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
http://webray.com/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.