ICA - Review of the first "Levine Lectures"

The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) hosted the start of the "Levine Lectures" in honor of domain lawyer Gerald Levine on July 18, 2024.

The ICA is committed to the protection and interests of domain owners and has been publishing the "ICA UDRP Digest" for several years now, in which current UDRP decisions are presented and sometimes commented on. To honor domain name lawyer Gerald Levine, winner of the ICA Lifetime Achievement Award for his significant academic contributions to the UDRP, author of the book "Domain Name Arbitration" and WIPO and The Forum panelist, the ICA launched the annual "Levine Lectures". The first "Levine Lecture", which lasted just under an hour, took place on July 18, 2024 with domain name lawyer and UDRP panelist Tony Willoughby as speaker.

Kamila Sekiewicz (ICA Executive Director) welcomes the participants and hands over to domain lawyer Zac Muscovitch (ICA General Counsel), who briefly introduces the event and talks about the origins of the Levine Lectures before handing over to Brian Beckham (ICANN) for a laudatory speech. Finally, Tony Willoughby, himself a trademark lawyer and expert in the field of UDRP with over 25 years of experience in domain disputes, will speak. Willoughby talks about his background and his working method as a trademark lawyer. In 1997, he had his first domain dispute, the "Pitman Publishing" case over the domain pitman.co.uk, which was also the first domain dispute in the UK. At the time, Willoughby did not know what a domain name was. His client had been allocated the domain, but lost it again. After brief communication with Nominet, Willoughby was able to get it back. As a result, the temporary owner of the domain, also a company called Pitman, sued Nominet and Pitman Publishing. Willoughby won the dispute for his client in the civil courts. Subsequently, he also litigated on behalf of the domain owners of prince.com, long before the UDRP existed. It was not until the end of 1999, after 18 months of preparation, that ICANN presented the UDRP. Willoughby was an early decision-maker in UDRP proceedings and one of the pioneers of the case law developing on the vague regulations of the UDRP.

Willoughby goes on to recount his early UDRP decisions, the flawed and the groundbreaking, and the anxieties of a lawyer breaking new ground. He addresses the weaknesses of the UDRP, but does not consider changes to be expedient, at best additions that provide clarity on points such as the requirements for evidence to be submitted or the assessment of incorrect data filed by the registrant. He sees the WIPO review as the heart of the UDRP procedure, as it is adapted to current case law following expert discussions, provides guidance to the panels and sets clear standards. He reports on the methodology of the nominet dispute resolution procedure (DRS), in which the panelists - albeit only a few - are assigned cases in a round-robin procedure. After just under 40 minutes, Willoughby has finished his informative and entertaining presentation. After closing remarks by Gerald Levine, the namesake of the "Levine Lectures", Willoughby answers questions and recommends the WIPO Overview to young and new panelists as a starting point for their work. He also advises panelists to attend panelist meetings and workshops in order to exchange ideas and counteract the loneliness of the decision-maker.

The 58-minute long first "Levine Lectures" with Tony Willoughby as speaker is definitely worth listening to and watching. You can find the recording of the first "Levine Lectures" at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPleS9kdViQ