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Court: U.S. law trumps
domain decisions
Decisions
by international arbitrators in cybersquatting cases can be challenged in
U.S. court, an appeals panel has ruled.
Reversing a lower court, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Boston on Wednesday found that federal courts have jurisdiction over
international domain name disputes, including those filed with the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a Geneva-based arbitration
organization approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN).
The appellate judges said that under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer
Protection Act, signed by former President Clinton two years ago, a domain
name holder may file a civil action suit in U.S. courts if the domain name
has been suspended, disabled or transferred. As a result, the appellate
judges determined that Jay Sallen, who lost the domain name
Corinthians.com to a Brazilian soccer team in a WIPO dispute-resolution
process, may obtain a U.S. court decision that would permit him to keep
the domain name.
"Congress' authorization of the federal courts to 'grant injunctive
relief to the domain name registrant, including the reactivation of the
domain name or transfer of the domain name to the domain name registrant,'
provides Sallen with an explicit cause of action to redress his loss of
Corinthians.com under the UDRP (Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy)," the
appellate judges wrote in their decision.
Sallen registered Corinthians.com in August 1998 with Network
Solutions, a domain name registrar accredited by ICANN, and posted
Biblical material on the site. On May 18, 2000, Corinthians
Licenciamentos, owners of the soccer team, filed a complaint with WIPO,
alleging that Sallen's domain name was similar to its trademark and that
it has rights in Brazil to the name, "Corinthiao," the Portuguese
equivalent of "Corinthians."
When a WIPO panel found that Sallen used the domain name in bad faith
and ordered that Corinthians.com be transferred to the owners of the
soccer team, Sallen filed his case in a U.S. district court under the
Anti-Cybersquatting law.
Legal experts said the case set a significant precedent in establishing
the right to appeal arbitration decisions under the UDRP.
"There's not been an easy, simplified, effective means of appealing (a)
decision," said Stephen H. Sturgeon, a Washington, D.C., Internet lawyer
specializing in domain name disputes; he is not involved in the
Corinthians.com case. "This case opens the door for getting an opportunity
for a federal court to issue a decree that overturns that international
arbitration decision. Once the federal court and the United States have
made that decision, then it can be enforced by Network Solutions."
For its part, ICANN said it does not agree or disagree with the federal
appeals court decision.
"If the parties aren't satisfied with the outcome of the judge's
decision or the trials through the UDRP, they have the right to have it
tried in court," said Mary Hewitt, an ICANN spokeswoman. "It's always been
that way; it's written that way...It's absolutely the prerogative of the
parties involved. Either way, whatever the decision is, it doesn't matter;
they have absolutely the right to go to court following a UDRP"
proceeding.
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