The National Arbitration Forum promotes the UDRP for New gTLDs

The National Arbitration Forum (recently rebranded as just the “Forum”) sent out a newsletter today promoting the UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy) for New gTLD domain names.

The email subject was “Is the UDRP Applicable To New gTLDs?” and the email heading was “The UDRP Applies to All New Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs)”.

Some important questions arise:

• Is the Forum low on New gTLD UDRP complaints? Is the Forum looking for more revenue?
• What is the Forum prepared to do to attract more “customers”, i.e. trademark holders?
• How is this UDRP provider shopping is going to affect the quality of the decisions made by the Forum? (quality is already pretty low at the Forum compared to WIPO)

The Forum also announced Renee Fossen as Forum’s Director of Arbitration overseeing Forum’s domain name dispute programs.

Here is the part of the newsletter about UDRP, URS and New gTLD domains:

Question:  Can I file a UDRP Complaint against the registrant of a domain name on one of the new gTLDs?

Answer:  Yes.  There have been over 1,100 new gTLDs delegated since 2011. The UDRP applies both to legacy TLDs and all of these new gTLDs. Key differences between the UDRP and URS processes are listed below.

UDRP Features:
Scope:  Legacy TLDs and New gTLDs
Complaint:  15-page limit, unlimited annexes
Standard of Proof:  Preponderance of evidence
Remedy:  Domain name cancellation or transfer to Complainant
Appeals Process:  In court of competent jurisdiction

For more information regarding the UDRP, please visit: www.adrforum.com/UDRP

URS Features:
Scope:  New gTLDs and those legacy TLDs that have chosen to implement the URS
Complaint:  500-word limit, maximum of three annexes per domain name
Standard of Proof:  Clear and convincing evidence
Remedy:  Temporary suspension of domain name
Appeals Process:  URS Appeal Panel, UDRP or court of competent jurisdiction

For more information regarding the URS, please visit: www.adrforum.com/URS