The .info domain names are late in arrival. They were first approved in November 2000 by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the internet’s official domain naming authority. ICANN then approved a consortium called Afilias as the official registry – effectively the body responsible for co-ordinating and maintaining a central database of all .info names sold by various domain name registration companies around the world. At this time, it also approved a company called NeuLevel to run the registry for .biz, another of the new domain names authorised last year by ICANN.
Recently, .info names were scheduled for a “live” date of 12th September, but the launch was postponed due to the recent atrocities in New York. NeuLevel’s .biz domain name registry was recently scheduled for a 1st October launch, but NeuLevel has now postponed the launch until 23rd October, citing the same reason for the delay.
However, NeuLevel is also facing legal action over a claim that it is running an illegal lottery. The claim is the result of the rules adopted by NeuLevel for allocating the .biz names to those with trade marks in potential domain names. The action in a Californian court threatens to further delay the launch of .biz names.