Dear All
I have had a long chat with WIPO concerning our
proposals. Their comments on our proposals are:
1. easy to implement from their end as they
generally inform the parties of the expiry date anyway.
2. although generally registrars inform
them of the expiry date when they respond to the verification request, this
isn't one of the things which registrars have to confirm. So we should
amend our rules to include this.
Additional comments/alternatives
They commented that currently most registrars pay
the renewal fee themselves on the relatively rare occasion that a domain is
about to lapse during UDRP proceedings. From the large registrars
Tucows is the only one that doesn't do this. They commented that it
might be cheaper from the registrars' perspective to all adopt this approach
(of renewing themselves) rather than what we were proposing. Their
reason for saying this was because of the hassle of dealing with refunds
(which they have some experience of due to .info sunrise challenges).
This is something which the registrar constituency should give some thought
to. The only cases where the registrar would lose out under this
scenario is where the complainant loses (so doesn't get to renew) and
someone else snaps the name up using a different registrar before the
complainant has the chance to register it. I think if we end up going
back to this sort of system, the whois data should be amended to show that
it is on hold pending UDRP proceedings.
One concern they had was that under our system we
are effectively forcing the complainant to stay with the same registrar if
they win - or they have to pay twice.
More fundamental was a question they raised as to
what should happen to the UDRP proceedings where the registrants opts not to
renew the domain. They suggested that the domain should go by default
to the complainant. I know we discussed this and someone (probably
John) raised the point that a default scenario in these circumstances would
be open to abuse. I think that is unlikely for the following
reasons:
1. A udrp complaint goes through a
formality check prior to being accepted - therefore if there is not prima
facie case made out (eg there is no right claimed), it is
rejected.
2. A udrp complainant when deciding to
initiate an action would not know whether the domain name was going to be
renewed. If they guessed it wasn't it would be far cheaper to file a
WLS than to file a UDRP claim.
Therefore, I would certainly support a simplified
rule that the if the respondent hasn't paid 30 days after the renewal grace
period, the domain goes to the complainant and if the complainant chooses
another registrar, they have to refund the original registrar's renewal
fee.
--
OK, it
would have been helpful if I'd discussed this with WIPO before now, but if
you would like me to draft a couple of paragraphs saying "Alternatively,
this problem could be solved by ...." I would be happy (well that's slightly
too strong a word given what else I have to try to get done today) to do
so.
Regards
Jane
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