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Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

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this value is difficult to apportion. For good or bad, what thissystem shows very clearly is a contractual regime being used toensure informational value is realised as wealth.Recently, Parisi v Net Learning Inc.,369 held that UniformDomain Names Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) determinationsare not arbitrations for the purposes <strong>of</strong> the Federal ArbitrationAct and thereby do not prevent access or review in the courts,explaining that “[a]lthough ICANN exerts quasi-governmentalsway over the growth and administration <strong>of</strong> the Internet, theUDRP is enforced through contract rather than regulation.”370To ease the pressure on the .com domain, to add greaterspecificity and to reduce disputes over domain names, ICANN hasapproved the allocation <strong>of</strong> seven new generic top level domains(TLDs): .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, and .pro.371 Theinteresting question is how these domains will be contractuallyallocated. Will trademark holders be given priority and, if so,which trademark holders will gain priority? Will existing .comregistrants have the ability to block others registering in thesedomains?The first to be allocated will be .biz and .info. According tothe ICANN press release, .info will be an unrestricted TLD, opento any business or person to register for any purpose, while .bizwill be a restricted TLD, open only for commercial or businesspurposes.372 In <strong>No</strong>vember 2000, registry operators NeuLevel(.biz) and Afilias (.info) were among seven registry operators fornew TLDs selected by the ICANN Board <strong>of</strong> Directors following anopen process for submission <strong>of</strong> proposals. Agreements with theoperators <strong>of</strong> .aero, .coop, .museum, .name, and .pro are in theprocess <strong>of</strong> being completed.To provide for a stable, fair, and orderly introduction <strong>of</strong> thenew TLDs, NeuLevel and Afilias will employ different three-stepapproaches to launch their registry services:NeuLevel (.biz):1. Intellectual Property Claim Service. Beginning inlate May through the beginning <strong>of</strong> July, .biz will <strong>of</strong>fer a369. 139 F. Supp. 2d 745 (E.D. Va. 2001).370. Id. at 747.371. See Announcements, at http://www.icann.org/announcements/icannpr15may01.htms(last visited <strong>No</strong>v. 10, 2001).372. Id.

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