Re: Conflict resolution?

[Vince Wolodkin <wolodkin@digitalink.com>]

This is an interesting thread.  Currently on the NSIdomain application,
the applicant agrres to be bound by a certain California court I
believe.  Will the IAHC consider specifying a court system as the "home"
base for all registry issues.  I am not a lawyer, so I don't understand
the legal ramifications, but it seems a prudent thing to do.  We cannot
have all these new TLD's settling registry issues all over the world in
widespread courts all settin different legal precedence.  Obviously,
this would lead to registries locating in jurisdictions that were
favorable to their concerns.  How have international agreements in the
past handled this?(Non-internet)

Vince Wolodkin

Hank Nussbacher wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 18 Nov 1996, Gert Blij wrote:
> 
> > >From the IAHC charter: (*'s are mine)
> >
> > "The DNS is an *international* resource and the *IAHC will at all times
> > operate with that perspective*. The IAHC
> > specification effort will address *legal*, administrative, technical and
> > operational concerns, with particular attention to the questions of
> > *fairness* and functional stability."
> >
> > Based on the above I sincerely hope that the IAHC will tackle the issue of
> > conflict resolution WRT to unfair use of domain name registration. I
> > appreciate that this is a difficult and hot topic, but I feel very strongly
> > that if the Internet is to be considered truly *global*, it needs to be
> > resolved.
> >
> > The present conflict resolution criteria sound great but have no teeth. All
> > they do is protect the registration authority from legal action, but don't
> > really resolve anything.
> >
> > A real live example:
> >
> > There is an organisation in New York which has registered (hi-jacked)
> > dozens of domain names (with the .com extension) pertaining to company
> > names, registered trademarks etc. in South Africa and Japan.
> >
> > With sanctions having been lifted a lot of companies here in South Africa
> > would like to create an international "feel" by using the .com extension
> > rather than the localised .co.za one but now can not do so.
> >
> > We are advised by various lawyers here that according to the present
> > conflict resolution guidelines, the only way to tackle the issue is to take
> > this organisation to court in *New York*.
> >
> > I am sure you all appreciate thatthis is virtually impossible for 99.9
> > percent of companies outside the USA.
> >
> > Again, if the Internet is to be(come) a truly global phenomenon, then it
> > needs to solve these problems in globally acceptable manner and not be
> > based on the current legal flavor of the USA.
> >
> > (If  I have misunderstood the present conflict resolution policy and there
> > is an easy way to get the domain names back, pease let me know. I and many
> > others here in South Africa would be very grateful :-) )
> 
> The way to resolve this is to make .com insignificant or to create
> many better alternatives.  Then companies abroad have alternatives
> to the overpopulated .com domain.
> 
> >
> > Gert
> > ______________________________________________
> > Gert Blij  (gert@itst.co.za)   ITST (Pty) Ltd
> > 22 Sluysken Road, Hout Bay, 7800, South Africa
> > +27/(0)21/ work & fax: 790 2724    h: 790 3342
> > http://www.aztec.co.za/itst
> >
> 
> Hank Nussbacher
> IAHC member
> [the views expressed above belong to the author and do not
> necessarily reflect the views of the other IAHC members]