The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy: A Practical Guide

Disputes involving alleged bad faith registration and use of certain Internet domain names may be arbitrated pursuant to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the Policy) mandated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN ). The Policy is the first attempt to establish a global set of substantive rules regarding certain kinds of Internet-related trademark disputes, and a single, international system for the arbitration of those disputes. In many respects, the Policy has fulfilled its objective of providing an efficient and cost effective means of resolving certain domain name disputes. In other respects, however, the experience with the Policy has been less than satisfactory, and has demonstrated significant deficiencies in the Policy. This paper provides an overview of the Policy, and discusses the manner in which the Policy has been interpreted and applied. It is not possible for a paper of this kind to review or discuss all of the decisions issued under the Policy. There have been far too many in the short period of time since the Policy was established