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Archive for the ‘Domain law and domaining’ Category

.au Domain Administrator, auDA, today announced that it had accepted the recommendations of the Secondary Market Working Group, which included the highly controversial prohibition on the resale of newly registered domain names within 6 months of registration.

Among the recommendations of the Board that were accepted by auDA are:

1. mandate a registrant transfer process, along the lines of the registrar transfer process; and
2. publish information for registrants about the registrant transfer process, including the fact that they can choose to transfer their domain name to another registrar prior to processing a change of registrant.
3. The six month prohibition on registrant transfers should be removed.
4. auDA should provide more information to the public about drop catching services, including clearly identifying the registrars that provide these services.
5. AusRegistry should clarify its process for changing the Registry Usage Policy, including timing of changes and communications with registrars.
6. auDA should publish a policy which:

• clarifies that connection sharing between related registrars requires auDA’s prior written consent; and
• specifically prohibits connection sharing between unrelated registrars.

The most noteworthy change was the removal of the restriction on the resale of domain names. This policy was seen to be inconsistent and illogical by many industry players. The restrictions did not apply to domain names transferred but only on new registrations.

Some industry observers say that this decision effectively removes restrictions on the trading of domain names, and brings Australia into line with almost every other jurisdiction around the world.

Other changes included the provision of more information to consumer and registrants about domain name transfers and domain name drop services.

 

 

Tags: auDA, domain law, domain lawyer, domain name law, domain names, IT Law, IT Lawyer
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Daniel Goncalves a Union County man has been sentenced to a term of 5 years imprisonment for the theft and sale of the domain name P2P.com, in what is believed to be the first domain name theft case of its kind.

It was alleged that in 2006 Goncalves gained unauthorised access to an AOL email account operated by the registrant of P2P.com, in order to authorise a transfer of the domain name. Once the name was transferred Goncalves apparently sold the domain name on Ebay for $111,000. He was later arrested on 30 July 2009 and was indited for a range of offences including computer theft. He plead guilty to those charges in 2010 and was this week sentenced.

The domain name has been returned to its rightful owners and the Court ordered that Goncalves pay an amount in restitution to the victims.

Tags: domain law, domain lawyer, domain name law, domain name lawyer, technology lawyer
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In September 2011, the adult industry will get its own internet ‘red light district’ when the new .xxx top-level domains become available for registration.

ICM Registry, which has been approved by ICANN to administer the .xxx TLDs, has announced a pre-registration ‘sunrise’ period, starting on 7 September 2011 and running for 30 days.

In Sunrise A, members of the adult entertainment industry will be able to pre-reserve their desired .xxx domain names.

In Sunrise B, which will run concurrently with Sunrise A, trade mark owners in non-adult industries will be able to pre-emptively block the registration of a .xxx domain name that matches their trade mark.  It’s a defensive measure that ensures that a brand is not associated with explicit or adult-oriented content by removing the associated .xxx domain name from the pool of domain names able to registered.

The important points:

• To pre-emptively block a .xxx domain, trade mark owners must file a Sunrise B application between 7 September 2011 and 7 October 2011.
• A one-time fee is payable for a filing a Sunrise B application (not yet finalised but expected to be around US$200 to US$300.
• The blocked domain name must be the exact match of a nationally registered trade mark – e.g. trademark.xxx can be blocked but not trademark-porn.xxx.
• While Sunrise B is the only way a trade mark owner can pre-emptively opt-out of the .xxx domain space, there will be post-Sunrise mechanisms that trade mark owners can use to protect their brands (in addition to the existing UDRP process).

Sunrise B opens soon and will run for a very limited time.  Contact us to take advantage of this one-time opportunity to pre-emptively keep your valuable brands out of the .xxx neighbourhood.

Tags: domain law, domain lawyer, domain lawyers, domain name law, ICANN, technology law, trademark, trademark registration
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The ICANN Board meeting in Singapore, today approved the expansion of top level domain names.

The vote means that applicants may now seek to create their own domain name extension, for example .sport, .music and .bank.

In announcing the result of the vote, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN, Rod Beckstrom said:

“ICANN has opened the Internet’s naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today’s decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind“

The board vote was 13 vote for, 1 against, with 2 abstentions.

People or organisations wishing to create their own top level extension will need to comply with the Applicant Guide Book, which includes a requirement for the payment of a $185,000 application fee.

It is expected that there will be hot competition for generic extensions such as .food.

Tags: domain law, domain lawyer, domain name law, ICANN, new GTLDS, technology lawyer
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The Internet Commerce Association (ICA), the peak body representing domain name investors and developers, has filed its letter of comment to ICANN concerning the revised Verisign contract for the operation of the .Net registry.

As part of the contract review process, ICANN is being lobbied by intellectual property owners to implement a draconian Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) system in the .Net space.

The URS has been proposed for new GTLDs, and there are now moves to introduce it into the .Net space by intellectual property holders.

The ICA is opposed to the implementation of the URS. In the ICA’s letter to ICANN it argues that (in relation to the URS):

The .Net registry is far too important to be a “guinea pig” for these incomplete, controversial, and thoroughly untested mechanisms.

Among its submissions the ICA also says:

It is not yet clear what the final form of the URS will be. In particular, it remains unclear whether the URS will be further amended to reduce the burden of proof on a complainant, and to provide a complainant with first option to acquire a suspended domain. The transfer option in particular would make this proposed $300, 500-word complaint, single examiner URS procedure the functional equivalent of the UDRP – which, despite its flaws, offers a far higher level of procedural and substantive due process to domain registrants.

