29 Rights Protection Mechanisms

Prototypical answer:

The registry operator is committed to a system of Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) and Dispute Resolution Mechanisms (DRMs) listed in Specification 7.
1. SAFEGUARDS FOR RIGHTS PROTECTION AT THE LAUNCH OF THE TLD
The registry operator is committed to a series of rights protections mechanisms at launch such as Sunrise, use of the Trademark Clearing House, and the operation of a Trademark Claims Service that supports the defined ICANN process for checking a registration request and alerting trademark holders of potential rights infringement.
Launch outline
The Registry intends to offer the following launch model.
Sunrise A (favouring trademarks)
Sunrise B (favouring holders of certain business names)
Landrush (seeking to sell premium names)
General Availability (steady state pricing)
Sunrise
The Sunrise process is separated into two phases:

* Sunrise A provides priority for eligible trademark owners to obtain domains corresponding to those trademarks including Russian trademarks.

* Sunrise B provides priority for certain other rights holders or entities to obtain relevant domains and will include business names, appellations of product origin, and non-profit entities related to the City of Moscow.

The registration process during Sunrise is on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Registry will publish full details of its Sunrise policy and eligibility. What follows is an outline of the policy with some key definitions. To be eligible to submit a REGISTRATION REQUEST under Sunrise A (trademarks), a Sunrise APPLICANT must comply with the SUNRISE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.

Sunrise definitions
The policy will be based inter alia upon the following key definitions.

ELIGIBLE.
A trademark or service mark conforming to the SUNRISE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS (SERs).

OWNERSHIP.
Ownership of an ELIGIBLE trademark may mean owner, co-owner or assignee.
For an assignee, the PROVIDER may request appropriate evidence that the assignment has taken place, and meets the legal requirements to be an effective assignment in the jurisdiction in which the mark is registered.
For a co-owner, the PROVIDER may request appropriate evidence that the co-owners have joined in the application.
Any dispute will be decided upon by the PROVIDER.

PROVIDER.
An independent entity or entities appointed by the Registry to provide certain rights protection services which may include inter alia verification, validation, and dispute resolution related to eligibility of trademarks.

REGISTRATION REQUEST.
An application submitted by an ACCREDITED REGISTRAR on behalf of an APPLICANT to register a name in the TLD.

SUNRISE DISPUTE RESOLUTION POLICY.
The REGISTRY will operate a Sunrise Dispute Resolution Policy either itself or via the PROVIDER full details and the fees for which will be published on the REGISTRY WEBSITE.

The policy will allow challenges based on the following grounds:
(a) at the time the challenged domain name was registered, the domain name REGISTRANT did not hold an ELIGIBLE trademark;

(b) the trademark registration on which the domain name REGISTRANT based its Sunrise registration is not ELIGIBLE;

(c) the domain name is not identical to the trademark on which the domain name REGISTRANT based its Sunrise registration;

(d) the REGISTRATION REQUEST which led to the award of the domain name was in some way incorrect, misleading or fraudulent.


SUNRISE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS (SERs).
These are cumulative.
(a) OWNERSHIP of a word mark registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse;
OR OWNERSHIP of a word mark of national or regional or international effect registered in one of the states or entities under international procedure, and active or registered in Russia, that is in full force and effect at the time of submission of the REGISTRATION REQUEST, and at the time of Registration of any awarded name, and for which acceptable evidence of USE in the class for which it is registered is provided;
OR OWNERSHIP of a word mark that has been court-validated;
OR OWNERSHIP of a word mark that is specifically protected by a statute or treaty currently in effect and that was in effect on or before 26 June 2008;

(b) a word mark which directly corresponds to the name in the REGISTRATION REQUEST;

(c) an affidavit signed by the APPLICANT:
(i) that the information provided is true, correct and complete;
(ii) that no pertinent information has been withheld;
(iii) that acknowledges the fact that if there is any information withheld, that it automatically results in the loss of rights in any domain name(s) acquired, or the loss of the right to seek to register same;
(iv) that the application is compliant with the relevant Sunrise requirements;

