Can the UDRP be used to take away a Domain Name after 20 years? Complainants can certainly try, as we recently saw with the Queen.com case. Nevertheless, after 20 years of the UDRP it is high time for panelists to start seriously considering how severe delays in bringing a UDRP Complaint should no longer be tolerated. Many of our members have owned …
ICA Letter to ICANN Regarding the release of single-character domain for .COM
In its letter sent to ICANN before the Holidays, the ICA is asking for confirmation of a public comment period for Verisign RSEP (Registry Service Evaluation Process) for .com single character domain. The letter can be view here: Letter to ICANN re Release of single-character domain for .COM – December 22, 2017
ICA Files ICANN Comment on Proposed .Museum RA Renewal
On October 3, 2017 the ICA filed a comment letter with ICANN regarding the proposed revisions to the renewal Registry Agreement (RA) for the .Museum gTLD. As with other legacy gTLDs that have renewed over the past two years, the new RA proposes to adopt Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS). ICA once again protests this de facto creation of Consensus Policy …
ICA Requests that NAFTA Renegotiation Address Protectionist .CA “Presence Requirements”
On September 11, 2017 the ICA sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer requesting that the ongoing renegotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) address protectionist restrictions so that U.S. entities and organizations wishing to register a .CA domain face no greater requirements than their Canadian counterparts face in registering a .US domain. As noted in …
ICA at MERGE!
The ICA is excited to be participating in THE Domain Conference, one of the sub-events at MERGE!, this October 14-18th in Orlando, Florida. The ICA will host a 45-minute session presenting an overview of our work with plenty of time for an audience Q&A. MERGE! conference is organized by industry veterans and ICA members Jothan Frakes and Howard Neu along …
Report on ICANN 59 Johannesburg
By Philip S. Corwin, ICA Counsel The 59th ICANN meeting was held in Johannesburg, South Africa from June 25th to 29th. Under ICANN’s new meeting schedule this mid-year gathering is the somewhat shorter “B” session devoted to intensive policy development work. This report details my engagement as ICA Counsel on your behalf and current and expected benefits to ICA members. …
Surge in RDNH cases a legacy of the theory of Retroactive Bad Faith
What do these Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) filings have in common? — Dreamlines GmbH, a German cruise promoter, files a UDRP dispute on dreamlines.com, a domain registered 10 years before that company was formed. They do not allege any infringing use. Cognate Nutritionals, Inc., a Connecticut beverage company, which sells a coconut oil brain supplement under the brand “Fuel …
UDRP: Better Late than Never – ICA Applauds WIPO for Removing Misguided ‘Retroactive Bad Faith’
The Internet Commerce Association (ICA), a non-profit trade group representing the domain industry, applauds the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for removing misleading guidance from the newly released updated version 3.0 of its Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions that in the previous version had granted undeserved legitimacy to a misconstruction of the UDRP commonly known as …
The Rise and Fall of the UDRP Theory of ‘Retroactive Bad Faith’
Since its establishment in 1999, the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy has required complainants to prove inter alia, “bad faith registration”. In practice, this has meant that where a domain name was registered before a trademark came into existence, that “bad faith registration” would be considered chronologically impossible.
URS is MIA in .Net Renewal RA
The Proposed Renewal of the .Net Registry Agreement (RA) was published for public comment by ICANN on April 20th. The biggest surprise about the proposed contract is how little it differs from the current one between ICANN and Verisign. Conspicuously absent from the agreement is the new gTLD rights protection mechanism (RPM) of Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS). For the past …