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Timeline for the Formulation and Implementation of the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy

5 June 1998 The U.S. Government issues its White Paper, calling for creation of not-for-profit corporation (later ICANN) to handle consensus-based technical management of the Internet's infrastructure. The White Paper also states that the U.S. Government will ask the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to conduct a consultative study on domain name/trademark issues.
8 July 1998 to 30 April 1999 WIPO conducts its consultative process. For the WIPO timetable, see <http://ecommerce.wipo.int/domains/process/eng/timetable.html>.
30 April 1999 WIPO delivers its final report to ICANN. This report covers several topics, including dispute resolution (in chapter 3). On dispute resolution, the WIPO report recommends institution of a policy followed uniformly by all registrars in the .com, .net, and .org TLDs.
27 May 1999 The ICANN Board adopts a resolution referring the recommendations of chapter 3 of the WIPO final report to the ICANN Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO).
12 June 1999 The DNSO Names Council forms Working Group A to study the WIPO recommendations regarding dispute resolution.
29 July 1999 Working Group A submits its final report to the Names Council recommending establishment of a uniform domain-name dispute-resolution policy for all registrars.
4 August 1999 The DNSO Names Council adopts the Working Group A report (with minor revisions) and sends it to the ICANN Board as a consensus recommendation.
20 August 1999 A group of registrars submits a "Model Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy for Voluntary Adoption by Registrars."
24 August 1999 ICANN staff presents "ICANN Staff Report: Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy for gTLD Registrars" to the Internet community and the ICANN Board before the 25 August public forum held in Santiago, Chile, on the dispute-resolution policy.
26 August 1999 The ICANN Board accepts the DNSO recommendation for establishment of a uniform domain-name dispute-resolution policy. The Board instructs ICANN staff to convene a small drafting committee and prepare implementation documents for approval after public comment, using the registrars' Model Policy as a starting point.
29 September 1999 ICANN staff posts its "Staff Report on Implementation Documents for the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy," together with implementation documents consisting of the written UDRP and uniform rules for public comment until 13 October 1999.
24 October 1999 The ICANN Board approves the implementation documents, as revised in accordance with public comments. This approval was based on the "Second Staff Report on Implementation
Documents for the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy
," presented to the Board on 24 October.
29 November 1999 First dispute-resolution service provider (World Intellectual Property Organization--WIPO) approved.
1 December 1999 First day complaints may be submitted to dispute-resolution providers for disputes involving domain names sponsored by most registrars (this did not include America Online, the NameIT Corp., or Network Solutions).
9 December 1999 First proceeding (worldwrestlingfederation.com) commenced.
23 December 1999 Second dispute-resolution service provider (National Arbitration Forum--NAF) approved.
1 January 2000 Third dispute-resolution service provider (Disputes.org/eResolution consortium--DeC) approved.
3 January 2000 First day for submission of complaints to the dispute-resolution providers for disputes involving domain names sponsored by America Online, the NameIT Corp., and Network Solutions.
14 January 2000 First proceeding (worldwrestlingfederation.com) decided.
22 May 2000 Fourth dispute-resolution service provider (CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution--CPR) approved.
16 October 2000 Approval of the Disputes.org/eResolution consortium as a dispute-resolution provider transferred to eResolution (eRes).
30 November 2001 eResolution ceases accepting proceedings.
28 February 2002 Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre begins accepting proceedings.
Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."