Daily Domain Name Registration Blog

Wisely, in my opinion, Nominet, the .uk registry, has decided to update its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS). If anything, the change is long overdue, as Nominet’s expert hire fee of £750 is a considerable dent to the bank balance for some trademark holders and other individuals.

What is more, the current process is arduous, especially considering the fact that the majority of disputes are not contested by the current domain owner. I suppose it’s not especially profitable for a cybersquatter to argue when a dispute is filed, given the cost of legal advice and the likelihood that they will probably be found in the wrong; there are no penalties imposed by the registry for misuse of domain names, so the defendant is only really in trouble of the claimant subsequently decides to sue for damages.

The new system would allow disputes to be fast-tracked if the defendant did not contest the claim. There would also be a reduction in fees, with £10 to register a claim, and a further £200 to transfer the domain if the dispute is not contested, meaning a saving of £540 for claimants. However, OUT-LAW.COM notes that such a policy could be open to abuse from reverse hijackers, as domain registrants are notoriously bad at keeping their contact details valid and up-to-date. It is quite possible to imagine numerous situations where domain owners would unwittingly lose their domains to snatchers because they missed dispute notifications sent to out-of-date email addresses.

Arguably, it’s your own fault if you’ve failed to give the correct details, but the provision of updated information has never been properly enforced by Nominet, and many registrants are concerned about spam and other abuses of the public WHOIS databases. OUT-LAW.COM’s suggested solution is a slow roll-out of the new policy, with domain registrants being informed of the importance of keeping contact details current as they register or renew their domains (the only times that you can be sure of their attention).

What’s more, if Nominet thinks that the £540 reduction in Nominet fees is going to make a significant difference to domain dispute claimants, they’re sorely mistaken: despite the “fast-track” nature of the proposed new system, claimants will still be required to fill out a complex legal document which details the reasons for the dispute, the claimant’s rights to the domain, and the current owner’s lack thereof. It is advisable to get a lawyer’s help for this, and this is where the cost of disputing domain ownership becomes prohibitive. £750 seems insignificant in comparison to the legal fees that claimants are sometimes forced to pay in order to regain control of their domains.

OUT-LAW.COM has a neat solution for this problem, too: a summary document could be submitted when the claim is filed, a more detailed document being required only if the current domain registrant kicks up a fuss. But OUT-LAW.COM notes that, when it misunderstood Nominet’s original proposal and wrote in a now-deleted article that a summary document would be all that was required, Nominet contacted the webmaster personally to set them straight. This suggests that Nominet is quite serious about continuing to demand detailed legal documentation before a domain will be transferred. It remains to be seen whether the concerns of OUT-LAW.COM and other lawyers and dispute experts will be taken into account by the .uk registry.