The court of Arbitration rendered a verdict on a lawsuit regarding domain names in IDN TLD .РФ: an the organization, which initially registered 51 mass media and just immediately after that registered 51 domain names was denied a lawsuit against the Coordination Center.
The court has been considering the case for more than six months/ The background of the case is as follows:: during the priority registration period in IDN TLD .РФ, which was launched on 12 May 2010, it was only non-profit organizations, trade marks owners, and registered mass media that were eligible for obtain a domain name in the Cyrillic domain. Later, on 13 July 2010, at its extraordinary l meeting the CC’s Board was compelled to take a decision to introduce an additional procedure: only mass media registered prior to 12 May 2010 were made eligible for priority domain name registration in IDN TLD .РФ. The novelty was necessary, because the number of mass media whose names were identical to domain names in IDN TLD .РФ surged right after the launch of the priority registration. Thus, cybersquatters theoretically could register several mass media at one stroke and consequently obtain the hottest domain names for their subsequent reselling.
JSC “City-Design”, which brought the lawsuit in the court of arbitration, registered 51 domain names in the new Cyrillic domain during the priority registration for mass media. Such popular names as «авто.рф», «билеты.рф», «водка.рф», «пиво.рф», «почта.рф», «рс.рф», «сми.рф», «цветы.рф», among others, were registered by this organization as domain names during the priority registration period.
However, all mass media registered on “City-Design” were registered after 12 May 2010 and, per the CC’s Board decision of 13 July 2010, “City-Design” lost the right for priority registration of the domain names.
The lawsuit demanded to revoke the Board’s decision as well as to prohibit the defendant to register “disputed” domain names or to prohibit any actions relating to the domain names. However, the Court of Arbitration dismissed the request and did not veto actions with the domain names. Later, “City-Design” filed complaints to the court; however the court declined the company the claims.
Presently the Court declined the main lawsuit filed by the JSC “City-Design”. According to the Court ,“the defendant [the Coordination Center] acted reasonably and in good faith when it adopted a contested decision and took into consideration interests of an indefinite number of persons.” The Court also took into account the fact that the CC’s decision was caused by the necessity dictated by the situation on the market for domain names (in particular, the letter of the Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications to the CC in July 2010 references to the need). While“City-Design” still can challenge the verdict in the court of appeal and in the court of cassation, the precedent is instrumental in helping in the fight against unscrupulous users and cybersquatting in the Cyrillic domain.
