28 Abuse Prevention and Mitigation

Prototypical answer:

The .SMART gTLD is for the exclusive use of the company and its subsidiaries, its authorized partners, and its subscribers. Registration in .SMART is not open to the general public. By controlling every registration in the .SMART gTLD, the company will totally eliminate abusive registrations and other activities that affect the legal rights of others.

A domain name in the .SMART gTLD is considered to be a valid domain name if it meets at least one of the following characteristics:
1) it corresponds to a bona fide offering of goods or services
2) it is not intended to mislead or divert consumers away or tarnish the trademark or service mark of any mark-holders
3) it corresponds to the name that the company’s subsidiary, authorized partner, or product is commonly known
4) it is a generic or a descriptive name which the company has fair use of

Only valid domain names may be registered in the .SMART gTLD.

An Abusive Registration is one which is not a valid domain name and which
1) was registered to take an unfair advantage of or to the detriment of a Complainantʹs Rights or
2) has been used in a manner which has taken unfair advantage of or has been unfairly detrimental to the Complainantʹs Rights

Despite the policy of registering only valid domain names, it is possible for the company or its employees to commit mistakes. These unwitting mistakes will be flagged when a complainant notifies the company of its specific concerns and details the specific conduct the complainant believes as an abusive registration. The company will publish in its website a single abuse point of contact responsible for addressing complaints of abusive registrations. At any given time, at least one staff member of the SMART operations staff is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that the

The following details the .SMART policy and procedures for handling complaints of abusive registrations:

COMMUNICATION

1) All complaints must be in English or Filipino and must be in written form.
2) Complaints must be submitted by fax, e-mail, or registered mail. In the .SMART website, the registry will publish an e-mail address, fax number(s), and postal address to receive complaints of abuse.
3) E-mailed complaints must be sent as plain text and attachments must be in PDF.
4) All complaints are deemed to have been received on:
i. if sent by fax , on the date transmitted; or
ii. if sent by registered mail, on the day of delivery; or
iii. if sent via the Internet, on the date that the e-mail was received by .SMART’s mail server(s);
iv. and, unless otherwise provided in this procedure, the time periods provided for under the Policy and this Procedure shall be calculated accordingly.


COMPLAINTS

1) Any person or organization may submit a complaint of Abusive Registration following the procedures in this document.
2) The complaint shall:
a) not exceed 5000 words
b) specify the complete name and address (postal and e-mail) of the complainant
c) specify the domain name which the complainant alleges to be an Abusive Registration
and

i) if alleging violation of complainant’s rights,
I. the rights the complainant claims in the name or mark
II. the name or mark the complainant claims it has rights to
III. documentary evidence to prove such rights over the name or mark

ii) if not alleging violation of complainant’s rights, describe the grounds on which the complaint is made and why the domain name should be considered to be an Abusive Registration in the hands of the Respondent


REGISTRY’S ACTION

.SMART will check that the complaint complies with the form prescribed in this document. If non-compliant, .SMART will immediately inform the complainant of the deficiencies in the filed complaint and allow the complainant to file a modified complaint to remedy the deficiencies. If the complaint is valid in form and substance, the registry will forward the complaint to the registrant of the domain, together with an explanatory covering letter. The registry will handle all complaints within three (3) working days.


REGISTRANT’S RESPONSE

Within five (5) working days after receipt of the complaint, the respondent registrant must submit its reply to the complaint. The reply shall:
a) not exceed 5000 words
b) specify the grounds of the registrant to rebut the complaint of an Abusive Registration:

i) if violation of complainant’s rights is alleged,
I. the rights the registrant claims in the name or mark
II. the name or mark the registrant claims it has rights to
III. documentary evidence to prove such rights over the name or mark

ii) if violation of complainant’s rights is not alleged, describe the grounds on why the domain name should not be considered to be an Abusive Registration

The Registry will forward the response to the complainant within three (3) working days after receipt of the same.

Should the registrant fail to respond to the complaint, the complaint is deemed to be submitted for resolution.


