Domain Services
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:
- the statements that you made in your
Registration Agreement are complete and accurate;
- to your knowledge, the registration
of the domain name will not infringe upon or otherwise
violate the rights of any third party;
- you are not registering the domain
name for an unlawful purpose; and
- 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:
- 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;
- our receipt of
an order from a court or arbitral tribunal, in each case
of competent jurisdiction, requiring such action; and/or
- 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)(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 http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm
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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