After several minutes of pondering and looking at domain name search engines, you’ve found the perfect domain name for your website. You purchase the domain, under the assumption that it is available.
A few weeks later, you get a letter from a lawyer claiming that your new domain has breached someone else’s trademark. You are now stuck with a potential legal battle that may result in you losing your domain name, your reputation and maybe even worse. Fortunately, with domain name arbitration, there’s a possibility you can resolve the situation and avoid any possible legal consequences.
What is domain name arbitration? It is a procedure where the complainant and the original holder of the domain try to work out a reasonable agreement as to who actually has the rights to the domain. The arbitration in itself is done through the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, (also known as UDRP). This is a special arbitration method set forth by the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) organization. The UDRP is used for most domain name disputes. It has the benefit of being less expensive than traditional litigation.
In order to initiate a domain arbitration proceeding, a webmaster must go through a provider that has been approved by ICANN to deal with such disputes. Once the arbitration begins, the provider will start by determining if the complainant has merit in their claim. They will do this by evaluating whether the domain name in question is similar to a trademark or domain name set forth by the claimant.
They will then determine what rights the claimant has to the title. They will also establish whether or not the domain name was chosen accidentally or with the intention of taking advantage of the claimant’s brand popularity. If the provider finds that the domain was chosen in bad faith, rights to it will be granted to the claimant. Otherwise, the original owner will be able to keep the disputed domain name.
If either party is not happy with a domain name arbitration proceeding, they can challenge the findings in a regular courtroom. An example of this happened with Robert De Niro, when he tried to claim the rights to any domain containing the phrase ‘Tribeca.’ He is still in court trying to retain the rights to Tribeca.net, which has been claimed by another person.
In conclusion, domain arbitration is a convenient alternative to avoiding taking a domain dispute into a courtroom. There is the opportunity to go to court if either side feels an arbitration isn’t fair. Yet, for most webmasters, the decisions made by the UDRP panel are good enough for them, since getting their consul is a lot cheaper than going to a judge.
i feel that it the problem from the registrar that they should not give you to purchase the domain name which is illegal in trademark.
Registrar should take the responsible. Because they do have the system to check for the domain name available.