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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 http://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 http://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 <URL> 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. |
