1999-10-24 - IMPLEMENTATION OF UNIFORM DISPUTE RESOLUTION POLICY

WHEREAS, on April 30, 1999, the World Intellectual Property Organization presented a report with its recommendations to ICANN on, among other things, a uniform policy for resolution of domain name disputes;

WHEREAS, at the ICANN meeting held in Santiago, Chile on August 24-26, 1999, a group of approximately twenty registrars presented a proposed a Model Dispute Resolution Policy for Voluntary Adoption, which they had agreed to adopt;

WHEREAS, at the Santiago meeting in Resolution 99.81, the Board accepted the consensus recommendation of the Domain Name Supporting Organization, and adopted a uniform domain-name dispute resolution policy for accredited registrars in the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains;

WHEREAS, in Resolution 99.82 the Board directed the President, with the assistance of ICANN staff and counsel, to prepare implementation documents for approval by the Board after public notice and comment;

WHEREAS, in preparing implementation documents the President, staff, and counsel received valuable insights and advice from a small drafting committee consisting of J. Scott Evans, A. Michael Froomkin, Kathryn A. Kleiman, Steven J. Metalitz, and Rita A. Rodin;

WHEREAS, the Board recognizes the significant contribution of the members of the small drafting committee and expresses its deep appreciation for the personal sacrifices that effort required;

WHEREAS, the implementation documents (consisting of a draft policy and procedures) prepared by the President, staff, and counsel were posted on the ICANN web site for public comment on September 29, 1999;

WHEREAS, approximately 90 comments were received on the web site;

WHEREAS, the Board members have reviewed or been informed of the comments received on the draft policy and procedures and have given them due consideration;

WHEREAS, the President, staff, and counsel have made various adjustments and clarifications to the implementation documents in response to the comments; and

WHEREAS, the President recommends that the implementation documents be approved for use in implementing the policy; it is now

RESOLVED [99.112] that the Board finds that the implementation documents (namely, the statement of "Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy" attached as Exhibit A to these minutes and the "Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy" attached as Exhibit B to these minutes) faithfully embody the uniform dispute resolution policy adopted in Resolution 99.81.

FURTHER RESOLVED [99.113] that the President is authorized and directed to proceed immediately with implementation of the uniform dispute resolution policy adopted in Resolution 99.81 using the implementation documents approved in Resolution 99.112 (or such variation as he determines, with the concurrence of the General Counsel, is consistent with the policy adopted in Resolution 99.81) on a schedule the President establishes to allow orderly implementation, including notification of accredited registrars and the entry of agreements for the provisional approval of one or more dispute-resolution service providers as provided in Resolution 99.84.

FURTHER RESOLVED [99.114] that the President and General Counsel are authorized to monitor the ongoing operation of the administrative dispute-resolution mechanism described in Paragraph 4 of the "Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy" and to make such adjustments to the Policy's implementation from time to time as they determine appropriate, including adjustments to the terms and extent of provisional approval of dispute-resolution service providers.

FURTHER RESOLVED [99.115] that the Board requests the General Counsel, with the assistance of staff, to prepare a summary of matters arising in the drafting process that should be considered as possible future refinements to the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy and to transmit that list to the Domain Name Supporting Organization for its study of those matters, with a view toward submission to the Board in the year 2000 of any recommendations the DNSO may have for such refinements.