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New UDRP Procedures

Since its appointment in January 2008 by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers, to be the third international provider of UDRP services, the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) has undertaken a 10 month consultation of intellectual property owners and the legal representatives of both complainants and respondents. Based on the results of this research, the CAC introduced a number of initiatives from January 2009 which it hopes will save complainants and respondents both time and money.

Introducing the CAC UDRP Service marketed under the ADR.EU Brand

The service provided by ADR.eu offers two innovative measures that exploit the power of the internet. These are:

Class Complaints featuring the filing of a single complaint on behalf of multiple complainants
The availability of master accounts for parties involved in multiple UDRP proceedings
In addition, the ADR.eu service features two further measures designed to ensure that the ADR.eu UDRP service is of the highest quality. These are:
A narrow list of experienced UDRP Panellists
An updated categorisation of UDRP Decisions

Class Complaints featuring the filing of a single complaint on behalf of multiple complainants

(Section 4 (a) of the CAC‘s UDRP Supplemental Rules.)

The CAC is introducing a Class Complaint procedure into the UDRP so that a single person representing multiple Complainants can file one complaint against a single domain name holder in regard to multiple disputed domain names, for a reasonable fee.

This procedural option is being introduced in response to the requests of right holders for a streamlined UDRP procedure to fight serial cybersquatters.

A Class Complaint can be filed under existing rules provided the following conditions are met:

The Class Complaint is based on legal arguments applicable equally, or substantially in the same manner, to all the disputed domain names;
the person representing the different Complainants joined in the Class Complaint must provide evidence that it is authorised to act on behalf of each of the Complainants; and
the Panel can order the transfer of any of the disputed domain name(s) only to the individual Complainant on whose behalf the transfer was requested in the Class Complaint, in accordance with established UDRP Policy.

Master accounts for parties involved in multiple UDRP proceedings

The CAC’s on-line platform enables parties involved in multiple UDRP proceedings (lawyers, registrars, service providers) to have master accounts with different case files accessible through a single login.

This flexibility was requested by attorneys during the CAC’s programme of research earlier in 2008. Each on-line case file also includes principle Reminders and principal Deadlines for individual cases.

CAC selects first list of UDRP Panellists

More than 130 attorneys with experience of IP and internet disputes applied. Although many of these were excellent candidates, the decision was taken to appoint an initial narrow band of just 37 experts in order to promote consistency across decision making.

The full list of panellists is set out below. Their biographies are available on-line at http://adr.eu/adr/panelists/index.php.

Veronica Bailey	Uli Foerstl	Luis de Larramendi	Dinant Oosterbaan
Luca Barbero	Lambert Grosskopf	Alan L. Limbury	Steve Palmer
Enrique Batalla	Marie-Emmanuelle Haas	Angelica Lodigiani	Alistair Payne
Fabrizio Bedarida	Matthew Harris	Kevin Madders	Flip Petillion
Dietrich Beier	Tom Heremans	Guido Maffei	Kristina Rosette
Neil Anthony Brown	Thomas Hoeren	Cedric Manara	Jane Seager
Joseph Cannataci	Vít Horáček	Victoria McEvedy	Thomas Schafft
Nathalie Dreyfus	José M. Checa	Alfred Meijboom	David Taylor
Dominik Eickemeier	Doug Isenberg	Tobias Malte Muller	Jonathan Turner
Etienne Wéry

CAC expects to open applications for further panellists towards the end of 2009 depending on the volume of cases that it has processed.

A new categorisation of UDRP Decisions

As part of the selection process for the appointment of panellists, the CAC asked applicants to suggest how UDRP decisions could be categorised in the ADR.eu platform to meet the needs of interested parties. As a result of this work, ADR.eu is categorising decisions for the CAC under headings suggested by IP practitioners from around the world with a special focus being given to matching an issue to a type of case.

In providing suggestions, many of the CAC’s applicants acknowledged the excellent work undertaken by other panel providers, especially WIPO, in categorising thousands of decisions. The hope was also expressed that in time all UDRP Panel providers might be able to harmonise categorisation headings.

Further Information

For further information or comment, please contact Tereza Bartoskova, Senior Case Administrator of the CAC on +420 222 333 350 or email tereza.bartoskova@adr.eu

ADR.eu - Procedures

New UDRP Procedures