The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is among four dispute resolution providers invited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to administer disputes arising from applications made for new Internet generic Top-Level Domain Names (“gTLD”), a shift that will see a dramatic increase in the existing number of domain name endings currently available.
The dispute resolution procedure is part of a comprehensive program designed to protect the rights and interests of individuals or entities who oppose the registration of any domain name “strings” submitted for registration, as alternatives to the commonly known .com and .org extensions become possible.
ICANN today kicked off a seven-month objection period and made publicly available a list of all 1,930 gTLD ‘strings,’ for which complete applications were filed.
Under the program, ICC has accepted to process cases under the following two categories of objection.
- “Limited public interest objections” – whereby proposed names are considered to be contrary to generally accepted legal norms relating to morality and public order, recognized under principles of international law.
- “Community objections”, a substantial opposition to the gTLD application from a significant portion of the community to which the string may be explicitly or implicitly targeted.
The ICC International Centre for Expertise (the Centre) will administer cases under its Rules for Expertise which have been updated to include an appendix to govern the financial aspect of the proceedings. The Centre has also published a Practice Note to supplement the Rules.
Click here to read more on ICC’s website.
Detailed information on the new service including a full listing of the final determinations of experts can be found on the ICC website at: http://www.iccwbo.org/court/expertise/id48204/index.html
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