Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
(As Approved by ICANN on October 24, 1999)
1. Purpose. This Uniform Domain Name
Dispute Resolution Policy (the "Policy") has been
adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers ("ICANN"), is incorporated by reference into
your Registration Agreement, and sets forth the terms
and conditions in connection with a dispute between you
and any party other than us (the registrar) over the
registration and use of an Internet domain name
registered by you. Proceedings under Paragraph 4 of this
Policy will be conducted according to the Rules for
Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the
"Rules of Procedure"), which are available at
www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm, and the
selected administrative-dispute-resolution service
provider's supplemental rules.
2. Your Representations. By applying
to register a domain name, or by asking us to maintain
or renew a domain name registration, you hereby
represent and warrant to us that (a) the statements that
you made in your Registration Agreement are complete and
accurate; (b) to your knowledge, the registration of the
domain name will not infringe upon or otherwise violate
the rights of any third party; (c) you are not
registering the domain name for an unlawful purpose; and
(d) you will not knowingly use the domain name in
violation of any applicable laws or regulations. It is
your responsibility to determine whether your domain
name registration infringes or violates someone else's
rights.
3. Cancellations, Transfers, and
Changes. We will cancel, transfer or otherwise
make changes to domain name registrations under the
following circumstances:
a. subject to the provisions of Paragraph 8, our
receipt of written or appropriate electronic
instructions from you or your authorized agent to take
such action;
b. our receipt of an order from a
court or arbitral tribunal, in each case of competent
jurisdiction, requiring such action; and/or
c.
our receipt of a decision of an Administrative Panel
requiring such action in any administrative proceeding
to which you were a party and which was conducted
under this Policy or a later version of this Policy
adopted by ICANN. (See Paragraph 4(i) and (k) below.)
We may also cancel, transfer or otherwise make
changes to a domain name registration in accordance with
the terms of your Registration Agreement or other legal
requirements.
4. Mandatory Administrative
Proceeding. This Paragraph sets forth the type
of disputes for which you are required to submit to a
mandatory administrative proceeding. These proceedings
will be conducted before one of the
administrative-dispute-resolution service providers
listed at www.icann.org/udrp/approved-providers.htm
(each, a "Provider").
a. Applicable Disputes. You are
required to submit to a mandatory administrative
proceeding in the event that a third party (a
"complainant") asserts to the applicable Provider, in
compliance with the Rules of Procedure, that
(i) your domain name is identical or confusingly
similar to a trademark or service mark in which the
complainant has rights; and
(ii) you have no
rights or legitimate interests in respect of the
domain name; and
(iii) your domain name has
been registered and is being used in bad
faith.
In the administrative proceeding, the complainant
must prove that each of these three elements are
present.
b. Evidence of Registration
and Use in Bad Faith. For the purposes of
Paragraph 4(a)(iii), the following circumstances, in
particular but without limitation, if found by the
Panel to be present, shall be evidence of the
registration and use of a domain name in bad
faith:
(i) circumstances indicating that you have
registered or you have acquired the domain name
primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or
otherwise transferring the domain name registration
to the complainant who is the owner of the trademark
or service mark or to a competitor of that
complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of
your documented out-of-pocket costs directly related
to the domain name; or
(ii) you have
registered the domain name in order to prevent the
owner of the trademark or service mark from
reflecting the mark in a corresponding domain name,
provided that you have engaged in a pattern of such
conduct; or
(iii) you have registered the
domain name primarily for the purpose of disrupting
the business of a competitor; or
(iv) by
using the domain name, you have intentionally
attempted to attract, for commercial gain, Internet
users to your web site or other on-line location, by
creating a likelihood of confusion with the
complainant's mark as to the source, sponsorship,
affiliation, or endorsement of your web site or
location or of a product or service on your web site
or location.
c. How to Demonstrate Your Rights to and
Legitimate Interests in the Domain Name in Responding
to a Complaint. When you receive a complaint,
you should refer to Paragraph 5 of the Rules of
Procedure in determining how your response should be
prepared. Any of the following circumstances, in
particular but without limitation, if found by the
Panel to be proved based on its evaluation of all
evidence presented, shall demonstrate your rights or
legitimate interests to the domain name for purposes
of Paragraph 4(a)(ii):
(i) before any notice to you of the dispute, your
use of, or demonstrable preparations to use, the
domain name or a name corresponding to the domain
name in connection with a bona fide offering of
goods or services; or
(ii) you (as an
individual, business, or other organization) have
been commonly known by the domain name, even if you
have acquired no trademark or service mark rights;
or
(iii) you are making a legitimate
noncommercial or fair use of the domain name,
without intent for commercial gain to misleadingly
divert consumers or to tarnish the trademark or
service mark at issue.
d. Selection of Provider. The
complainant shall select the Provider from among those
approved by ICANN by submitting the complaint to that
Provider. The selected Provider will administer the
proceeding, except in cases of consolidation as
described in Paragraph 4(f).
e.