(d) provision of data conforming to the SUNRISE INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS sufficient to document rights in the trademark;

(e) is not a word mark that includes the STRING as a portion of the trademark;

(f) is not a trademark for which an application for registration has been filed, but is not actually registered;

(g) is not a trademark for which an application has lapsed, been withdrawn, revoked, or cancelled;

(h) is not an unregistered trademark including such common law marks;

(i) is not a U.S. state trademark or service mark or a U.S. supplemental registration;

(j) is not an international application for the registration of trademarks, made through the Madrid system, unless based on or have resulted in a registered trademark of national effect;

(k) is not intellectual property other than a word mark such as rights in a sign or name, including domain names, trade names, and appellations of origin.

(l) is not a trademark registration that came into full effect after the effective date of the Registry Agreement;

(m) is not a trademark registration that was applied for after the 1 May 2012 being the date at which ICANN announced the applications received.

One key objective of the SERs is to facilitate marks registered and used in good faith and not merely as a means to register a domain name.

SUNRISE INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS.
APPLICANTS in Sunrise A must submit the following information, either in an ACCEPTABLE ELECTRONIC FORMAT or via a link to the relevant database of the trademark registry, as part of a REGISTRATION REQUEST:

EITHER 1: the Trademark name and its corresponding Trademark Clearing House identity number;

OR 2 all of the following:
(a) the trademark corresponding to the name to be Registered;
(b) the country, region, or organization found in WIPO STANDARD ST.3 in which the trademark is registered;
(c) the current registration number of the trademark;
(d) the date on which the trademark application was submitted
(e) the date on which the trademark was registered;
(f) the class or classes under the latest publication of the Nice system (or its equivalent) for with the trademark is registered; and
(g) the status of the APPLICANT being one of owner, co-owner, or assignee of the trademark.

USE. Acceptable evidence of use will be a signed declaration and a single specimen of current use, which might consist of labels, tags, containers, advertising, brochures, screen shots, or something else that evidences current use in the relevant jurisdiction, provided in an ACCEPTABLE ELECTRONIC FORMAT.

The form of the signed declaration will be as follows.
ʺI⁄We [name of applicant] declare that I⁄we have used the trademark [name of work mark] since [date] in [country] on [state goods or services] and attach a sample of [type of sample] as evidence.ʺ

Landrush
Landrush is a period designed to allocate by price domain names that may be regarded by the market as desirable (premium names). Domain Names are offered via a step by step price reduction. During Landrush the price of a domain name falls each Landrush incremental period (such as a day) until it reaches the General Availability price. Names are awarded first-come first-served.

To be eligible for Landrush an applicant must AFFIRM COMPLIANCE with the POLICY of the REGISTRY.

An applicant may submit one or more REGISTRATION REQUESTS during Landrush for any available name.

The registry operator reserves the right to reserve domain names it deems necessary for the registry operation.

General Availability
General Availability starts at the close of Landrush. Domain names are available at fixed prices (via Registrars) on a first-come first-served model.

2. ON-GOING RIGHTS PROTECTION MECHANISMS
The Registry will conform to all ICANN RPMs defined in Specification 7 of the new TLD agreement including UDRP, URS, PDDRP, RRDRP.

Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP)
FAITID will require registrars to incorporate the UDRP into the terms of registration of second level domain names, just as all existing ICANN-accredited registrars already are required to do so by the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement.

The UDRP, by its own terms, does not require registry involvement; however, FAITID is aware that occasional issues relating to registrar compliance with the UDRP have arisen, which typically have led to de-accreditation of registrars found in habitual non-compliance. FAITID will receive and act on any communications received from ICANN registrar compliance personnel indicating registrar non-compliance with the UDRP. In the event of a registrarʹs failure to comply with the conditions of the UDRP, and in the absence of factors such as litigation filed under UDRP 4(k) (under which names are not to be transferred upon filing of a court action in the UDRP Mutual Jurisdiction), FAITID will re-assign the domain name(s) in question to a compliant registrar with which the transferee has established an account, and may charge, suspend or de-accredit the non-compliant registrar in accordance with the schedule of incentives and penalties set forth in the response to Question 28.


Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS)
FAITID will require registrars to incorporate the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) into the terms of registration of second level domain names. The URS requires that domain names subject to suspension will resolve to a designated web page until the domain name expires. FAITID will receive and respond to URS determinations by updating and locking the nameservers for a domain name subject to suspension to designated servers which will resolve the domain name to the requisite web page indicating that the domain name has been suspended (or other terminal status the URS, subject to ICANN Consensus Policy or Board action may require).

FAITID will receive and act on any communications received from ICANN registrar compliance personnel indicating registrar non-compliance with the URS. In the event of registrar failure to comply with the conditions of the URS and in the absence of factors such as litigation filed in a competent jurisdiction (under which names are not to be disabled upon filing of a court action in the URS Mutual Jurisdiction), FAITID will re-assign the domain name(s) in question to a compliant registrar, and may charge, suspend or de-accredit the non-compliant registrar in accordance with the graduated penalties discussed in the response to Question 28.

At present, ICANN has projected a cost of US $300 for URS disputes. However, no presently ICANN-accredited dispute resolution provider has confirmed that it can provide URS services at that price. In the event that ICANN-accredited dispute resolution providers cannot provide URS services in the indicated price range, FAITID will contract with a URS provider in consultation with leading experts in domain dispute procedures, which can provide competent determinations of the type of clear violations which the URS is intended to address, to ensure a low cost advisory, mediation or suspension mechanism.

Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (PDDRP) and Registration Restriction Dispute Resolution Procedure (RRDRP).
The Registry will implement appropriate procedures to comply with the above.
Protection Rights via the RRA
The following will be made binding via the Registry-Registrar and Registrar-Registrant Agreements.

The Registry may reject a registration request or a reservation request, or may delete, revoke, suspend, cancel, or transfer a registration or reservation under the following criteria:

a. to enforce registry policies and ICANN requirements; each as amended from time to time;
b. that is not accompanied by complete and accurate information as required by ICANN requirements and⁄or registry policies or where required information is not updated and⁄or corrected as required by ICANN requirements and⁄or registry policies;
c. to protect the integrity and stability of the registry, its operations, and the TLD system;
d. to comply with any applicable law, regulation, holding, order, or decision issued by a court, administrative authority, or dispute resolution service provider with jurisdiction over the registry;
e. to establish, assert, or defend the legal rights of the registry or a third party or to avoid any civil or criminal liability on the part of the registry and⁄or its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, representatives, employees, contractors, and stockholders;
f. to correct mistakes made by the registry or any accredited registrar in connection with a registration; or
g. as otherwise provided in the Registry-Registrar Agreement and⁄or the Registrar-Registrant Agreement.

Reducing Opportunities for behaviours such as phishing or pharming
The registry operator has described its anti-abuse policy and procedures in Question 28. Please refer to our response for full details.

Since all criminal activity is precluded by the policies of the registry operator, it is not expected to be a problem and the registry operator is prepares to take prompt and effective steps to eliminate the activity.

This approach addresses registered domain names and will not infringe upon the rights of eligible registrants to register domains. It provides for the use of internal controls as well as community-developed policies (UDRP, URS) to deal with any complaints.

3. RESOURCING PLANS
See EXHIBIT: ʺ29-Chart-Resourcing.pngʺ for information on the human resources assignment.

The resourcing plan specific to this response follows the principles, guidelines and information set forth in our response to Question 23. The accompanying chart shows the human resources allocated to the functions depicted in this response.

FAITID maintains retainer relationships with attorneys having extensive experience in internet matters, who will be responsible for reviewing and authorizing response to any incident, report, or law enforcement or court action requiring legal review such as jurisdictional analysis.

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