There were 3 stages to the .info launch
Jul & Early Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
The earlier rounds were for mark holders and the Oct. was for open first come first served registrations.
This was the first ICANN new gTLD launch and quite a few people applied during the first round who couldn't later prove they had sufficient rights and Afilias who run .info refused to let them keep their domains.
Several thousand of these disputed names were auctioned 1 year later in July 2002.
Competing registrars (like GoDaddy, Tucows, Enom etc.) offered different models for a chance to secure those names. Some upped prices and allowed a very expensive first come first served, some had auctions, some caught names for private clients. Some offered no win no fee, some kept all the money regardless etc. etc.
Some disputes were more complicated and Afilias auctioned some of those names last
month
New gTLDs since then have been along similar lines but in the more recent ones the registry companies have looked at ways to stop the 'prime' generic names going to registrars for reg fee prices.
Some are likely to sell direct cutting out the registrars, most are likely to auction, and some are likely to have "founder" programs. Founder programs are where big players who are able to generate headline sales and/or have lots of money to invest get first pick of the very "best" names.
