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(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 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 http://www.icann.org
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.
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