On May 29, RIF 2021 hosted a session on the old new problems of the domain registration market in Russia, domain disputes and secondary market development trends, prepared by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ. Representatives of the Coordination Center, Technical Center of Internet, ICANN, domain industry lawyers, and heads of accredited registrar companies gathered to discuss the New gTLD Program and its impact on the secondary domain market, the practice of resolving domain disputes in national and international domain zones, and other pressing issues.
Director of the Coordination Center Andrey Vorobyev moderated the discussion, which involved Sergey Kopylov (Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ), Mikhail Anisimov (ICANN), Alexey Rogdev (Technical Center of Internet), Andrey Kuzmichev (RU-CENTER), Anton Sergo (Internet and Law), Andrey Savelyev (ДОМЕНЫ.РФ), Ilya Poyarkov (i7 LLC) and Pavel Patrikeyev (REG.RU).
The first topic for discussion was the launch of the second round of the New gTLD Program. Mikhail Anisimov, ICANN Senior Stakeholder Engagement Manager for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, presented the corporation's plans to open the second round of the program. He added that many non-Latin top-level domains are expected to be among the new zones, so ICANN understands the importance of Universal Acceptance and will support the implementation initiatives.
Andrey Vorobyev added that Russian is the second most used language online, and multilingualism on the internet is impossible without Universal Acceptance. He spoke about the work that the Coordination Center is doing to this end, including the participation of the center’s experts in ICANN organizations and working groups.
The discussion of the legal regulation of domain names was also of great interest. Sergey Kopylov, Deputy Director for Legal Affairs at the Coordination Center, spoke about the recent meeting of the Scientific Advisory Council at the Intellectual Property Court, where participants discussed measures to prevent violations of intellectual rights. He described in detail the technical and organizational problems that arise when removing delegation from a domain by court decision, and called for caution when applying such a punishment. Attempts by copyright holders to present registrars as information intermediaries raise many questions. According to experts, this is nothing more than a desire to take the easy way out: finding real copyright infringers and bringing them to justice requires much more effort than recognizing a registrar as an information intermediary.
Anton Sergo, head of the Internet and Law company and a well-known industry lawyer, noted the need for dialogue with all parties involved in the legal regulation of domain names. “We need to build relationships between registrars and the entire domain industry both with the judicial system and copyright holders. This is the only way we can make regulation effective,” said Anton Sergo.
Andrey Kuzmichev (RU-CENTER) and Pavel Patrikeyev (REG.RU) spoke about how registrars fight against copyright infringement. Andrey Kuzmichev noted that today almost all companies pay great attention to the presentation of their brand on the internet: “In fact, a business that is not represented on the internet does not exist.” Andrey Kuzmichev presented the tools that RU-CENTER uses to combat copyright infringers.
Pavel Patrikeyev spoke about the difficulties that arise when courts hear domain disputes, especially noting the unpredictability of court decisions due to the fact that very little practice has been accumulated.
The conversation about how the secondary domain name market operates greatly interested all the participants. The heads of registrar companies spoke about their work in this market. Andrey Kuzmichev thanked the Coordination Center for the development and publication of the Methodology for assessing the market value of second-level domain names in the top-level domains .RU and .РФ in the secondary domain name market, and talked about how RU-CENTER applies the methodology in its work.
In conclusion, Andrey Vorobyev and General Director of the Technical Center of Internet Alexey Rogdev spoke about the work that the Coordination Center and TCI do together to systematize and organize the secondary domain name market and maintain the stable and secure functioning of the Russian domain space.
RIF 2021 continues, with plenty of interesting moments yet to come! Follow us!
