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Uniform domain name dispute resolution policy

(As Approved by ICANN on Octo­ber 24, 1999)

1. Pur­pose. This Uni­form Domain Name Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Pol­i­cy (the “Pol­i­cy”) has been adopt­ed by the Inter­net Cor­po­ra­tion for Assigned Names and Num­bers (“ICANN”), is incor­po­rat­ed by ref­er­ence into your Reg­is­tra­tion Agree­ment, and sets forth the terms and con­di­tions in con­nec­tion with a dis­pute between you and any par­ty oth­er than us (the reg­is­trar) over the reg­is­tra­tion and use of an Inter­net domain name reg­is­tered by you. Pro­ceed­ings under Para­graph 4 of this Pol­i­cy will be con­duct­ed accord­ing to the Rules for Uni­form Domain Name Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Pol­i­cy (the “Rules of Pro­ce­dure”), which are avail­able at www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm, and the select­ed admin­is­tra­tive-dis­pute-res­o­lu­tion ser­vice provider’s sup­ple­men­tal rules.

2. Your Rep­re­sen­ta­tions. By apply­ing to reg­is­ter a domain name, or by ask­ing us to main­tain or renew a domain name reg­is­tra­tion, you here­by rep­re­sent and war­rant to us that (a) the state­ments that you made in your Reg­is­tra­tion Agree­ment are com­plete and accu­rate; (b) to your knowl­edge, the reg­is­tra­tion of the domain name will not infringe upon or oth­er­wise vio­late the rights of any third par­ty; © you are not reg­is­ter­ing the domain name for an unlaw­ful pur­pose; and (d) you will not know­ing­ly use the domain name in vio­la­tion of any applic­a­ble laws or reg­u­la­tions. It is your respon­si­bil­i­ty to deter­mine whether your domain name reg­is­tra­tion infringes or vio­lates some­one else’s rights.

3. Can­cel­la­tions, Trans­fers, and Changes. We will can­cel, trans­fer or oth­er­wise make changes to domain name reg­is­tra­tions under the fol­low­ing cir­cum­stances:

a. sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of Para­graph 8, our receipt of writ­ten or appro­pri­ate elec­tron­ic instruc­tions from you or your autho­rized agent to take such action;

b. our receipt of an order from a court or arbi­tral tri­bunal, in each case of com­pe­tent juris­dic­tion, requir­ing such action; and/or

c. our receipt of a deci­sion of an Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el requir­ing such action in any admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ing to which you were a par­ty and which was con­duct­ed under this Pol­i­cy or a lat­er ver­sion of this Pol­i­cy adopt­ed by ICANN. (See Para­graph 4(i) and (k) below.)

We may also can­cel, trans­fer or oth­er­wise make changes to a domain name reg­is­tra­tion in accor­dance with the terms of your Reg­is­tra­tion Agree­ment or oth­er legal require­ments.

4. Manda­to­ry Admin­is­tra­tive Pro­ceed­ing.

This Para­graph sets forth the type of dis­putes for which you are required to sub­mit to a manda­to­ry admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ing. These pro­ceed­ings will be con­duct­ed before one of the admin­is­tra­tive-dis­pute-res­o­lu­tion ser­vice providers list­ed at www.icann.org/udrp/approved-providers.htm (each, a “Provider”).

a. Applic­a­ble Dis­putes. You are required to sub­mit to a manda­to­ry admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ing in the event that a third par­ty (a “com­plainant”) asserts to the applic­a­ble Provider, in com­pli­ance with the Rules of Pro­ce­dure, that

(i) your domain name is iden­ti­cal or con­fus­ing­ly sim­i­lar to a trade­mark or ser­vice mark in which the com­plainant has rights; and

(ii) you have no rights or legit­i­mate inter­ests in respect of the domain name; and

(iii) your domain name has been reg­is­tered and is being used in bad faith.

