Domain name arbitration is one way of solving disputes. What is arbitration? Majority of the people prefer going to courts to get their disputes solved. However, not all disputes are solved by courts. Some are solved outside the courts. According to online Cambridge dictionary, arbitration is "the process of solving an argument between people by helping them to agree to an acceptable solution."
The domain name business is very competitive. There are lots of people worldwide who are seeking to register domain names either to use them in running their own websites or selling them to other people. Every business has got its own problems in terms of disputes and as such there have been a number of domain name disputes in the past years.
Some of the domain name disputes have been solved successfully despite them taking a long time. What is the main reason of domain name disputes? The major cause of domain name disputes is cyber-squatting. For more clarification lets discuss it as a reminder since we had already discussed this in one of the articles on this website.
Cybersquatting involves trademarks or let me say names that are trademarks. There are people who want to use names that are trademarks of companies or individuals in bad faith. This is illegal and as such courts have solved some of the cyber-squatting cases while others have been handled by companies that provide domain name arbitration services.
There are more questions that are asked about the use of trademarks in domain names. There are many names that are available to be registered as domain names. In this case, it doesn't mean that all those names that are available are free to be registered by every Tom, Dick and Harry. Why?
Some of these names are actually trademarks. You register them then you find yourself either in court to account for having infringed trademark law or you will receive a cease and desist letter. If you don't halt using that name (trademark) after receiving a cease and desist letter, farther legal actions are taken by the owner to repossess it.
We have just mentioned cease and desist letter, what is it and who issues it? It is a letter informing the person to stop doing an activity that is illegal. It is issued by the court through the judge or by the government authority organization. How do I know if a name is a trademark before I register it as my domain name? There is more than one way to use in determining if a name is a trademark so as not to infringe trademark law. One of the surest ways is to consult a trademark attorney.
The most annoying thing about cyber-squatters is that they offer to sell the trademark domain names to companies or individuals who own them at escalated prices. One thing to note about the registration of domain name which is also a trademark is the date.
What was the date of the registration of the name as a domain name? What was the date the name was declared legally as a trademark? These two dates are compared by the courts and domain name arbitration companies when it comes to solving domain name ownership and trademark ownership disputes.
Another practice that has led to domain name disputes to be solved by the courts or domain name arbitration companies is typosquatting. To me, the practice of typosquatting in domain name industry is harmful. It is harmful in that it destroys reputation and credibility of a website. In typosquatting a person will register a domain name that is used by a website that is popular by misspelling it. They misspell the domain name because they know people do make mistakes when typing the domain name on their web browser. Have you found yourself typing Goggle.com instead of Google.com?
For instance a person will register tweeter.com or twiter.com knowing that there are people who will misspell twitter.com. They do this in order to gain traffic received by a popular domain name that people misspell. Let me ask you this, would it be annoying if you got to a website that has a domain name that is misspelled instead of the website that you were searching for? Typosquatting is illegal since it is about registering variants of names that are trademarks or popular domain names that are owned by companies or individuals.
Have you heard of Namejacking? This is another illegal domain name practice that has led people to seek the intervention of courts or domain name arbitration companies. It is where a person registers names of celebrities or people who are well known due to their profession as a domain name so as to gain traffic as a result of searches carried out through the search engines.
Where to Seek Domain Name Arbitration
Pic from Flickr By Andy54321
1.) ICANN Approved Dispute Resolution Service Providers
When you go for domain name arbitration it means that you are seeking means of ending the domain name dispute outside the courts. There many companies that offer domain name arbitration services. Some of these companies have been accredited by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
These companies must follow UDRP. UDRP is a policy that was approved by ICANN on 24 October 1999 to address domain disputes. UDRP addresses disputes of some of the country code top level domain names, .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .name top level domain names.
Although this policy has been helpful there are people who have criticized it on the following grounds:
- Some criticize UDRP on the grounds that its process is flawed.
- If a person loses the case, there is no appeal unless that person is able to raise the fee for lawsuit which is often high.
2.) National Arbitration Forum (NAF)
National arbitration forum is one of the companies that offer domain name arbitration service. It was established in the year 1986. According to Wikipedia, it has managed over ten thousand domain name disputes since 1999 and still it is continuing to solve domain name disputes.
National Arbitration Forum is accredited by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to offer domain name arbitration service.
3.) World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
WIPO was established in the year 1967 and its purpose is to protect intellectual property all over the world. Since it protects intellectual property, then it's one of the organizations that offer domain name arbitration service. A dispute of domain name ownership can be brought before it to get solved.
- Read here about 13 domain name search tools and tips
Why Domain Name Arbitration?
Why opt for domain name arbitration service instead of going to courts? The following are some reasons;
1.) Courts are expensive as far as legal fees are concerned compared to domain name arbitration companies/organizations.
2.) Through domain name arbitration, domain name disputes are solved without them taking longer period compared to courts.
Back to the main question asked in the headline of this article, "Domain Name Arbitration, Has It Solved Disputes?" The answer is a clear "YES." So far domain name arbitration is effective.