The governments of Canada and Alberta have recently won disputes over registration of several official-sounding .ca domain names. In each case, the arbitrators ruled that the government has rights to the name and that the domains were registered in bad faith. The federal government won the rights to the domains , , and , among others. The government of Alberta won the rights to the domain .
In the case relating to the federal government claims, the arbitrators found that many of the domain names were _confusingly similar_ to the names of government departments, even though they were not quite the same (e.g. canadiancustoms.ca vs. Canada Customs). The arbitrators found that the test is _resemblance based on first impression and imperfect recollection. The registrant_s claim that he had a legitimate interest in the domain names because he planned to use them to criticize the government and specific departments was rejected by the arbitrators, who noted that the domains had been used for different purposes and had been offered for sale by the registrant. In addition, the federal government had previously won similar disputes with the same registrant over .com and .org domain names.
In the case of Alberta governments claim, the dispute resolution panel was unable to contact the registrant, who offered no defence to the claims. In a brief decision, the single arbitrator found that the government had established rights to the name Alberta Government through extensive use and public communications. The registrant, who had redirected the domain name to a pornographic web site, had no legitimate interest in the name.
The decisions are significant because they demonstrate the ability of governments, other public bodies and non-profit organizations to protect official (or even semi-official) domain names.
Summary by: Michael Erdle
For links to the decisions, follow:
http://www.cira.ca/en/dpr-decisions/00011govt-of-canada-En.pdf; or
http://www.cira.ca/en/dpr-decisions/00012-albertagovernment-en.pdf.
For more information on domain names and the .ca dispute process, contact Michael Erdle (merdle@dww.com).
E-TIPS® ISSUE
03 07 31
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