In the admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ing, the com­plainant must prove that each of these three ele­ments are present.

b. Evi­dence of Reg­is­tra­tion and Use in Bad Faith. For the pur­pos­es of Para­graph 4(a)(iii), the fol­low­ing cir­cum­stances, in par­tic­u­lar but with­out lim­i­ta­tion, if found by the Pan­el to be present, shall be evi­dence of the reg­is­tra­tion and use of a domain name in bad faith:

(i) cir­cum­stances indi­cat­ing that you have reg­is­tered or you have acquired the domain name pri­mar­i­ly for the pur­pose of sell­ing, rent­ing, or oth­er­wise trans­fer­ring the domain name reg­is­tra­tion to the com­plainant who is the own­er of the trade­mark or ser­vice mark or to a com­peti­tor of that com­plainant, for valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion in excess of your doc­u­ment­ed out-of-pock­et costs direct­ly relat­ed to the domain name; or

(ii) you have reg­is­tered the domain name in order to pre­vent the own­er of the trade­mark or ser­vice mark from reflect­ing the mark in a cor­re­spond­ing domain name, pro­vid­ed that you have engaged in a pat­tern of such con­duct; or

(iii) you have reg­is­tered the domain name pri­mar­i­ly for the pur­pose of dis­rupt­ing the busi­ness of a com­peti­tor; or

(iv) by using the domain name, you have inten­tion­al­ly attempt­ed to attract, for com­mer­cial gain, Inter­net users to your web site or oth­er on-line loca­tion, by cre­at­ing a like­li­hood of con­fu­sion with the complainant’s mark as to the source, spon­sor­ship, affil­i­a­tion, or endorse­ment of your web site or loca­tion or of a prod­uct or ser­vice on your web site or loca­tion.

c. How to Demon­strate Your Rights to and Legit­i­mate Inter­ests in the Domain Name in Respond­ing to a Com­plaint. When you receive a com­plaint, you should refer to Para­graph 5 of the Rules of Pro­ce­dure in deter­min­ing how your response should be pre­pared. Any of the fol­low­ing cir­cum­stances, in par­tic­u­lar but with­out lim­i­ta­tion, if found by the Pan­el to be proved based on its eval­u­a­tion of all evi­dence pre­sent­ed, shall demon­strate your rights or legit­i­mate inter­ests to the domain name for pur­pos­es of Para­graph 4(a)(ii):

(i) before any notice to you of the dis­pute, your use of, or demon­stra­ble prepa­ra­tions to use, the domain name or a name cor­re­spond­ing to the domain name in con­nec­tion with a bona fide offer­ing of goods or ser­vices; or

(ii) you (as an indi­vid­ual, busi­ness, or oth­er orga­ni­za­tion) have been com­mon­ly known by the domain name, even if you have acquired no trade­mark or ser­vice mark rights; or

(iii) you are mak­ing a legit­i­mate non­com­mer­cial or fair use of the domain name, with­out intent for com­mer­cial gain to mis­lead­ing­ly divert con­sumers or to tar­nish the trade­mark or ser­vice mark at issue.

d. Selec­tion of Provider. The com­plainant shall select the Provider from among those approved by ICANN by sub­mit­ting the com­plaint to that Provider. The select­ed Provider will admin­is­ter the pro­ceed­ing, except in cas­es of con­sol­i­da­tion as described in Para­graph 4(f).

e. Ini­ti­a­tion of Pro­ceed­ing and Process and Appoint­ment of Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el. The Rules of Pro­ce­dure state the process for ini­ti­at­ing and con­duct­ing a pro­ceed­ing and for appoint­ing the pan­el that will decide the dis­pute (the “Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el”).

