ICANN approves new domain name dispute resolution provider
The Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved a new provider of domain name dispute resolution services. It is the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) in Prague.
The decision was made at a Special Meeting of the ICANN Board of Directors on 23 January 2008 and has just been released.
ICANN effectively runs the internet and is responsible for policies on the registration of domain names and the resolution of disputes about them.
The significance of the decision is global, in that the ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) provides that complaints about the ownership and registration of domain names must be brought before ‘one of the administrative – dispute-resolution service providers’ approved by ICANN.
At the present, the approved providers are:
1. The World Intellectual Property Organisation ( WIPO) IN Geneva;
2. The National Arbitration Forum (NAF) in Minneapolis;
3. The Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre (ADNDRC) in Beijing, Hong Kong and Seoul.
So if a complaint is made by a trade mark owner that, for example, someone has taken its name and registered it as a domain name to mislead the public or siphon off its customers, the Complaint must be brought for arbitration before one of these three providers.
The Czech Application for accreditation
For the last few years, the Czech Arbitration Court “ the CAC ” has been seeking accreditation as a fourth provider.
The reason it applied for accreditation is that it has already had some success and experience in the field. It is the sole provider of arbitration services for disputes about .eu domain names, ie the domain names set up by the European Community as Europe’s answer to the popular .com, .net and .org group of domain names. (Many Australian companies have registered .eu domain names to cover their operations in Europe.)
The Czech application to provide arbitration services for the wider group of domain names had the support of the IP constituency.
Languages
It was said at the Board meeting that the CAC proceedings would be able to be conducted in “most European languages with the later addition of some Asian.”
The resolution passed at the ICANN Board meeting was that:
“……. Whereas the revised CAC application contains features that are beneficial and innovative for the UDRP.
… the Board approves the application of CAC to become a UDRP provider, and advises the General Counsel (of ICANN) to enter into discussions with CAC regarding the process for CAC's provision of UDRP services.”
The motion was approved by a vote of 14-0.
Formal Minutes are still to be approved by the ICANN Board, but it is clear that the CAC has succeeded in its application and that, in the future, complaints may be pursued through the CAC in Prague as well as through the other providers.
“ Features that are beneficial and innovative for the UDRP”
The features of the Czech service that the ICANN Board said are “…beneficial and innovative for the UDRP” are presumably the online platform that the CAC uses in its .eu cases. In this process there are no documents at all. Pleadings, evidence and submissions are all suspended in cyberspace and the arbitrator and the parties go into the platform whenever they want to lodge a document or make a decision. With the other providers the documents are sent by email and exhibits are sent by courier.
Australian link with the Czech Arbitration Court
Australia already has a link to the Czech Arbitration Court through The Hon Neil Brown QC who:
- is on the CAC panel of arbitrators and one of the few members of the panel outside Europe;
- has arbitrated on two disputes for the CAC;
- attended the CAC’s first panelists’ meeting in Prague in 2007 as a guest speaker;
- is a contributor to this blog.
Additional note
For country code domain name disputes, like .au, .co.uk, .co.nz, or .us, there are different providers of dispute resolution services, but WIPO does many of them.