To view a full copy of the ICA submissions click here.

Tags: domain lawyer, domain name lawyers, ICA, IT Law, lawyers, technology law, technology lawyer
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auDA, the Australian Domain Name Regulator has today released the draft recommendations of the 2010 Names Policy Panel for public comment.

The 2010 Names Policy Panel (“the Panel”) have considered the following policies (as part of auDA’s request for a review):

• Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules for the Open 2LDs (2008-05)
• Guidelines for Accredited Registrars on the Interpretation of Policy Rules for the Open 2LDs (2008-06)
• Reserved List Policy (2008-03)
• Prohibition on Misspellings Policy (2008-09)
• Domain Monetisation Policy (2008-10)

Public comment on the draft recommendations will be open until Friday 10 June 2011. A full copy of the draft recommendations are available from the auDA website.

The draft recommendations clearly show a reluctance by the auDA Panel to change the excessively regulated .au domain space. Among some of the draft recommendations, the Panel has recommended that:

• the Domain Monetisation Policy be abolished and incorporated in to the Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules;
• existing eligibility criteria for domain name registrants be retained;

The public are encouraged to provide feedback to the Panel – a copy of the draft recommendations can be found here.

Tags: auDA, domain law, domain lawyers, domain name lawyers, domainers, IT Law, IT Lawyers, technology lawyers
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ICANN has released the eagerly awaited revised draft of the Applicant Guidebook for new GTLDs. This draft document has been released for public comment.

As part of its timeline for the launch of new GTLD domains, ICANN’s release of the Applicant Guidebook is a critical part of the process.

The development of the Guidebook has at times seen hot debate about the process for new GTLD applicants. The Guidebook is made up of 6 modules. The draft Guidebook is also accompanied by explanatory memorandum to assist in interpretation, with ICANN stating:

“These memos were developed to document the latest position on these topics by taking into account the current thinking, discussions and public comments received. Each memo not only reflects GAC advice but also contains the reasoning and rationale on each of the relevant issues regarding the launch of the New gTLD Program and Applicant Guidebook.“

ICANN plans to release the final version by 30 May 2011, prior to its 20 June 2011 extraordinary meeting.

A full copy of the draft Guidebook and explanatory memorandum is available here.

Lawyers and other domain industry participants are encouraged to make submissions on the draft documents.

Tags: domain law, domain lawyer, domain name law, domain name lawyer, ICANN, IT Law, IT Lawyers, New GTLD
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Domain Name regulator auDA and .au Registry operator Ausregistry today announced that Australia had 2 million .au domain names.

This is a historic achievement which places the .au domain space into the top ten domain name registrations internationally.

AusRegistry’s CEO Adrian Kinderis said:

“The .au domain has the highest penetration rate in the world for regulated namespaces with restricted eligibility when you take into account our population. The .au domain has become part of the fabric of doing business in Australia. We have seen continual strong growth in the namespace despite the global financial crisis and other market factors. .au is Australia’s domain namespace of choice and the only place to show that you are a trusted Australian,”.

Despite the massive growth in the number of domain name registrations, Australia remains one of the most regulated domain name spaces, putting it at odds with other jurisdictions such as Germany and the USA.

 

Tags: auDA, domain law, domain lawyer, domain name law, domain name lawyer, domain name regulation
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We have recently seen some high profile domain names that haven’t been renewed by registrants.

Much of the time domain names are not renewed because they are no longer required, but on occasion, the registrant contact email is not updated after an employee leaves a business or a business stops using an email address.

Recently, Bunnings forgot to renew hardware.com.au, which was quickly snapped up by Woolworths, presumably for use in their hardware business. In this case, the registrant email address was not valid, which is likely to be the reason that the domain name was not renewed.

The consequences of this may be catastrophic for a business, but it need not happen.

Here are some simple tips to avoid your domain name accidentally expiring:

1. use generic email addresses as the registrant contact address, which forward emails to multiple people in an organisation;
2. diarise the expiry date of your domains;
3. maintain a consolidated intellectual property register which contains details of all of your valuable intellectual property such as domain names and trademarks;
4. use an automatic renewal function – most registrars have this service available, just ask;

In almost all cases, simply following these tips will help you avoid expiry. Remember once a domain name expires it becomes available (after a grace period) for registration by anyone else including your competitors. Protect it or lose it!

Domain name lawyers like Cooper Mills are constantly helping clients recover domain names, but prevention is better than cure….

Tags: domain law, domain lawyers, domain name, domain name law, domain name lawyers
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We recently saw hardware.com.au snapped up by Bunnings rival Woolworths after they failed to renew the highly sought after domain, and today was SPI’s turn, failing to renew electricity.com.au which achieved a sale price of $31,000 at auction.

According to its website, SPI Electricity & Gas Australia, part of the large Singapore Power Group, operates the transmission networks for gas and electricity in Victoria, and boasts an electricity network of 6500km.

The successful bidder was Pacific Octane, an online media group who acquired electricity.com.au in spirited bidding today for $31,000.

Domain names are of critical importance to business both on and off line, and business needs to value and protect intellectual property rights.

Cooper Mills Director, IT and Domain Name Lawyer, Erhan Karabardak said that “Intellectual property, including its protection should be a critical part of any business strategy. This is even more important, as most businesses and consumers now carry on business not just in their local area, but globally via the internet.“

Tags: business law, domain law, domain lawyers, domain name law, domain name lawyers, electricity.com.au, IT Law
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