29 Rights Protection Mechanisms

Prototypical answer:

The FRL registry sees the need for a swift and non-expensive solution for the protection of the legal rights of companies and individuals holding trademarks or reserved words.

The registry operator recognizes and will adhere to the following ICANN procedures:
URS: (Uniform Rapid Suspension): A cost-effective and fast procedure for suspension of domain names where the malicious intent of the registrant is clear and indisputable.
UDRP: (Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure): An arbitration procedure where an appointed arbitrator settles the dispute and all parties (registrant and complainant) are held to the outcome.
PDDRP: (Post Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure): A procedure between a trademark holder and the registry where the conduct of the registry operator infringes the trademarks of the complainant.
RRDRP: (Registry Restrictions Dispute Resolution Procedure): A procedure between registry and community that is targeted on community TLD’s where the conduct of the registry operator harms the community. The .FRL tld is requested as a geographic TLD, so this procedure would be not applicable in this case. However, since the Frisian people are a strong community, and the rights of this community might be harmed by the conduct of the registry operator, this procedure will also be followed when needed.

The FRL registry will hold registrars responsible as first point of action and reference in cases of domain disputes. This will be reflected in the registry-registrar agreement. It is only when the registrar does not comply it will be the task of the registry to block, cancel or delete domain names. This will only be done after an official court decision, or mediation arbitration or agreement between parties.

The following rights will be observed and protected by the registry:
The rights of trademark holders against cybersquatters that register domain names in bad faith either to capture internet traffic or sell the domain name to the rights holder.
The rights of countries, cities, communities or villages that want to register a domain name that is reserved in the registry.
The rights of individuals or companies having a legitimate right (in good faith) to register domain names that are in fact identical or similar to registered trademarks or reserved names.
The rights of the Frisian people to a top-level domain that is really theirs, and not polluted with different kinds of non-Frisian content or websites.

All mentioned parties have a right to a procedure that is fast and reliable, but not too expensive to use.

When a claim is made, the registry will have the right to disclose website ownership information to the claiming party. If and when the party wants to get into contact directly with the website owner, that is encouraged.

Because of this, the registry will implement a highly automated rights protection mechanism, that treats all complaints the same way and is as cost-effective as possible.
The procedure will use a website to capture all information that is needed by the URS, UDRP, PDDRP or RRDRP procedures, and limits the information that can be submitted to the amounts ICANN has set out in the description of these procedures.
If and when possible, the procedure will automatically check the trademark clearinghouse repository for active trademarks and attach this information to the case that is built.


The software of the RPM website will save all e-mails and correspondence that was submitted with this the case for reference and then send the complete case to an ICANN-approved URS or UDRP provider. For the UDRP cases, we will make use of the already established WIPO arbitration. Since no URS providers are known to us at this moment, the selection of a URS provider will be done in a later state. At this point we want to urge ICANN to appoint URS providers not only in the US but also in Europe, our feeling is that a European URS provider will have more feeling and understanding for rights issues in our countries.

The cases that were saved by the RPM website will be used for reporting and prevention of future abuse.

The registry-registrar contract will hold a clause that allows the registry to delete any domain name that violates the rights of companies or individuals. The normal flow of business is that the registrar holding the domain registration will perform any deletions or changes of ownership, but if registrars do not comply the registry will have the possibility to perform the deletion or the ownerchange without consent of the registrar. The contracts with the registrars will specify what is expected of registrars of FRL domain names.

When a registrar, registrant or trademark owner does not agree with a decision that was made by the registry, the complaint can be logged with an independent board that will register the complaint and mediate between registry and complainant.

Sunrise periods
The FRL registry recognizes the needs for two separate sunrise periods:
- One for trademark and other rights owners, combined with Frisian companies and legal institutions
- One for Frisian consumers.
After this the general availability period follows.

The registry will start with a sunrise period for trademark owners and owners of other rights. During this period, rights owners will be able to claim a domain name that corresponds with the right that is owned. An independent company will verify the claims, and when the claim is accurate, the company will use the registry website to issue an authcode that is unique to this domain name. With this code, the registrant can use any ICANN-accredited registrar to register only the domain name the code was created for. The cost of the company verifying the claims must be borne by the company requesting the trademark verification.

In combination with this sunrise period, there will be a registration period for Frisian companies and legal institutions. The FRL registry will work together with the chambers of commerce to address all the Frisian companies and send them a letter with an authcode connected to a domain name. The company in question can use the first sunrise period to register the domain name that is connected to their registered company name. This registration can be done via any ICANN-accredited registrar, provided that the authcode is supplied with the request.

The second sunrise period will be used for the Frisian consumers. They will receive an authcode that is not connected to any domain name. The consumers can register their unique domain names using these authcodes.

After this period, general registration will open, and registration will be free for anyone.


Resource planning
The resource indentifiers used in this document are detailed in the text of question 46

Resourcing for abuse prevention in the startup phase
R.1 System Engineer Setup infrastructure 2 days
R.3 Manager Infrastructure Management of personnel 1 day
R.4 Information security manager Determine abuse procedures 3 days
R.6 Project lead Software changes 1 day
R.7 Programmer Program rights protection mechanisms 1 day
R.8 Tester Test mechanisms 1 day
R.10 General manager Determine abuse procedures 1 day

Resourcing for abuse prevention in the maintaining phase
R.4 Information security manager Yearly review of rights protection procedures 1 day⁄year
R.5 Support personnel: Handles calls that come from outside the registry. 30 days⁄year
R.6 Project lead Oversee programming changes 1 day⁄year
R.7 Programmer Program changes 5 days⁄year
R.8 Tester User acceptance test 1 day⁄year
R.9 Release manager Release software 1 day⁄year
R.10 General manager RPM escalation procedures 2 days⁄year

External resources
Claims check by external company

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