World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

September 28, 2000

Dear Dr. Kane,

I have read with interest your communication of September 9, 2000, in which you describe the application to be made to ICANN by the Group One Registry consortium for the delegation of a new top-level domain that will use numerical strings as domain names, and in which you enquire whether WIPO would be prepared to provide dispute resolution services for registrations in such a domain.

Following our earlier collaboration with your company in the provision of this type of service, I have pleasure in confirming that the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center is available to administer disputes that may arise out of registrations in the top- level domain proposed by the consortium. Whilst we do not expect there to be a large number of disputes with numerical domain names, our extensive experience in gTLD and ccTLD on-line dispute resolution is at the disposal of the consortium to help design suitable procedures for resolving and, where possible, for preventing disputes.

I understand that the specific format is under discussion by the Registry Advisory Board, and that, if the application is successful, it is intended to invite WIPO to join that Board. Perhaps, therefore, it is appropriate to revisit this question at a later stage of the consortium's application. In any event, I look forward to implementing the role of the WIPO Center, in line with the open, independent, and public nature of its services, tailored to the specific needs of the consortium.

With best regards,

Dr. Paul Kane
Group One Registry Consortium
c/o P.O. Box 4040
Christchurch, BH23 I XW
United Kingdom

34, chemin des Colombettes, 1211 GENEVE 20 (SUISSE) & (41-22) 338 9111 Fax (41-22) 7403700 e-mail: domain.disputes@wipo.int
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