ICANN Recommends Against Revamping UDRP
ICANN staff states now is not the time to open wholesale rethink of UDRP.
Echoing the sentiments of a number of UDRP providers as well as prominent UDRP defense attorneys, ICANN’s staff has recommended against having the Generic Names Supporting Organization opening a “policy development process” on UDRP.
Still, in a fresh note ICANN notes that there are some complaints regarding process and implementation of UDRP that may warrant review ought to GNSO feel it necessary to proceed:
…if the GNSO Council nevertheless believes that the UDRP ought to be reviewed, Staff suggests an alternative approach for addressing this issue. Following carefully evaluating the issues and concerns expressed by the ICANN community regarding the UDRP, Staff has concluded that many relate to process issues associated with the implementation of the UDRP, rather than the language of the policy itself. The GNSO Council ought to consider in lieu of commencing a PDP, convening a modest group of experts to produce recommendations to improve the process or implementation of the UDRP policy as an initial step…
The note includes a good summary of a recent webinar and comments made by various parties of the UDRP. It’s open for comment through July 15.
It also includes survey responses from each of the four UDRP providers. The responses include what percentage of the time the provider found in favor of the respondent (of those that result in a formal decision):
National Arbitration Forum 13%
WIPO 14%
Czech Arbitration Court 17% (low sample size)
Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre 7.4%
