A new website educates on current UDRP jurisprudence

https://udrpperspectives.org is a project by lawyers and panelists Zak Muscovitch and Igor Motsnyi. The site provides up-to-date case law and commentaries on the UDRP.

‘UDRP Perspectives’ is a new programme that teaches the basics of proceedings under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. The authors are domain name lawyer Zak Muscovitch and UDRP panellist Igor Motsnyi.

Proceedings under the UDRP are not that difficult. But gaining an overview and understanding the system requires work. This is now made easier by ‘UDRP Perspectives on recent jurisprudence’ (udrpperspectives.org) by ICA General Counsel and domain name lawyer Zak Muscovitch and IP lawyer and UDRP panellist Igor Motsnyi. ‘UDRP Perspectives’ offers a curated collection of current (mostly since 2018) case law and commentaries on the UDRP. The service is aimed at UDRP panellists, lawyers and parties. We took a look at the simply designed site.

The site basically consists of a long, clearly organised text that can be searched via links in the table of contents at the beginning or via the topic search. The work is divided into four sections: the ‘Preliminary Issues’ (No. 0), in which the UDRP, its formal requirements and the work of the panellists are presented. Among other things, the handling of multiple opponents, re-filed complaints, incorrect data of the opponent and the question of the language of the proceedings are addressed. The authors provide examples of decisions, comments and, where appropriate, further reading for all of the points discussed individually. The comments are taken from ‘The ICA UDRP Digest’, which is published weekly. This is followed by explanations of legal issues relating to the three elements of the UDRP procedure. The second section (‘identical or confusing similar to trademark’, No. 1) is dedicated to the question of identity or deceptive similarity of the domain to the trademark. Among other things, it deals with general trade mark law, trade mark law arising from the domain and priorities. The third section (‘rights or legitimate interest’, No. 2) deals with legal issues relating to the opponent's right or legitimate interest. Priority (domain or trade mark) is also addressed here, and the ‘Oki Data’ case is discussed, which set standards for dealing with ‘trade mark domains’ through which only products of the trade mark in question are offered, with reference to the fact that one has nothing to do with the trade mark owner. The question of domain investing is not left unanswered either, whereby a distinction is made between domain investing in general and domain investing in brandable domains. In the next section (‘bad faith registration and use’, No. 3), the authors address the bad faith of the opponent and state succinctly under 3.1: ‘Both bad faith registration and bad faith use are required under the Policy’; they naturally offer examples and comments on this. Also discussed in this section are prices and sales offers, pay-per-click websites and passive holding of the domain in general, as well as when the opponent does not respond to the UDRP. Finally, the authors discuss reverse domain name hijacking under point ‘4.0 RDNH’.

‘UDRP Perspectives’ by Muscovich and Motsnyi is the compendium for everyone who needs a quick overview of the UDRP procedure, the requirements and legal issues as well as the current case law. There is no way around this source.