f. Con­sol­i­da­tion. In the event of mul­ti­ple dis­putes between you and a com­plainant, either you or the com­plainant may peti­tion to con­sol­i­date the dis­putes before a sin­gle Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el. This peti­tion shall be made to the first Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el appoint­ed to hear a pend­ing dis­pute between the par­ties. This Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el may con­sol­i­date before it any or all such dis­putes in its sole dis­cre­tion, pro­vid­ed that the dis­putes being con­sol­i­dat­ed are gov­erned by this Pol­i­cy or a lat­er ver­sion of this Pol­i­cy adopt­ed by ICANN.

g. Fees. All fees charged by a Provider in con­nec­tion with any dis­pute before an Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el pur­suant to this Pol­i­cy shall be paid by the com­plainant, except in cas­es where you elect to expand the Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el from one to three pan­elists as pro­vid­ed in Para­graph 5(b)(iv) of the Rules of Pro­ce­dure, in which case all fees will be split even­ly by you and the com­plainant.

h. Our Involve­ment in Admin­is­tra­tive Pro­ceed­ings. We do not, and will not, par­tic­i­pate in the admin­is­tra­tion or con­duct of any pro­ceed­ing before an Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el. In addi­tion, we will not be liable as a result of any deci­sions ren­dered by the Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el.

i. Reme­dies. The reme­dies avail­able to a com­plainant pur­suant to any pro­ceed­ing before an Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el shall be lim­it­ed to requir­ing the can­cel­la­tion of your domain name or the trans­fer of your domain name reg­is­tra­tion to the com­plainant.

j. Noti­fi­ca­tion and Pub­li­ca­tion. The Provider shall noti­fy us of any deci­sion made by an Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el with respect to a domain name you have reg­is­tered with us. All deci­sions under this Pol­i­cy will be pub­lished in full over the Inter­net, except when an Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el deter­mines in an excep­tion­al case to redact por­tions of its deci­sion.

k. Avail­abil­i­ty of Court Pro­ceed­ings. The manda­to­ry admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ing require­ments set forth in Para­graph 4 shall not pre­vent either you or the com­plainant from sub­mit­ting the dis­pute to a court of com­pe­tent juris­dic­tion for inde­pen­dent res­o­lu­tion before such manda­to­ry admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ing is com­menced or after such pro­ceed­ing is con­clud­ed. If an Admin­is­tra­tive Pan­el decides that your domain name reg­is­tra­tion should be can­celed or trans­ferred, we will wait ten (10) busi­ness days (as observed in the loca­tion of our prin­ci­pal office) after we are informed by the applic­a­ble Provider of the Admin­is­tra­tive Panel’s deci­sion before imple­ment­ing that deci­sion. We will then imple­ment the deci­sion unless we have received from you dur­ing that ten (10) busi­ness day peri­od offi­cial doc­u­men­ta­tion (such as a copy of a com­plaint, file-stamped by the clerk of the court) that you have com­menced a law­suit against the com­plainant in a juris­dic­tion to which the com­plainant has sub­mit­ted under Para­graph 3(b)(xiii) of the Rules of Pro­ce­dure. (In gen­er­al, that juris­dic­tion is either the loca­tion of our prin­ci­pal office or of your address as shown in our Whois data­base. See Para­graphs 1 and 3(b)(xiii) of the Rules of Pro­ce­dure for details.) If we receive such doc­u­men­ta­tion with­in the ten (10) busi­ness day peri­od, we will not imple­ment the Admin­is­tra­tive Panel’s deci­sion, and we will take no fur­ther action, until we receive (i) evi­dence sat­is­fac­to­ry to us of a res­o­lu­tion between the par­ties; (ii) evi­dence sat­is­fac­to­ry to us that your law­suit has been dis­missed or with­drawn; or (iii) a copy of an order from such court dis­miss­ing your law­suit or order­ing that you do not have the right to con­tin­ue to use your domain name.

5. All Oth­er Dis­putes and Lit­i­ga­tion. All oth­er dis­putes between you and any par­ty oth­er than us regard­ing your domain name reg­is­tra­tion that are not brought pur­suant to the manda­to­ry admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ing pro­vi­sions of Para­graph 4 shall be resolved between you and such oth­er par­ty through any court, arbi­tra­tion or oth­er pro­ceed­ing that may be avail­able.

