Link to Public Comment Proceeding:
What We Need Your Input On: This Public Comment proceeding is intended to gather input from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) community on the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) itself and the data and analysis included in the Policy Status Report. The UDRP, which is an ICANN consensus policy, was created to provide a quick, efficient, and more cost-effective way to facilitate trademark protection at the second level of the Domain Name System.
The UDRP Policy Status Report (PSR) provides an overview of the UDRP to support the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) in assessing of the effectiveness of the UDRP in meeting its intended purposes. It includes background on the UDRP processes and procedures, publicly available and general data on UDRP complaints and decisions, and brief analyses. By collating this data, the PSR is intended to serve as input to UDRP-related review efforts and to support data-driven policy making, such as the Review of all Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) in All gTLDs Policy Development Process (PDP).
The UDRP PSR is organized to help the GNSO assess the effectiveness of the UDRP in terms of:
- Efficiency: Does the UDRP provide trademark holders with a quick and cost-effective mechanism for resolving domain name disputes?
- Fairness: Does the UDRP allow all relevant rights and interests of the parties to be considered and ensure procedural fairness for all concerned parties?
- Addressing Abuse: Has the UDRP effectively addressed abusive registrations of domain names?
Proposals for Your Input:
Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy Status Report.
Background: In March 2016, the GNSO Council launched a PDP to review all the RPMs that have been developed at ICANN in two phases. Phase 1, which has been completed, focused on the RPMs that were developed for the 2012 New gTLD Program. When launched, Phase 2 will focus on a review of the UDRP, which has been an ICANN consensus policy since 1999. Prior to initiating Phase 2, the GNSO Council is expected to conduct a review of the PDP Charter. To ensure that the rechartering process focuses on specific issues and topics that could benefit from a comprehensive policy review, the GNSO Council requested that ICANN org provide a Policy Status Report on the UDRP.
Next Steps: ICANN org will update the Policy Status Report to include relevant information from Public Comments. The updated report will then be returned to the GNSO Council, which may then consider whether the report and public comments provide sufficient information for assessment of the policy, or if further work is needed.