Afilias pushed to check-out cybersquatters

Afilias, the group in charge of allocating the dot-info domain name, is investigating claims that cybersquatters are fraudulently snapping up trademark domain names.

Last month, the Irish-based consortium of 18 global internet domain registrars gave the go-ahead to trademark holders to pre-register their dot-info domains before full registration opens to the general public in September.

But applicants have accused Afilias of mismatching applicants with the wrong domain names and awarding valuable trademarked domains to bogus applicants.

The group has also been accused of allocating generic domain names including money.info, business.info and sports.info during the pre-registration period which was intended only to be used for trademarks.

The dot-info domain name is due to go live 19 September.