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“Cyberflight” rules coming to UDRP next July

Kevin Murphy, November 18, 2014, 11:38:13 (UTC), Domain Policy

It will soon be much harder for cybersquatters to take flight to another registrar when they’re hit with a UDRP complaint.
From July 31 next year, all ICANN-accredited registrars will be contractually obliged to lock domain names that are subject to a UDRP and trademark owners will no longer have to tip off the registrant they’re targeting.
Many major registrars lock domain names under UDRP review already, but there’s no uniformity across the industry, either in terms of what a lock entails or when it is implemented. Under the amended UDRP policy, a “lock” is now defined as:

a set of measures that a registrar applies to a domain name, which prevents at a minimum any modification to the registrant and registrar information by the Respondent, but does not affect the resolution of the domain name or the renewal of the domain name.

Registrars will have two business days from the time they’re notified about the UDRP to put the lock in place.
Before the lock is active, the registrants themselves will not be aware they’ve been targeted by a complaint — registrars are banned from telling them and complainants no longer have to send them a copy of the complaint.
If the complaint is dismissed or withdrawn, registrars have one business day to remove the lock.
Because these change reduce the 20-day response window, registrants will be able to request an additional four calendar days (to account for weekends, I assume) to file their responses and the request will be automatically granted by the UDRP provider.
The new policy was brought in to stop “cyberflight”, a relatively rare tactic whereby cybersquatters transfer their domains to a new registrar to avoid losing their domains.
The policy was approved by the Generic Names Supporting Organization in August last year and approved by the ICANN board a month later. Since then, ICANN staff has been working on implementation.
The time from the first GNSO preliminary issue report (May 27, 2011) to full implementation of the policy (July 31, 2015) will be 1,526 days.
You can read a redlined version of the UDRP rules here (pdf).

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Comments (3)

  1. gpmgroup says:
    November 18, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    Just had a quick look through the red lined document and on the surface at least, the changes don’t look like a very sensible thing to do!

    Reply
  2. Acro says:
    November 18, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    Talk about bureaucracy at work. So what about domainer owners?
    ICANN needs to completely revamp domain owner policy, issuing digital titles without which no push, transfer or sale can occur. That’s the only way to eradicate domain theft.

    Reply
    • Graham Schreiber says:
      November 21, 2014 at 1:35 pm

      Hi Acro:
      Don’t forget ICANN aren’t in business to serve the public at large, as Domain Name Registrants ~ subjects of US Law ….
      ICANN’s “customers” are the RySG, 1st & Foremost.
      The same Puppeteers, manipulating the IPC, who aide & abet Network Solutions; and their retail client, CentralNic the DOMAIN NAME REGISTRANT, curiously Immune from NetSolCares own Service Agreement Rules, plus the RAA.
      The IPC might want to compare their conduct with the AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION CODE OF CONDUCT.
      Conflict-Checking Systems:
      “The purpose of a conflicts check is to ensure that your commitment to your client’s matter will not be distracted by your commitment to any other person. Many attorneys believe that this commitment can be upheld by a brief moment of thought, comparing their client’s circumstances to that of the firm’s other clients, at the time they are being retained for their services.”
      Source: http://www.americanbar.org/content/newsletter/publications/law_trends_news_practice_area_e_newsletter_home/conflictchecking.html
      Just a suggestion!
      Cheers, Graham.

      Reply

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