[ga-tm] Motion #6: UDRP review

["List Admin" <patrick@quad.net.au>]

From: Milton Mueller <mueller@syr.edu>
To: <ncdnhc-discuss@lyris.isoc.org>
Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 23:33:36 -0400
Subject: Motion #6: UDRP review


UDRP Resolution
Proposed for discussion at Stockholm meeting
=========
As policy advice, the Non-commercial constituency 
submits to the Names Council and the ICANN Board the 
following ideas for improving the UDRP:

1. Domain name registrations that have been held by 
the same administrative contact for three years should 
be exempted from challenges under the UDRP.

2. We note that statistical studies of the UDRP have 
shown that "forum shopping" by complainants exists in 
the application of the UDRP. This biases the results 
and needs to be changed. We encourage exploration of 
the following remedies:

2a: ICANN could provide domain name holders 
with some form of a declaratory judgment. Domain name 
holders should be able to initiate a UDRP proceeding, 
using the dispute resolution service provider of their 
choice, to obtain a finding that they have a "right 
and legitimate interest" in a name. Prospective 
complainants would be given a period of time to 
contest the claim. 

2b. Registrars, rather than complainants, 
could select the dispute resolution provider. Such a 
selection should be done not on a case-by-case basis, 
but through contracts that would apply in a non-
discriminatory fashion to all names registrered by 
that registrar.

3. We note with great concern that one US court has 
decided that a respondent has no right to appeal a 
decision by a UDRP panel to transfer a name.* If this 
becomes a precedent, the procedural and substantive 
aspects of the UDRP need to be substantially revised. 

4. We oppose any extension of the UDRP to new rights 
in names, such as rights of personality, geographic 
place, and so on. The domain name system is a method 
of giving mnemonic names to Internet resources and of 
mapping information to those names. The proces of 
assigning domain names should not become overly 
burdened with regulations and legal and political 
baggage. Such a linkage of domain name assignment to 
global legal rights is inimical to the Internet's 
growth, freedom and stability. 

* Judge Young (Mass District Court, USA) held that no 
declaratory judgment was available to
the registrant of corinthians.com, including under the 
ACPA, if the victorious party in the UDRP (the 
trademark holder) disclaimed any intention to file a 
trademark lawsuit of his own. There being exactly that 
disclaimer, he then dismissed the case for failure to 
state a claim.


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