Domain Name Update

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...