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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>Dear all,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>I would like to give you an update on the ICANN consultation on
new gTLD Agreement amendment process and post-delegation dispute resolution
process I attended yesterday evening. This meeting was initiated by the
Registry Constituency, which is concerned with the PDDRP and its potential
impact upon the future of Registries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>A quick reminder: the Post-Delegation dispute resolution process
is an additional trademark defense under the new gTLD programme. Under this
process, trademark owners will be able to turn against a Registry and seek to
prove that the Registry has engaged in a systematic registration of domain
names that infringe upon their rights. The remedies are severe and can
potentially lead to the cancellation of the contractual relationship between
the Registry and ICANN. So, in essence, every Registry is amenable to trademark
intimidation and abuse, just like domain name holders are. If this system is
finally endorsed trademark owners will have at their disposal the following mechanisms:
the UDRP, the newly-established URS and the PDDRP. For me, all these mechanisms
demonstrate an awkward resemblance, which demonstrates a clear lack of
consideration and the impact that they can potentially have upon the whole
registration system. The full text of the policy can be found here: </span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:#1F497D'>(</span><span
class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-trademark-pddrp-redline-15feb10-en.pdf)</span></span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>One of the things that was heavily discussed was the involvement
and role of ICANN within this process. ICANN seeks to waive any sort of
responsibility and abstain from actively being involved in the process,
something that of course Registries do not agree with. Registries want ICANN to
be part and take full responsibility of the decisions reached under the PDDRP,
because of the contractual agreement that it holds with Registries. Amy Stathos
claimed that the PDDRP is not part of the contractual agreement that Registries
hold with ICANN and therefore there is no justification for ICANN’s
involvement in the process. But here is the catch – under the PDDRP ICANN
will be responsible for determining the remedies should a PDDRP panel find that
the Registry has been involved in systematic registrations that infringe
trademark rights. So on the one hand ICANN does not want to be involved in the
process so as to avoid any sort of liability issues, but on the other hand they
are fully involved. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>Kathy Kleiman expressed concerns over the justification of such
a system and the way it has been promoted, while Jeff Neuman said that this
policy raises serious legal issues, such as privity of contract, that have not
been clearly taken under consideration and will create much more problems than
the ones they seek to address. There was a great fear by most of the
participants that, just like the UDRP, the PDDRP will be abused by trademark
owners with Registries having no other option but to suspend and cancel domain
names in an effort to avoid being engaged in the PDDRP. Chuck Gomes made the
very accurate comment that in any case we need to think that the registration
system is not only aimed to please big brand owners and that there are so many
other participants, like individual users and small trademark owners, that we
tend to forget. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>The Registries’ position is also that monetary damages are
not appropriate for this system and that a de novo review should be in place
that will allow the losing party to challenge the PDDRP decision. There was a
lot of discussion on the de novo review issue – many analogies were drawn
with the UDRP and the way de novo review is working, many of which were
mistaken on the fact that they considered the UDRP an arbitration process, which
is not (there is US case having established this: Dan Parisi v. Netlearing
Inc.). Moreover, Registries asked for the incorporation of safe harbours within
the PDDRP (like in the UDRP) and for some kind of monitoring of the complaints (the
complaint should have a close nexus with the alleged infringed rights –
e.g. Nike cannot ask the cancellation of domain names relating to Adidas). Finally,
Registries also asked for a 3-member panel rule, instead of a single panel. The
National Arbitration Forum, which was participating in this dispute, agreed
with most of the Registries’ comments and said that under its current
design the PDDRP is open to abuse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>I spoke about all these issues in line with the comments we made
during the public period (</span><span class=apple-style-span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><a
href="http://forum.icann.org/lists/ppdrp-15feb10/">http://forum.icann.org/lists/ppdrp-15feb10/</a>).
</span></span><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:#1F497D'>I expressed the great fear that this
process, unless very carefully designed and justified, will upset the
registration culture and will create a very unfriendly environment for
individual registrants. In essence what this policy does is asking Registries
to become content-controllers, a task that they don’t want nor should
they be allowed to perform. I expressed my fear that we are designing a
DNS and the new gTLD programme that is tilted toward protecting trademark interests,
forgetting that it is mainly individual users and registrants that are mainly
supporting the DNS. I also expressed our great concern over the way WIPO has
handled UDRP disputes and the way it is expected it will handle PDDRP ones (something
that as you can understand did not go down well with WIPO, which was
participating in the call). On the three member panel issue, I said that this
rule must be implemented because we are talking about the potential
cancellation of a whole Registry, something that will have a roll-on effect
upon individual and non-commercial domain name registrants. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:#1F497D'>I had to cut the call short by 30
minutes because it was getting too late and unfortunately I do not have
anything to report on the issue of Registry amendment process. However, the
meeting was recorded and it will be made available.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:#1F497D'>KK</span></span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>Dr. Konstantinos Komaitis,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>Law Lecturer,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>University of Strathclyde,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>The Law School,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>The Lord Hope Building,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>141 St. James Road,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>Glasgow, G4 0LT<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>UK<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>tel: +44 (0)141 548 4306<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>http://www.routledgemedia.com/books/The-Current-State-of-Domain-Name-Regulation-isbn9780415477765</span><span
style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>Selected publications:
http://hq.ssrn.com/submissions/MyPapers.cfm?partid=501038<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:#1F497D'>Website: http://domainnamelaw.ning.com/</span><span
style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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