ICANN seeking comments for the “Arab Center for Dispute Resolution” to serve as a UDRP provider

ICANN is seeking for comments on the revised proposal of the Arab Center for Dispute Resolution (ACDR) to serve as a UDRP dispute resolution service provider.

“Arab Center for Dispute Resolution’s Proposal to Serve as UDRP Provider” was on the Agenda of the “ICANN Special Board Meeting” that was held on the 28th of February. It appears that the Arab Center for Domain Name Dispute Resolution (ACDR) has not been accepted to become the 5th UDRP provider under ICANN just yet.

ICANN is opening a public comment forum to receive comment on the Arab Center for Domain Name Dispute Resolution’s revised proposal to serve as one of the official dispute resolution service providers for the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). You can submit your comments here.

The ACDR is jointly established by the Arab Intellectual Property Mediation and Arbitration Society (AIPMAS) and the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP), with headquarters in Amman, Jordan and additional offices in other Arab Countries. Both the AIPMAS (established in 1987) and ASIP promote the activities of the Arab Center of Mediation and Arbitration, established in 2003, active in resolving conflicts related to intellectual property through international arbitrators. If approved, the ACDR would be the first Approved UDRP Dispute Resolution Service Provider headquartered in an Arab state.

The ACDR’s earlier proposal was previously posted for comment. ICANN now seeks input on the revisions, to assist ICANN in determining if this proposal is ripe for Board approval.

ICANN claims that the revised proposal under consideration today takes into account many of the comments received. For example, the ACDR’s proposal now provides a meaningful limitation of 50 cases per month during the start up process. In the version that was originally posted for public comment, the ACDR requested a limitation of 5000 cases.

Before the “ICANN Special Board Meeting” that was held yesterday, ICA asked ICANN Board to defer action on new UDRP provider.

ICANN had received a proposal from the Arab Center for Domain Name Dispute Resolution (ACDR) in September 2010 to be recognized as one of the official dispute resolution providers under the UDRP.

In October 2010 ICANN had requested comments to be submitted on the ACDR proposal and there were a few parties that were opposed to the proposal such as the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) and George Kirikos.