About nic.at
Starting now domain disputes concerning .at can be settled out of court
Friday, 28. March 2003
As of immediately, there is an alternative to the drawn-out and expensive legal proceedings concerning domains such as "kinder.at" the arbitration office for .at domains. This service provides quick, cost-effective, and competent dispute resolution.
Decisions within three months and procedural costs of no more than EUR 1,000.00 those are the principles of the newly established arbitration office for .at domains. This authority was called to life by the domain registration office nic.at and the Internet Foundation Austria and started to operate on March 1, 2003.
"Austria is one of the few countries that has a domain arbitration office tailored to its national legislation", underscores Michael Haberler, Chairman of the Internet Foundation Austria (IPA), with pride. His careful forecast: "If this alternative asserts itself right from the start, ten cases could be resolved out of court this year already."
The arbitration office became necessary in view of the growing number of domain disputes based on the right to a name and identification law, trade mark rights, copy rights, and competition law. Such proceedings often take very long when courts of general jurisdiction are involved, may become expensive and usually entail the deletion of the domain. Once deleted, the domain is again generally available for registration even if a party wins the case, nothing ensures that the winning complainant actually gets the domain.
The arbitration office, however, will resolve domain disputes quickly and cost-effectively. Its biggest advantage: the arbiters may decide the transfer of the domain. This way, the coveted domain goes to the plaintiff as soon as he has won the case. Of course, the arbitration office warrants objective proceedings with specialised and expert arbiters all jurists and technicians with Internet know-how.
The procedure to instigate proceedings is easy:
Whoever believes to have rights to a domain which has already been delegated, may submit a plaint with the arbitration office, must accept the rules of procedure and settle the costs. nic.at is requested to set the so-called wait status 2 for the domain so that the current holder of the domain does not change. The holder is informed of the plaint, can submit to the rules of procedure on his part and respond to the plaint. Depending on the parties involved, either one or three arbiters decide what happens to the domain. nic.at deletes or transfers the domain in compliance with the decision of the arbitration.
Currently, nic.at is cognizant of 50 regular court proceedings concerning .at domains. Many, however, shy from going to court on account of the cost and time necessary for such am move. The arbitration office will be an alternative for them.
The start-up of the arbitration office was preceded by an intensive consultation phase in the Austrian Internet community. The "Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution" of the global Internet coordination office ICANN ( www.icann.org 
), the proceedings at WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization - www.wipo.org ) and similar arbitration offices in Great Britain and Belgium serve as models for the rules of arbitration and the pertaining rules of procedure.
The non-profit Internet Foundation Austria (IPA) is 100% owner of the registry nic.at. The mission of the foundation is to promote the Internet in Austria and in particular the acceptance of domain administration. The Austrian Domain Name Council is a body of the foundation which decides on basic issues of domain administration and is composed of representatives from the Internet community.
Links:
Arbitration office for .at domains: www.streitschlichtung.at
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