Why the UDRP needs review and reform

After extensive consultations and review, the Internet Commerce Association (“ICA”) has published the initial version of its UDRP Reform Policy Platform.  The ICA intends for its policy platform to be the starting point for vigorous and constructive discussions with other stakeholders who are participating in the review of the UDRP through the ICANN Rights Protection Mechanisms Working Group (the “Working Group”).   The ICA UDRP Reform Platform can be downloaded here.

The UDRP although flawed in many significant respects, has been largely successful in being used to resolve thousands of domain name disputes since its inception in 1999. The language of the Policy provides for a generally fair and balanced approach to resolving these disputes, and accordingly the ICA’s policy proposals at this time encompass no substantive changes to the wording of the Policy itself. Rather, the ICA’s policy proposals encompass administrative and procedural reforms which will increase Accountability, Uniformity, Predictability, and Balance to the UDRP.

The ICA will continue to study the issues covered in this version and will be publishing an updated version of its reform platform based on feedback from further consultations.  These reforms will be proposed to the Working Group.  The web page for the Working Group tasked with UDRP review can be found here. Participation in this Working Group, as either a member or an observer, is open to anyone interested and willing to comply with the working group guidelines.

Problems with the UDRP

Many articles have documented the flaws in the UDRP and called for remedial reforms. Such articles includes —

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/07/11/why_icanns_domain_dispute_rules/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/07/11/why_icanns_domain_dispute_rules_2/

http://domainnamewire.com/2014/02/04/does-the-udrp-do-more-harm-than-good/

http://directnavigation.com/2010/01/udrp-a-guest-post-every-domainer-must-read/

http://domainnamewire.com/2009/09/09/4-ways-to-reform-udrp-now/

http://domain.tips/udrp-cases-is-there-a-consensus-in-the-decisions/

http://www.domainarts.com/2013/11/07/push-to-adopt-renewed-in-bad-faith-standard-in-udrp-puts-investment-domains-at-risk/

http://www.circleid.com/posts/20100423_naf_copying_pasting_nonsense_into_udrp_decisions/

Academic Papers on the UDRP

Pamela Segal
Attempts to Solve the UDRP’s Trademark Holder Bias: A Problem that Remains Unsolved Despite the Introduction of New Top Level Domain Names
June 2002
http://cardozojcr.com/issues/volume-3-1/note/

Michael Froomkin
Rough Justice
http://ccent.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/roughjustice.pdf

Michael Geist
Fair.com?: An Examination of the Allegations of Systemic Unfairness in the ICANN UDRP
August 2001
http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~geist/geistudrp.pdf