Initiation of Proceeding and Process and Appointment
of Administrative Panel. The Rules of
Procedure state the process for initiating and
conducting a proceeding and for appointing the panel
that will decide the dispute (the "Administrative
Panel").
f. Consolidation. In
the event of multiple disputes between you and a
complainant, either you or the complainant may
petition to consolidate the disputes before a single
Administrative Panel. This petition shall be made to
the first Administrative Panel appointed to hear a
pending dispute between the parties. This
Administrative Panel may consolidate before it any or
all such disputes in its sole discretion, provided
that the disputes being consolidated are governed by
this Policy or a later version of this Policy adopted
by ICANN.
g. Fees. All fees
charged by a Provider in connection with any dispute
before an Administrative Panel pursuant to this Policy
shall be paid by the complainant, except in cases
where you elect to expand the Administrative Panel
from one to three panelists as provided in Paragraph
5(b)(iv) of the Rules of Procedure, in which case all
fees will be split evenly by you and the
complainant.
h. Our Involvement in
Administrative Proceedings. We do not, and
will not, participate in the administration or conduct
of any proceeding before an Administrative Panel. In
addition, we will not be liable as a result of any
decisions rendered by the Administrative
Panel.
i. Remedies. The
remedies available to a complainant pursuant to any
proceeding before an Administrative Panel shall be
limited to requiring the cancellation of your domain
name or the transfer of your domain name registration
to the complainant.
j. Notification and
Publication. The Provider shall notify us of
any decision made by an Administrative Panel with
respect to a domain name you have registered with us.
All decisions under this Policy will be published in
full over the Internet, except when an Administrative
Panel determines in an exceptional case to redact
portions of its decision.
k.
Availability of Court Proceedings. The
mandatory administrative proceeding requirements set
forth in Paragraph 4 shall not prevent either you or
the complainant from submitting the dispute to a court
of competent jurisdiction for independent resolution
before such mandatory administrative proceeding is
commenced or after such proceeding is concluded. If an
Administrative Panel decides that your domain name
registration should be canceled or transferred, we
will wait ten (10) business days (as observed in the
location of our principal office) after we are
informed by the applicable Provider of the
Administrative Panel's decision before implementing
that decision. We will then implement the decision
unless we have received from you during that ten (10)
business day period official documentation (such as a
copy of a complaint, file-stamped by the clerk of the
court) that you have commenced a lawsuit against the
complainant in a jurisdiction to which the complainant
has submitted under Paragraph 3(b)(xiii) of the Rules
of Procedure. (In general, that jurisdiction is either
the location of our principal office or of your
address as shown in our Whois database. See Paragraphs
1 and 3(b)(xiii) of the Rules of Procedure for
details.) If we receive such documentation within the
ten (10) business day period, we will not implement
the Administrative Panel's decision, and we will take
no further action, until we receive (i) evidence
satisfactory to us of a resolution between the
parties; (ii) evidence satisfactory to us that your
lawsuit has been dismissed or withdrawn; or (iii) a
copy of an order from such court dismissing your
lawsuit or ordering that you do not have the right to
continue to use your domain name.
5. All Other Disputes and
Litigation. All other disputes between you and
any party other than us regarding your domain name
registration that are not brought pursuant to the
mandatory administrative proceeding provisions of
Paragraph 4 shall be resolved between you and such other
party through any court, arbitration or other proceeding
that may be available.
6. Our Involvement in Disputes. We
will not participate in any way in any dispute between
you and any party other than us regarding the
registration and use of your domain name. You shall not
name us as a party or otherwise include us in any such
proceeding. In the event that we are named as a party in
any such proceeding, we reserve the right to raise any
and all defenses deemed appropriate, and to take any
other action necessary to defend ourselves.
7. Maintaining the Status Quo. We
will not cancel, transfer, activate, deactivate, or
otherwise change the status of any domain name
registration under this Policy except as provided in
Paragraph 3 above.
8. Transfers During a Dispute.
a. Transfers of a Domain Name to a New
Holder. You may not transfer your domain name
registration to another holder (i) during a pending
administrative proceeding brought pursuant to
Paragraph 4 or for a period of fifteen (15) business
days (as observed in the location of our principal
place of business) after such proceeding is concluded;
or (ii) during a pending court proceeding or
arbitration commenced regarding your domain name
unless the party to whom the domain name registration
is being transferred agrees, in writing, to be bound
by the decision of the court or arbitrator. We reserve
the right to cancel any transfer of a domain name
registration to another holder that is made in
violation of this subparagraph.
b.
Changing Registrars. You may not transfer
your domain name registration to another registrar
during a pending administrative proceeding brought
pursuant to Paragraph 4 or for a period of fifteen
(15) business days (as observed in the location of our
principal place of business) after such proceeding is
concluded. You may transfer administration of your
domain name registration to another registrar during a
pending court action or arbitration, provided that the
domain name you have registered with us shall continue
to be subject to the proceedings commenced against you
in accordance with the terms of this Policy. In the
event that you transfer a domain name registration to
us during the pendency of a court action or
arbitration, such dispute shall remain subject to the
domain name dispute policy of the registrar from which
the domain name registration was
transferred.
9. Policy Modifications. We reserve
the right to modify this Policy at any time with the
permission of ICANN. We will post our revised Policy at
http://aaaq.com at least thirty (30) calendar days
before it becomes effective. Unless this Policy has
already been invoked by the submission of a complaint to
a Provider, in which event the version of the Policy in
effect at the time it was invoked will apply to you
until the dispute is over, all such changes will be
binding upon you with respect to any domain name
registration dispute, whether the dispute arose before,
on or after the effective date of our change. In the
event that you object to a change in this Policy, your
sole remedy is to cancel your domain name registration
with us, provided that you will not be entitled to a
refund of any fees you paid to us. The revised Policy
will apply to you until you cancel your domain name
registration.
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