It's 2009, the amount of people and countries that are connected to and have access to the Internet increases on a daily basis by thousands, if not tens of thousands, or milliions. (Although millions might be a stretch.).  With all of that said, cybersquatting is still a big problem.  People are still finding infringers of their Intellectual Property rights, trademarks, and related on the Internet with domains. For some reason in my mind, the idea of someone cybersuqatting at this point and time would have been unheard of, and all the domains available on the internet (at least those related to a protected name or trademark) would have been sent to their rightful owners and everyone would have moved along.

For that reason, we decided to publish a small, brief, article on the UDRP or the Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy.  The UDRP was established by ICANN or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers for the express purpose of handling or dealing with cybersquatters, or individuals who are using protected names, words, and marks as domain names and to prevent or lessen the amount of confusion afforded to end users.  For that purpose, the UDRP aligns itself very closely to U.S. Trademarks, as the purposes are relatively similar.

One of the major benefits of the UDRP process is it is over relatively quickly, and fairly cheaply.  The UDRP from start to finish is generally over in 45 days, which in legal timelines, is the speed of the energizer bunny on steroids. In a UDRP process, you have to prove 3 things to prove that an individual is essentially cybersquatting:

(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.

A few tips for you looking to go for a quick and relatively painless UDRP process.

Once you have shown that you have demonstrated a prima facie case that you have a right to the domain, the burden of proof then is shifted to the owner of the domain to rebut the showing by providing evidence that it has rights to or legitimate interests in the domain name.

Some things that have proven useful in other UDRP processes:

1. A federally registered trademark.  While this won't make it a slam dunk, it will provide you with a solid basis for arguing the other sides infringement on your mark.

2. A Bad Faith intent by the other side - it is only being used for the purposes of selling, renting, or transferring the domain to another party in exchange for valuable consideration in excess of the normal out of pocket expenses for a domain.  Or this could be indicated by a confusingly similar name or mark so as to attrach business through the use of the other's mark.  This can even be demonstrated by false registration information.

Once you have made a determination from the above, it is time to draft a complaint and file it with your local service provider. ICANN has a select few service providers for the faciliation of the UDRP process.  As of June, 2009, they were listed at http://www.icann.org/en/dndr/udrp/approved-providers.htm.  There are not very many providers, so it won't be a very hard selection process.

Soon thereafter, an arbitrator will be selected.  Do realize that the arbitrator will be paid by you, the complainant.

After a brief discovery period and hearing (either virtual or in person) an Arbitrator will make a decision.

The process is fairly straight forward, but realize that you could get tripped up in the complaint process and related.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

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