Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy
Encyclopedia
The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) is a process established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN
) for the resolution of disputes regarding the registration of internet domain names. The UDRP currently applies to all .aero
, .asia
, .biz
, .cat
, .com
, .coop
, .info
, .jobs
, .mobi
, .museum
, .name
, .net
, .org
, .pro
, .tel
and .travel
top-level domains, and some country code top-level domains.
When a registrant chooses a domain name, the registrant must “represent and warrant,” among other things, that registering the name “will not infringe upon or otherwise violate the rights of any third party,” and agree to participate in an arbitration
-like proceeding should any third party assert such a claim.
In a UDRP proceeding, a panel will consider several non-exclusive factors to assess bad faith, such as:
The goal of the UDRP is to create a streamlined process for resolving such disputes. It was envisioned that this process would be quicker and less expensive than a standard legal challenge. The costs to hire a UDRP provider to handle a complaint often start around US$
1000 to $2000.
If a party loses a UDRP proceeding, in many jurisdictions it may still bring a lawsuit against the domain name registrant under local law. For example, the administrative panel's UDRP decision can be challenged and overturned in a U.S. court of law by means of e.g. the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
. If a domain name registrant loses a UDRP proceeding, it must file a lawsuit against the trademark holder within ten days to prevent ICANN from transferring the domain name.
Often there is contention over similar but not identical domain names, in which the offended party
files a court action claiming trademark
or copyright infringement
. For example, actor Robert De Niro
has claimed ownership of all domain names incorporating the text "Tribeca
" for domain names with any content related to film festivals. In particular, he has a dispute with the owner of the website http://tribeca.net.
As well as the absence of an appeals procedure, the UDRP process is also flawed as, if any of the rules are broken by the centre through which the case has been raised, or by the panel selected, there is no function in place to nullify the case or provide any other resolution.
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
) for the resolution of disputes regarding the registration of internet domain names. The UDRP currently applies to all .aero
.aero
.aero is a generic top-level domain used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is the first sponsored top-level domain based on a single industrial theme. The aero domain is reserved for companies, organizations, associations, government agencies, and individuals in aviation-related...
, .asia
.asia
.asia is a sponsored top-level domain sponsored by the DotAsia Organization, with the back-end registry operated by Afilias. It was approved by ICANN on 19 October 2006 as a sponsored TLD...
, .biz
.biz
biz is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for registration of domains to be used by businesses...
, .cat
.cat
.cat is a sponsored top-level domain intended to be used to highlight the Catalan language and culture. Its policy has been developed by ICANN and Fundació puntCAT...
, .com
.com
The domain name com is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations...
, .coop
.coop
The domain coop is a sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for the use of cooperatives, wholly owned subsidiaries, and other organizations that exist to promote or support co-operatives....
, .info
.info
The domain name info is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet, The name is derived from information indicating that the domain is intended for informative Internet resources, although registration requirements do not prescribe any theme orientation.The info TLD was...
, .jobs
.jobs
The domain name jobs is a sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Indicated by its name, the domain is restricted to employment-related sites....
, .mobi
.mobi
The domain name mobi is a top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from the adjective mobile, indicating its use by mobile devices for accessing Internet resources via the Mobile Web....
, .museum
.museum
museum is a sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet used exclusively by museums, museum associations, and individual members of the museum profession, as these groups are defined by the International Council of Museums .In joint action with the J...
, .name
.name
The domain name "name" is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for use by individuals for representation of their personal names, nicknames, screen names, pseudonyms, or other types of identification labels....
, .net
.net
The domain name net is a generic top-level domain used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from network, indicating its originally intended purpose for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers and other infrastructure companies...
, .org
.org
The domain name org is a generic top-level domain of the Domain Name System used in the Internet. The name is derived from organization....
, .pro
.pro
The domain name pro is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from professional, indicating its intended use by qualified professionals.-History:...
, .tel
.tel
The domain name .tel is a top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It was approved by ICANN as a sponsored top-level domain, and is operated by Telnic...
and .travel
.travel
The domain name travel is a top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name suggests the intended and restricted use by travel agents, airlines, bed and breakfast operators, tourism bureaus, and others in the travel industry....
top-level domains, and some country code top-level domains.
When a registrant chooses a domain name, the registrant must “represent and warrant,” among other things, that registering the name “will not infringe upon or otherwise violate the rights of any third party,” and agree to participate in an arbitration
Arbitration
Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution , is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons , by whose decision they agree to be bound...
