2001 registration in the .INFO domain will be opened to the general public and will be governed without restrictions on who may register.

About Afilias

Afilias -- the registry for .INFO, the first new global unrestricted top-level domain -- seeks to create the most direct and intuitive path to knowledge on the web. Afilias is an consortium of eighteen of the world's leading domain name registrars with operations across ten countries.

Afilias was formed in September of 2000 in recognition of the need for increased competition in the domain space. In aggregate, the company's member registrars registered more than 10 million domain names and collectively offer a wide range of related Internet services, including country-code domain name registrations, country-code registry operations, Web hosting, and ISP services.

Afilias' shareholders include: 1stDomain.net, a division of G+D International LLC; Corporate Domains, Inc.; Domain Bank, Inc.; DomainInfo AB; DomainPeople, Inc.; Domain Registration Services, Inc.; Enter-Price Multimedia AG (EPAG); Global Media Online, Inc.; Internet Council of Registrars (CORE); Netnames International Ltd; Network Solutions, Inc. Registrar Operations; Polar Software Ltd. d/b/a Signdomains.com; PSI-USA, Inc.; Register.com; Schlund + Partner AG; SiteName.com LLC; Speednames, Inc.; Tucows, Inc.

Afilias maintains international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and U.S. headquarters in Newtown, PA. For more information, visit http://www.afilias.info.