Public Comment

Public Comment is a vital part of our multistakeholder model. It provides a mechanism for stakeholders to have their opinions and recommendations formally and publicly documented. It is an opportunity for the ICANN community to effect change and improve policies and operations.

closed Policy Status Report: Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)

CategoryPolicy
RequestersGeneric Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)

Outcome

ICANN org received forty-four (44) submissions. The comments are categorized into two categories: general observations and specific issues concerning the overarching goals of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). This Public Comment summary report includes ICANN org staff summary of the comments and observations on the topic. ICANN Org will update the Policy Status Report to include relevant information from Public Comments. The updated report will then be returned to the GNSO Council, who may then consider whether the report and the Public Comments provide sufficient information for assessment of the policy, or if further policy development work should be undertaken.

What We Received Input On

This Public Comment proceeding is intended to gather input from the ICANN community on the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) itself and the data and analysis included in the Policy Status Report. The UDRP, which is an ICANN consensus policy, was created to provide a quick, efficient and more cost-effective way to facilitate trademark protection at the second level of the Domain Name System.

The UDRP Policy Status Report (PSR) provides an overview of the UDRP to support the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)’s assessment of the effectiveness of the UDRP in meeting its intended purposes. It includes background on the UDRP processes and procedures, publicly available and general data on UDRP complaints and decisions, and brief analyses. By collating this data, the PSR is intended to serve as input to UDRP-related review efforts and to support data-driven policy making, such as the Review of all Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) in all gTLDs Policy Development Process (PDP).

The UDRP Policy Status Report is organized to help the GNSO to assess the effectiveness of the UDRP in terms of:

  1. Efficiency: Does the UDRP provide trademark holders with a quick and cost-effective mechanism for resolving domain name disputes?
  2. Fairness: Does the UDRP allow all relevant rights and interests of the parties to be considered and ensure procedural fairness for all concerned parties?
  3. Addressing Abuse: Has the UDRP effectively addressed abusive registrations of domain names?

Proposals For Your Input
Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) Status Report (pdf, 861.16 KB)

Background

In March 2016, the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council launched a PDP to review all the Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) that have been developed at ICANN in two phases. Phase 1, which has been completed, focused on a review of all the RPMs that were developed for the 2012 New gTLD Program. When launched, Phase 2 will focus on a review of the UDRP, which has been an ICANN Consensus Policy since 1999. Prior to initiating Phase 2, the GNSO Council is expected to conduct a review of the PDP Charter. To ensure that the rechartering process focuses on specific issues and topics that could benefit from a comprehensive policy review, the GNSO Council requested that ICANN org provide the GNSO Council with a Policy Status Report on the UDRP. 

In addition, the mandate for the UDRP PSR stems from:

Consensus Policy Implementation Framework provides in Stage 5, Support and Review: “After there has been adequate time to generate data and metrics to evaluate implemented policy recommendations, Global Domains and Strategy (GDS), Compliance and Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Policy Staff should provide a PSR to the GNSO Council with sufficient data and metrics to assess the impact of the policy. Unless a data collection and reporting timeframe is specifically recommended by a Policy Development Process Working Group, generally the PSR should be provided within 3 to 5 years from the policy’s effective date. The PSR may serve as the basis for further review and/or revisions to the policy recommendations if deemed appropriate.”