Getting a winning decision in a Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) case is obviously what every trademark owner wants when it files a complaint — but the decision itself is not the end of the process.
Instead, an order to transfer a domain name simply kicks off what should be the last stage of the dispute, but still, every trademark owner needs to be aware of at least three important issues to ensure that the domain name is actually transferred.
I discuss these issues, and what a trademark should expect after receiving a winning UDRP decision, in a new video on my YouTube channel.
Even though trademark owners are almost always victorious (more than 95 precent of the time, according to the most recent data in GigaLaw’s Domain Dispute Digest), it doesn’t mean that they can sit back and do nothing and wait for the disputed domain names in their cases to suddenly land in their portfolios.
Here are the three issues that every trademark owner needs to understand post-UDRP, as I discuss in more detail in the video:
First: The UDRP has a waiting period of 10 business days after the service provider has notified the parties of the decision. This waiting period gives a losing domain name registrant an opportunity to go to court to block implementation of the UDRP decision, in other words, to prevent the domain name from being transferred.
Second: The UDRP does not specifically say anything about how the transfer is to occur, only that the registrar for a domain name that has been ordered transferred must “implement the decision.”
Third: Not every registrar is cooperative when it’s time to implement the UDRP transfer and transfer the domain name Some registrars need to be pressured to fulfill their contractual obligations under ICANN’s registrar accreditation agreement (RAA), and in those cases getting the UDRP service provider or ICANN involved can be helpful.
For more details on all of these important issues, please watch my video.
