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Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy |
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Policy
Adopted: August 26, 1999
Implementation Documents Approved: October 24, 1999
Note: This policy is now in effect. See
www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-schedule.htm for the
implementation schedule.
1. Purpose. This Uniform Domain Name Dispute
Resolution Policy (the "Policy") has been
adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers ("ICANN"), is
incorporated by reference into your Registration
Agreement, and sets forth the terms and
conditions in connection with a dispute between you
and any party other than us (the registrar)
over the registration and use of an Internet domain
name registered by you. Proceedings under
Paragraph 4 of this Policy will be conducted
according to the Rules for Uniform Domain Name
Dispute Resolution Policy (the "Rules of
Procedure"), which are available at
www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm, and the
selected administrative-dispute-resolution
service provider's supplemental rules.
2. Your Representations. By applying to register a
domain name, or by asking us to
maintain or renew a domain name registration, you
hereby represent and warrant to us that (a)
the statements that you made in your Registration
Agreement are complete and accurate; (b)
to your knowledge, the registration of the domain
name will not infringe upon or otherwise
violate the rights of any third party; (c) you are
not registering the domain name for an unlawful
purpose; and (d) you will not knowingly use the
domain name in violation of any applicable
laws or regulations. It is your responsibility to
determine whether your domain name
registration infringes or violates someone else's
rights.
3. Cancellations, Transfers, and Changes. We will
cancel, transfer or otherwise make
changes to domain name registrations under the
following circumstances:
a. subject to the provisions of Paragraph 8, our
receipt of written or appropriate
electronic instructions from you or your authorized
agent to take such action;
b. our receipt of an order from a court or arbitral
tribunal, in each case of
competent jurisdiction, requiring such action;
and/or
c. our receipt of a decision of an Administrative
Panel requiring such action in
any administrative proceeding to which you were a
party and which was
conducted under this Policy or a later version of
this Policy adopted by ICANN.
(See Paragraph 4(i) and (k) below.)
We may also cancel, transfer or otherwise make
changes to a domain name registration in
accordance with the terms of your Registration
Agreement or other legal requirements.
4. Mandatory Administrative Proceeding.
This Paragraph sets forth the type of disputes for
which you are required to submit to a
mandatory administrative proceeding. These
proceedings will be conducted before one of the
administrative-dispute-resolution service providers
listed at
www.icann.org/udrp/approved-providers.htm (each, a
"Provider").
a. Applicable Disputes. You are required to submit
to a mandatory
administrative proceeding in the event that a third
party (a "complainant") asserts
to the applicable Provider, in compliance with the
Rules of Procedure, that
(i) your domain name is identical or confusingly
similar to a
trademark or service mark in which the complainant
has rights;
and
(ii) you have no rights or legitimate interests in
respect of the
domain name; and
(iii) your domain name has been registered and is
being used in
bad faith.
In the administrative proceeding, the complainant
must prove that each of these
three elements are present.
b. Evidence of Registration and Use in Bad Faith.
For the purposes of
Paragraph 4(a)(iii), the following circumstances, in
particular but without
limitation, if found by the Panel to be present,
shall be evidence of the
registration and use of a domain name in bad faith:
(i) circumstances indicating that you have
registered or you have
acquired 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
or to a competitor of that complainant, for valuable
consideration in
excess of your documented out-of-pocket costs
directly related to
the domain name; or
(ii) you have registered the domain name in order to
prevent the
owner of the trademark or service mark from
reflecting the mark in
a corresponding domain name, provided that you have
engaged in
a pattern of such conduct; or
(iii) you have registered the domain name primarily
for the purpose
of disrupting the business of a competitor; or
(iv) by using the domain name, you have
intentionally attempted to
attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to your
web site or
other on-line location, by creating a likelihood of
confusion with the
complainant's mark as to the source, sponsorship,
affiliation, or
endorsement of your web site or location or of a
product or service
on your web site or location.
c. How to Demonstrate Your Rights to and Legitimate
Interests in the
Domain Name in Responding to a Complaint. When you
receive a
complaint, you should refer to Paragraph 5 of the
Rules of Procedure in
determining how your response should be prepared.
Any of the following
circumstances, in particular but without limitation,
if found by the Panel to be
proved based on its evaluation of all evidence
presented, shall demonstrate your
rights or legitimate interests to the domain name
for purposes of Paragraph
4(a)(ii):
(i) before any notice to you of the dispute, your
use of, or
demonstrable preparations to use, the domain name or
a name
corresponding to the domain name in connection with
a bona fide
offering of goods or services; or
(ii) you (as an individual, business, or other
organization) have
been commonly known by the domain name, even if you
have
acquired no trademark or service mark rights; or
(iii) you are making a legitimate noncommercial or
fair use of the
domain name, without intent for commercial gain to
misleadingly
divert consumers or to tarnish the trademark or
service mark at
issue.
d. Selection of Provider. The complainant shall
select the Provider from
among those approved by ICANN by submitting the
complaint to that Provider.
