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
(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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Page Updated
17-May-2002
©2000, 2002 The Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers.
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