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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 BulkRegister.com
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; (c) 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
http://www.bulkregister.com/reviseddisputepolicy.html 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.
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