domain names

Some talks (not me)

Coming up to the end of the year, there are events on reforming patent litigation practice and domain name disputes in review.

Patent litigation practice

Calling it “A very IPRIA Christmas”, IP Australia and IPRIA are hosting on 7 December at 5:30 pm an end of year celebration exploring “a wish list of practice reforms for making patent litigation in Australia (including appeals from the Office) more expeditious and cost effective.”

The event will be chaired by Justice Rofe and features Clare Cunliffe and David Shavin KC from the Bar and Lisa Taliadoros from the solicitors’ side of the profession.

Registration is free and attendance can be in person or online – although to assist catering they do ask that you register by the end of Monday 5 December if you are planning to attend at the Law School in Carlton in person.

Domain names

If domain name disputes are more your thing, the Hon. Neil Brown KC is also presenting an “Annual round-up on Domain Name Arbitration”. Topics Neil intends to cover include:

  • how the domain name process works
  • latest trends emerging from the decisions of arbitrators
  • what evidence do you need and how to collect the best evidence
  • the procedures to lodge a claim and how to defend one
  • traps for new players.

While Neil and I haven’t always seen eye to eye in particular cases, Neil has lots of experience both in the UDRP and a number of other regional and country-specific dispute resolution processes.

Neil is giving his talk online via Zoom at 10:00 am (Melbourne time; i.e. UTC +11) also on 7 December 2022.

According to his brochure, there is no need to register; just log-in. I am afraid I cannot reproduce the link so you are probably best just to email him directly.

Some talks (not me) Read More »

auDA Policy implementation review

auDA, the body regulating the .au domain, has embarked on a Policy review, through a Review Panel chaired by John Swinson.

The first issue being considered is how to implement the decision to allow “second level” domain name registrations: e.g. domain.au in addition to domain.com.au and domain.net.au etc.

One issue that gives rise to is how to resolve conflicting reapplication for registration if different people have “domain” registered already in e.g. .com.au and .net.au. The Issues Paper explains:

53. Given the extensive stakeholder consultation already undertaken on whether existing registrants should be given priority registration rights, the Panel has decided not to revisit this issue but to focus on developing a priority registration policy. The development of a priority registration policy requires consideration of the following issues:
• cut-off date for determining registrant eligibility for priority registration;
• process for resolving competing claims to the same second level domain name; and
• the priority registration period in which registrants will have exclusive rights to register the second level domain name.

auDA is seeking your views by 10 November 2017.

Issues Paper and further details here .

A second, later phase of the review will look at the policies relating to registration in the established second level domains (such as .com.au).

auDA Policy implementation review Read More »

WIPO Overview 3.0

WIPO Overview 3.0 Read More »

Dot Feedback

I was the panelist in an interesting UDRP dispute, debeers.feedback, which raises a couple of points worth being aware of.

If you’re not aware of it, .feedback is one of those new Top Level Domains that ICANN approved earlier this year. It is supposed to be a forum where people wishing to provide feedback (Duh!) can make their point. At the time of its approval, it was apparently rather controversial.

In this particular case, a number of what appeared to be otherwise genuine “feedback” posts only appeared on the website after Debeers sent a letter of demand, even though they were dated much earlier. The registrant did not seek to explain that.

The first point I wanted to draw your attention to is that, unbeknownst to the Complainant or me, the posts in question seem to have been cut and pasted from Yelp. If you have to deal with one of these domain names, a Google search will be in order.

Marty Schwimmer, the original trademark blog, suggests another argument: that “feedback” is semantically different to “.sucks” (and similar criticism outlets) and, Marty argues, implies an official outlet or connection.

Dot Feedback Read More »

Selected links,from last week

Here is a selection of links to IP-related matters I found interesting this week:

Patents

Trade marks

Copyright

Remedies

Not categorised

I hope you find some interesting. If you did or have a question, leave a comment or send me an email

Selected links,from last week Read More »

auDRP Overview

You probably know that the auDRP is the dispute resolution policy for the .au domain name space. You may not know that there have been about 330 decisions in its roughly 12 years of operation.

Prof Andrew Christie, with a helping hand from James Gloster, Jeffry Kadarusman and Daniel Lau, has prepared an “Overview” outlining how the decisions have treated the various issues arising under the auDRP. And he is launching the auDRP Overview at a Workshop on Wednesday 27 August at 9:15 am to 10:45. Venue the Crown Promenade.

Details here.

Prof Christie is the Professor of Intellectual Property at the University of Melbourne a very experienced domain name panelist, having amongst other things written the seminal decision Telstra v Nuclear Marshmallows D2000-0003If you find yourself with a dispute over a domain name registered in the .au domain name space, I anticipate you will find your first stop being this overview. Given the influence of UDRP decisions on auDRP decisions, although there are some important differences, you will also probably find it helpful in the context of the UDRP too. Make sure you read it.

The WIPO Overview to the UDRP version 2.0 here.

auDRP Overview Read More »