COMPLAINANT’S REPLY

Within five (5) days of receiving the respondent’s response, the complainant must submit a reply to the response. The reply shall:
a) not exceed 2000 words and be solely restricted to the issues raised by the respondent and not repeat the issues raised in the initial complaint.
or
b) indicate that the complainant has no further reply to the response of the respondent


REGISTRY’S DECISION

Within three (3) working days of receiving the complainant’s reply or the failure of the registrant to reply, the Registry will issue its decision. Should the Registry find that the assailed domain name does not meet any one of the following criteria:

• it corresponds to a bona fide offering of goods or services
• it is not intended to mislead or divert consumers away or tarnish the trademark or service mark of the complainant
• it corresponds to the name that the company’s subsidiary, authorized partner, or product is commonly known
• it is a generic or a descriptive name which the company has fair use of

then the Registry will issue an adverse ruling against the respondent registrant.

Should the assailed domain meet one of the above criteria, the complaint will be dismissed. The parties to the complaint will be informed of the decision within one (1) working day after the decision is made.

Should the assailed registration be found to be an Abusive Registration, it will be removed from the .SMART registry within two (2) working days.

Should the complaint be dismissed by the Registry, the Complainant may opt to avail of the different ICANN-mandated Rights Protection Mechanism (RPM) to which .SMART adheres.


THE TICKET TRACKING SYSTEM

At any given time, the Registry will have a person assigned to handle all complaints of abusive registrations. Upon receiving a complaint, the person logs the complaint to SMART’s abuse desk facility by filling in details of the complaint which includes the complainant’s e-mail address, the domain being assailed as an abusive registration, the date of complaint, among other details. Once the complaint is logged, the system automatically generates a ticket number and a password for the complainant and the complaint is tagged as “UNDER EVALUATION.” The complainant, using the ticket number and the password, may track the progress of the complaint through the system by logging in to the system’s web-based interface.

When a complaint is logged into the system, it it automatically assigned to a member of the Registry’s operations staff for handling. The staff member checks whether the complaint is valid in form and substance. If so, the handler forwards the complaint to the registrant of the assailed domain. The registrant is given a password to the system to allow it to follow the progress of the complaint through the system by logging in to the system’s web-based interface.

The status of the complaint is changed to “FORWARDED.”

If the complaint is not valid in form and substance, the handler will note all the deficiencies in the complaint and change its status to “COMPLAINT DEFICIENT.” The complainant may then correct all the deficiencies in the complaint and re-submit the complaint under the same ticket number.

When a resubmitted complaint is received, the status is changed to “COMPLAINT EVALUATION.” After seven (7) working days of not being corrected by the complainant, a “COMPLAINT DEFICIENT” complaint is automatically “CLOSED.”

When a registry receives an answer from the registrant, the status of the complaint is changed from “FORWARDED” to “RESPONSE EVALUATION.” The handler evaluates whether the response is valid in form and substance. If so, the response is forwarded to the complainant and the complaint is tagged as “REGISTRANT ANSWERED.” If the response is not valid in form and substance, the deficiencies are logged and the respondent is notified of the deficiencies.


“FORWARDED” complaints are automatically changed to “FOR RESOLUTION” after five (5) days. This occurs when the respondent does not submit an answer to the complaint.

When the complainant’s reply to the registrant’s answer is received, the status of the complaint is changed from “REGISTRANT ANSWERED” to “COMPLAINANT REPLY EVALUATION.” The handler checks that the reply is valid in form and substance. If so, the status is changed from “COMPLAINANT REPLY EVALUATION” to “FOR RESOLUTION.”

After five (5) days, a “REGISTRANT ANSWERED” complaint is changed to “FOR RESOLUTION.” This occurs when no complainant reply which is valid in form and substance is received.

When a complaint’s status changes to “FOR RESOLUTION”, and the complaint is sent to the DotSMART Policy Board for resolution.

RESOURCING PLANS

There will be at least three persons assigned to man the abuse desk ticketing system.

ORPHAN GLUE RECORDS

The registry does not allow orphan glue records.

WHOIS ACCURACY

The accuracy of WHOIS data is guaranteed because the .SMART gTLD is for the exclusive use of the company and its subsidiaries, its authorized partners, and its subscribers. This means that all the registrants are all known to the company. Authentication of the identity of each and every registrant is assured because of each registrant’s relationship with the company.

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