6. Our Involve­ment in Dis­putes. We will not par­tic­i­pate in any way in any dis­pute between you and any par­ty oth­er than us regard­ing the reg­is­tra­tion and use of your domain name. You shall not name us as a par­ty or oth­er­wise include us in any such pro­ceed­ing. In the event that we are named as a par­ty in any such pro­ceed­ing, we reserve the right to raise any and all defens­es deemed appro­pri­ate, and to take any oth­er action nec­es­sary to defend our­selves.

7. Main­tain­ing the Sta­tus Quo. We will not can­cel, trans­fer, acti­vate, deac­ti­vate, or oth­er­wise change the sta­tus of any domain name reg­is­tra­tion under this Pol­i­cy except as pro­vid­ed in Para­graph 3 above.

8. Trans­fers Dur­ing a Dis­pute.

a. Trans­fers of a Domain Name to a New Hold­er. You may not trans­fer your domain name reg­is­tra­tion to anoth­er hold­er (i) dur­ing a pend­ing admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ing brought pur­suant to Para­graph 4 or for a peri­od of fif­teen (15) busi­ness days (as observed in the loca­tion of our prin­ci­pal place of busi­ness) after such pro­ceed­ing is con­clud­ed; or (ii) dur­ing a pend­ing court pro­ceed­ing or arbi­tra­tion com­menced regard­ing your domain name unless the par­ty to whom the domain name reg­is­tra­tion is being trans­ferred agrees, in writ­ing, to be bound by the deci­sion of the court or arbi­tra­tor. We reserve the right to can­cel any trans­fer of a domain name reg­is­tra­tion to anoth­er hold­er that is made in vio­la­tion of this sub­para­graph.

b. Chang­ing Reg­is­trars. You may not trans­fer your domain name reg­is­tra­tion to anoth­er reg­is­trar dur­ing a pend­ing admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ing brought pur­suant to Para­graph 4 or for a peri­od of fif­teen (15) busi­ness days (as observed in the loca­tion of our prin­ci­pal place of busi­ness) after such pro­ceed­ing is con­clud­ed. You may trans­fer admin­is­tra­tion of your domain name reg­is­tra­tion to anoth­er reg­is­trar dur­ing a pend­ing court action or arbi­tra­tion, pro­vid­ed that the domain name you have reg­is­tered with us shall con­tin­ue to be sub­ject to the pro­ceed­ings com­menced against you in accor­dance with the terms of this Pol­i­cy. In the event that you trans­fer a domain name reg­is­tra­tion to us dur­ing the pen­den­cy of a court action or arbi­tra­tion, such dis­pute shall remain sub­ject to the domain name dis­pute pol­i­cy of the reg­is­trar from which the domain name reg­is­tra­tion was trans­ferred.

9. Pol­i­cy Mod­i­fi­ca­tions. We reserve the right to mod­i­fy this Pol­i­cy at any time with the per­mis­sion of ICANN. We will post our revised Pol­i­cy at at least thir­ty (30) cal­en­dar days before it becomes effec­tive. Unless this Pol­i­cy has already been invoked by the sub­mis­sion of a com­plaint to a Provider, in which event the ver­sion of the Pol­i­cy in effect at the time it was invoked will apply to you until the dis­pute is over, all such changes will be bind­ing upon you with respect to any domain name reg­is­tra­tion dis­pute, whether the dis­pute arose before, on or after the effec­tive date of our change. In the event that you object to a change in this Pol­i­cy, your sole rem­e­dy is to can­cel your domain name reg­is­tra­tion with us, pro­vid­ed that you will not be enti­tled to a refund of any fees you paid to us. The revised Pol­i­cy will apply to you until you can­cel your domain name reg­is­tra­tion.