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Uniform Domain Name
Dispute Resolution Policy
Policy Adopted:
August 26, 1999
Implementation Documents Approved:
October 24, 1999 |
Notes:
1. This policy is now in effect. See
www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-schedule.htm for the
implementation schedule.
2. This policy has been adopted by all accredited
domain-name registrars for domain names ending in .com,
.net, and .org. It has also been adopted by certain
managers of country-code top-level domains (e.g., .nu, .tv,
.ws).
3. The policy is between the registrar (or other
registration authority in the case of a country-code
top-level domain) and its customer (the domain-name holder
or registrant). Thus, the policy
uses "we" and "our" to refer to the registrar and it uses
"you" and "your" to refer to the domain-name holder.
Uniform Domain Name
Dispute Resolution Policy
(As
Approved by ICANN on October 24, 1999)
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
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(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. |
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