The selected Provider will administer the
proceeding, except in cases of
consolidation as described in Paragraph 4(f).
e. Initiation of Proceeding and Process and
Appointment of
Administrative Panel. The Rules of Procedure state
the process for initiating
and conducting a proceeding and for appointing the
panel that will decide the
dispute (the "Administrative Panel").
f. Consolidation. In the event of multiple disputes
between you and a
complainant, either you or the complainant may
petition to consolidate the
disputes before a single Administrative Panel. This
petition shall be made to the
first Administrative Panel appointed to hear a
pending dispute between the
parties. This Administrative Panel may consolidate
before it any or all such
disputes in its sole discretion, provided that the
disputes being consolidated are
governed by this Policy or a later version of this
Policy adopted by ICANN.
g. Fees. All fees charged by a Provider in
connection with any dispute before an
Administrative Panel pursuant to this Policy shall
be paid by the complainant,
except in cases where you elect to expand the
Administrative Panel from one to
three panelists as provided in Paragraph 5(b)(iv) of
the Rules of Procedure, in
which case all fees will be split evenly by you and
the complainant.
h. Our Involvement in Administrative Proceedings. We
do not, and will not,
participate in the administration or conduct of any
proceeding before an
Administrative Panel. In addition, we will not be
liable as a result of any
decisions rendered by the Administrative Panel.
i. Remedies. The remedies available to a complainant
pursuant to any
proceeding before an Administrative Panel shall be
limited to requiring the
cancellation of your domain name or the transfer of
your domain name
registration to the complainant.
j. Notification and Publication. The Provider shall
notify us of any decision
made by an Administrative Panel with respect to a
domain name you have
registered with us. All decisions under this Policy
will be published in full over
the Internet, except when an Administrative Panel
determines in an exceptional
case to redact portions of its decision.
k. Availability of Court Proceedings. The mandatory
administrative
proceeding requirements set forth in Paragraph 4
shall not prevent either you or
the complainant from submitting the dispute to a
court of competent jurisdiction
for independent resolution before such mandatory
administrative proceeding is
commenced or after such proceeding is concluded. If
an Administrative Panel
decides that your domain name registration should be
canceled or transferred,
we will wait ten (10) business days (as observed in
the location of our principal
office) after we are informed by the applicable
Provider of the Administrative
Panel's decision before implementing that decision.
We will then implement the
decision unless we have received from you during
that ten (10) business day
period official documentation (such as a copy of a
complaint, file-stamped by the
clerk of the court) that you have commenced a
lawsuit against the complainant
in a jurisdiction to which the complainant has
submitted under Paragraph
3(b)(xiii) of the Rules of Procedure. (In general,
that jurisdiction is either the
location of our principal office or of your address
as shown in our Whois
database. See Paragraphs 1 and 3(b)(xiii) of the
Rules of Procedure for details.)
If we receive such documentation within the ten (10)
business day period, we will
not implement the Administrative Panel's decision,
and we will take no further
action, until we receive (i) evidence satisfactory
to us of a resolution between the
parties; (ii) evidence satisfactory to us that your
lawsuit has been dismissed or
withdrawn; or (iii) a copy of an order from such
court dismissing your lawsuit or
ordering that you do not have the right to continue
to use your domain name.
5. All Other Disputes and Litigation. All other
disputes between you and any party other
than us regarding your domain name registration that
are not brought pursuant to the
mandatory administrative proceeding provisions of
Paragraph 4 shall be resolved between you
and such other party through any court, arbitration
or other proceeding that may be available.
6. Our Involvement in Disputes. We will not
participate in any way in any dispute between
you and any party other than us regarding the
registration and use of your domain name. You
shall not name us as a party or otherwise include us
in any such proceeding. In the event that
we are named as a party in any such proceeding, we
reserve the right to raise any and all
defenses deemed appropriate, and to take any other
action necessary to defend ourselves.
7. Maintaining the Status Quo. We will not cancel,
transfer, activate, deactivate, or
otherwise change the status of any domain name
registration under this Policy except as
provided in Paragraph 3 above.
8. Transfers During a Dispute.
a. Transfers of a Domain Name to a New Holder. You
may not transfer your
domain name registration to another holder (i)
during a pending administrative
proceeding brought pursuant to Paragraph 4 or for a
period of fifteen (15)
business days (as observed in the location of our
principal place of business)
after such proceeding is concluded; or (ii) during a
pending court proceeding or
arbitration commenced regarding your domain name
unless the party to whom
the domain name registration is being transferred
agrees, in writing, to be bound
by the decision of the court or arbitrator. We
reserve the right to cancel any
transfer of a domain name registration to another
holder that is made in violation
of this subparagraph.
b. Changing Registrars. You may not transfer your
domain name registration
to another registrar during a pending administrative
proceeding brought pursuant
to Paragraph 4 or for a period of fifteen (15)
business days (as observed in the
location of our principal place of business) after
such proceeding is concluded.
You may transfer administration of your domain name
registration to another
registrar during a pending court action or
arbitration, provided that the domain
name you have registered with us shall continue to
be subject to the
proceedings commenced against you in accordance with
the terms of this
Policy. In the event that you transfer a domain name
registration to us during the
pendency of a court action or arbitration, such
dispute shall remain subject to
the domain name dispute policy of the registrar from
which the domain name
registration was transferred.
9. Policy Modifications. We reserve the right to
modify this Policy at any time with the
permission of ICANN. We will post our revised Policy
at <URL> at least thirty (30) calendar
days before it becomes effective. Unless this Policy
has already been invoked by the
submission of a complaint to a Provider, in which
event the version of the Policy in effect at the
time it was invoked will apply to you until the
dispute is over, all such changes will be binding
upon you with respect to any domain name
registration dispute, whether the dispute arose
before, on or after the effective date of our
change. In the event that you object to a change in
this Policy, your sole remedy is to cancel your
domain name registration with us, provided that
you will not be entitled to a refund of any fees you
paid to us. The revised Policy will apply to
you until you cancel your domain name registration.
Page Updated 03-January-00
(c) 2000 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers. All rights reserved |
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