On 29 July a series of changes were introduced to the UK domain name dispute resolution service.
This service is run by Nominet and helps to resolve disputes over ownership of .uk domain names. The main amendments include the following:
- if a respondent fails to respond to a complaint, the
complainant can request a summary decision. The expert will
only be required to certify that the complaint has been made
out, rather than write a detailed decision;
- the definition of 'rights' now includes
descriptive terms which have acquired secondary meaning
through extensive use. For example, the owner of a brand such
as 'Best Bananas' could now complain about
'bestbananas.co.uk', even though the brand
describes his business;
- activities such as trading in domain names for profit or
holding a large portfolio of domain names will not
necessarily indicate an 'abusive
registration'. Each case will depend on its own
merits;
- 'likelihood of confusion' is specified as
a factor to consider as evidence of an 'abusive
registration'. This occurs where the respondent is
using or threatening to use a domain name so that people are
confused into believing that the domain name is connected
with the complainant.
While some of the changes to this service are intended to reduce a complainant's costs, specifying that certain acts are not necessarily evidence of an abusive registration could possibly assist domain name hijackers, and hinder complainants seeking to recover domain names which incorporate their brand.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.