By Liz Oliveira, Legal TeamRecently, Société Du Figaro, a French publisher best know for the newspaper Le Figaro, was successful in obtaining the transfer of the domain lefigaro.tv through an action initiated under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). Actions for trademark infringement under the UDRP are quite common and are often selected by trademark owners when filing a dispute. As a domain owner you should know a thing or two about the UDRP because you have agreed to comply with the terms of this policy by simply making the decision to register a domain. The UDRP has been adopted by all accredited domain-name registrars for domain names ending in .com, .net and .org as well as certain country-code top-level domains like .tv.
As such, anyone who registers a domain with a complying registrar has agreed to comply with the terms set forth in the policy. The terms of the UDRP are focused on efficient dispute resolution between trademark owners and domain owners. Along with the ability to file a complaint in court, the policy also allows trademark owners to submit protests to approved dispute resolutions service providers. Submittal of complaints to dispute resolution providers is an extremely popular tactic and is used by companies such as Société Du Figaro as mentioned above.
The purpose of using a dispute resolution service over court proceedings is to achieve a quicker and less expensive means for resolving the issue. Of course this means that parties will be giving up some procedural advantages they may have in court like the opportunity to present witnesses and cross-examine parties. In dispute resolution proceedings parties are allowed to submit one written statement on which the panel will base its decision.
In making a decision the panel will evaluate written statements submitted by both parties. The trademark owner has the burden to prove infringement by successfully arguing three particular elements. First, that the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to the trademark. Second that the domain owner had no rights or legitimate interest in the domain name and third that the domain name was registered and used in bad faith. If the trademark owner is successful, the registrar will cancel or transfer the domain to the trademark owner within 15 days of the decision.
For more information on the UDRP check out http://www.icann.org/en/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm
Source: Sedo.com -- Reprinted with permission -- November 11, 2008