29 Rights Protection Mechanisms

Prototypical answer:

The purpose of the .TELECITY registry is to provide a stable and secure platform for electronic communication that is within the direct control of Telecity; to keep Telecity at the forefront of Internet technological development and to ensure that the integrity of the Telecity brand is maintained. One of Telecityʹs core objectives is to (1) prevent abusive registrations, and (2) identify and address the abusive use of registered domain names on an on-going basis.

Safeguards against unqualified registrations

To ensure that all registrations are made in compliance with the registryʹs policies and eligibility restrictions, all .TELECITY registrations are managed through the Naming Committee. As part of this process, Telecity personnel requesting the registration of a new second level domain name which shall exclusively be in the name of Telecity will be required to provide a statement as to their business need for the domain name as well as full contact details of their name, position and business area. The Naming Committee will scrutinise each statement prior to passing the application for rights protection clearance.

Rights protection

It is Telecityʹs policy and practice to treat the intellectual property rights of others with respect. In particular, Telecity already has well-developed internal processes for clearing domain names prior to their adoption by the business so as to ensure as far as possible that new models, services and other initiatives do not infringe the rights of others. These processes include conducting a search against relevant trademark databases and a fuller legal advice process in the event that problems are identified by this search.

Telecity will implement and adhere to any rights protections mechanisms that may be mandated by ICANN at any time and will adhere to all requirements listed in Specification 7 of the draft new gTLD Registry Agreement contained in ICANNʹs gTLD Applicant Guidebook version 2012-01-11.

Sunrise period

ICANN mandate that sunrise registration services must be offered for a minimum of 30 days during the pre-launch phase. A 30 day sunrise period will be offered for .TELECITY and during this period eligible trademark owners registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse will have an early opportunity to register names in the TLD.
It should be noted that as only members of Telecity’s corporate group will be eligible to register domain names in .TELECITY, there will be limited registrations during the Sunrise period.

Trademark claims service

ICANN mandate that a trademark claims service is offered for at least the first 60 days that the registration is open for general registration. During this period, all potential registrants must be notified of the presence of trademark holders registered in ICANNʹs Trademark Clearinghouse.

A trademark claims service will be offered for .TELECITY and attempts to register a domain name which corresponds with a mark registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse will have to be approved by Telecity’s in-house Legal Team.

The checks will be carried out by Nominet UK, the Applicant’s registry services provider, who will fulfil the requirements to send notices out under the claims service, in order to keep the process at arms’ length.

This service will be continued past the minimum initial 60 days and trademark clearing house checks will be made for all registrations in .TELECITY.

Abusive use and takedown procedures

While registrations in the .TELECITY registry will clearly be subject to the UDRP and URS, the Applicant’s preference is for any rights holders with a concern about .TELECITY registrations to approach it in the first instance to discuss their concerns.

In the rare event that Telecity receives such a complaint of trademark infringement, this is treated extremely seriously. Telecity has a dedicated in-house Legal team who investigate such complaints and respond accordingly.

Because .TELECITY will be a closed registry, Telecity does not anticipate that it will be subject to a significant number of third party claims of abusive registrations or activities otherwise harmful to the legal rights of others. That said, Telecity is committed to providing appropriate mechanisms to enable third parties to complain in the event that they consider their rights to have been infringed or otherwise harmed by Telecityʹs conduct, and to provide a remedy in the unlikely event that such a claim is made out. Complaints will initially be addressed by Telecity in-house Legal team and if a complaint is considered to be well-founded, Telecity will take one or more of the following actions:

- cease the harmful conduct
- suspend the domain name to remove it from the zone file
- cancel the domain name.

If at any time the complainant is unsatisfied with Telecityʹs response then they can utilise the UDRP or URS policies. Alternatively, Telecity will ask Nominet to mediate the dispute. The mediation will be provided by Nominetʹs two qualified mediators who have substantial experience of such disputes from their role in mediating dot UK disputes under the dot UK Dispute Resolution Service.

Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS)

The URS process offers an accelerated process for trademark holders to protect their marks. The process will award in favour of the aggrieved party if they are able to show for a registered domain name the following:

- the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to their eligible trade mark
- the registrant has no legitimate right or interest to the domain name
- the domain name is being used in bad faith.

If the URS process awards in favour of an aggrieved party then the domain name in question will be suspended. The nameservers for the domain name will be redirected to an informational web page provided by the URS Provider about the URS. The Whois will continue to display the original registrant information and will reflect that the Whois will not be transferred, deleted or modified for the life of the registration.

When a domain name that is subject to URS expires, then it will be deleted.

The .TELECITY registry will adhere to all URS decisions. Results of URS decisions will be implemented by Nominet, the registry services provider. Nominet has significant experience in implementing the results of dispute resolution processes as it has operated the dot UK Dispute Resolution Service for more than 10 years.

Nominetʹs four-person second-line support team will deal with any URS notifications relating to .TELECITY domain names as soon as is reasonably practicable, and in any event within 24 hours of receipt of the decision from the URS provider. The support team works 08:00 to 18:00 local UK time, with one member on-call outside of those hours to address any urgent issues. The on-call support team member will implement all URS notifications received outside of core working hours.

Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)

Under the UDRP, a trademark owner may submit a complaint to an approved dispute resolution service provider. In the event that the provider finds for the complainant then they may order a transfer, deletion or other action on the domain name. UDRP decisions are implemented by the relevant ICANN accredited registrar.

The .TELECITY registry will fully comply with all UDRP decisions and it will be a requirement on .TELECITY registrars to do so.

Resource plan

Telecity already has a dedicated in-house Legal team responsible, inter alia, for responding to complaints of IP infringement. As to whether additional personnel will be required to accommodate any uplift in complaints as a result of the operation of .TELECITY, this will be closely monitored and addressed as necessary. However, given the modest number of registrations expected in the .TELECITY TLD, it is not presently anticipated that further resource will be necessary.

Nominetʹs existing Dispute Management team incorporating 2 qualified lawyers and 2 experienced mediators will handle mediation. URS decisions will be handled by Nominetʹs abuse team made up of four staff.

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