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Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

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Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)364 requiringarbitration.365The recent string <strong>of</strong> personality cases concerningJuliaRoberts.com, Sting.com and Madonna.com are interestingexamples.366 Enterprising business people moved in early andregistered those domains. The famous stars behind the nameswanted them and sought to invoke the ICANN dispute resolutionpolicy, which involves compulsory arbitration. At the time <strong>of</strong>registration, the domain name registrants contractually bindthemselves, in the instance <strong>of</strong> a dispute, to enter arbitration andabide by the decision. If the registrant is found to have registeredand used the domain name in bad faith, vis-a-vis a trademark,they stand to lose that registration. Julia Roberts and Madonnawere successful in showing the necessary elements, including thatthey possessed a trademark, while Sting, due to the genericnature <strong>of</strong> the word and other difficulties, did not possess therequisite trademark.This system is in line for an overhaul as the legitimacy,consistency and accountability <strong>of</strong> the process is in question.367Nevertheless, let me make some observations. The ICANNsystem <strong>of</strong> resolving domain name disputes, which has dealt within excess <strong>of</strong> 3,000 cases since the beginning <strong>of</strong> the year 2000, hassought to protect informational value through contractuallyagreed principles. To date, the majority <strong>of</strong> the decisions havefavoured the traditional trademark holder and not the domainname speculator. Domain name speculation has been treated likea case <strong>of</strong> the theft <strong>of</strong> the investment value <strong>of</strong> the trademark.368The speculator has rarely been regarded as deserving <strong>of</strong> reward.Perhaps there should be arguments for value on both sides, but364. ICANN is available at http://www.icann.org.365. ICANN: Uniform Domain Names Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), art. 4, athttp://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm (last visited <strong>No</strong>v. 10, 2001).366. These decisions are available athttp://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/index.html.367. See generally A. Michael Froomkin, Wrong Turn in Cyberspace: Using ICANNto Route Around the APA and the Constitution, 50 Duke L.J. 17 (2000) (arguing thatthe use <strong>of</strong> ICANN to regulate in the stead <strong>of</strong> an executive agency violates fundamentalvalues and policies designed to ensure democratic control over the use <strong>of</strong> governmentpower, and sets a precedent that risks being expanded into other regulatory activities).368. See Brian F. Fitzgerald & Emma Sheehan, Trademark Dilution and theCommodification <strong>of</strong> Information: Understanding the ‘Cultural Command’, 3 MacarthurL. Rev. 61 (1999) (Austl.).

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