-like proceeding should any third party assert such a claim.
Process
A complainant in a UDRP proceeding must establish three elements to succeed:- The domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademarkTrademarkA trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
or service markService markA service mark or servicemark is a trademark used in some countries, notably the United States, to identify a service rather than a product. When a service mark is federally registered, the standard registration symbol ® or "Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off" may be used...
in which the complainant has rights; - The registrant does not have any rights or legitimate interests in the domain name; and
- The registrant registered the domain name and is using it in "bad faithBad faithBad faith is double mindedness or double heartedness in duplicity, fraud, or deception. It may involve intentional deceit of others, or self deception....
."
In a UDRP proceeding, a panel will consider several non-exclusive factors to assess bad faith, such as:
- Whether the registrant registered the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to the complainant who is the owner of the trademark or service mark;
- Whether the registrant registered the domain name to prevent the owner of the trademark or service mark from reflecting the mark in a corresponding domain name, if the domain name owner has engaged in a pattern of such conduct; and
- Whether the registrant registered the domain name primarily for the purpose of disrupting the business of a competitor; or
- Whether by using the domain name, the registrant has intentionally attempted to attract, for commercial gain, internet users to the registrant's website, by creating a likelihood of confusion with the complainant's mark.
The goal of the UDRP is to create a streamlined process for resolving such disputes. It was envisioned that this process would be quicker and less expensive than a standard legal challenge. The costs to hire a UDRP provider to handle a complaint often start around US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1000 to $2000.
If a party loses a UDRP proceeding, in many jurisdictions it may still bring a lawsuit against the domain name registrant under local law. For example, the administrative panel's UDRP decision can be challenged and overturned in a U.S. court of law by means of e.g. the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act ', 15 U.S.C. § 1125, is an American law enacted in 1999 and established a cause of action for registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name confusingly similar to, or dilutive of, a trademark or personal name...
. If a domain name registrant loses a UDRP proceeding, it must file a lawsuit against the trademark holder within ten days to prevent ICANN from transferring the domain name.
Examples
The UDRP process has already been used in a number of well-known cases, such as Madonna Ciccone, p/k/a Madonna v. Dan Parisi and "Madonna.com". In this case, the arbitration panel found against the defendant registrant based on all three of the above factors and ordered the domain name turned over to Madonna.Often there is contention over similar but not identical domain names, in which the offended party
files a court action claiming trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
or copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
. For example, actor Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
has claimed ownership of all domain names incorporating the text "Tribeca
TriBeCa
Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...
" for domain names with any content related to film festivals. In particular, he has a dispute with the owner of the website http://tribeca.net.
Criticism
The UDRP process is weighted heavily in favour of the trademark owner since they can raise cases at will by simply paying the complaint fee and, if their complaint fails, a new case can be raised. If a respondent loses their domain, there is no appeal process and the only recourse they have is to raise a costly lawsuit. Furthermore, a respondent can request that a case of reverse hijacking is found against the complainant but, even if this is upheld, there is no scope for further action against the complainant.As well as the absence of an appeals procedure, the UDRP process is also flawed as, if any of the rules are broken by the centre through which the case has been raised, or by the panel selected, there is no function in place to nullify the case or provide any other resolution.
See also
- DNSDomain name systemThe Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
- Top-level domainTop-level domainA top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
- URLUniform Resource LocatorIn computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
- TyposquattingTyposquattingTyposquatting, also called URL hijacking, is a form of cybersquatting, and possibly brandjacking which relies on mistakes such as typographical errors made by Internet users when inputting a website address into a web browser...
- CybersquattingCybersquattingCybersquatting , according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else...
- Reverse domain hijackingReverse domain hijackingReverse domain name hijacking , occurs where a trademark owner attempts to secure a domain name by making false cybersquatting claims against a domain name’s rightful owner...
- ICANNICANNThe Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
External links
- ICANN Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy
- The Only Search Engine Delivering both NAF & WIPO UDRP decisions
- All cases by name, at ICANN site
- All cases by date, at ICANN site
- Cases decided through WIPO (searchable)
- Cases decided through National Arbitration Forum (searchable)
- Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions Analysis of over 80 Court Decisions and UDRP Proceedings Resolving Domain Name Disputes
- Full text search tool for UDRP decisions