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By Rami Olwan
E- commerce legal consultant
UAE Network Information Center (UAEnic) has announced that trademark owners
who discovered that their trademarks have been registered as ae domain names, may
now resolve their domain name disputes either by referring the matter to the
arbitration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or local courts
that will resolve disputes in accordance with laws and regulation applicable in UAE.
The Changes to the registration services has been introduced recently primirlarly to
encourage registrant to register ae domain names with the UAEnic and to
Prepare the UAE to be a truly enabled e – environment that follows best international
standards and practices for solving domain disputes.
In this article, we will first consider the conditions that local courts require to fill
domain dispute claims, why in our opinion local courts are not prepared to solve those
kind of disputes and the steps to be taken that could if and once implemented would
prepare courts to resolve domain name disputes and to reach sound judgments.
2. Why Local courts are not prepared to solve domain name disputes?
In my view I do not think that local courts at the time being in the United Arab
Emirates are prepared to solve and settle domain name disputes for the following
reasons:
1. Although the Dubai Government has issued e- commerce facilitation law No 2
of 2002 and electronic signature in criminal procedures and the trademark
federal law no 37 of 1992, it failed to address in all these laws the conflict that
arise between trademark and domain names, thus there is no legal base that the
holder of the trademark can rely on if he/ she decide to fill a claim against a
domain name registrant, but the trademark owner (plaintiff) may refer back to
traditional provisions of trademark law and this proved to be inadequate and
not reliable to resolve domain name disputes in many circumstances.
2. Many judges are not familiar with the basic technological concepts of the
Internet, most of them are not computer illiterates and they do not know what
are domain names and websites. . Understanding technology is very important
in issuing a judgment concerning a domain name dispute. And this is
illustrated in a recent case that has been filled and concluded in front of
emirate’s criminal courts between Etisalat and Mr. Lee Ashurst the British
national who hacked into Etisalat’s Internet system.
3- Parties will be reluctant to solve their domain name disputes in front of local
courts since it will take time to resolve their domain name disputes and there is no
procedure that can be followed to expedite the matter.
New provisions should be introduced into UAE trademark law that state
clearly that registering a domain name identical or confusingly similar to a
registered trademark constitute trademark infringement and unfair
competition, also a provision indicating that compensation should be awarded
to trademark owner if the bad intent of the registrant is proved and the
trademark is severely harmed.
Conclusion
While the UAE is ahead of Arab countries in issuing laws that regulate electronic
commerce and the first country code Top Level Domain Name (ccTLD) authority in
the Middle East to receive the endorsement of the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO). Local courts in the UAE are not prepared to solve domain
name disputes, it is important to amend laws and train and educate judges and lawyers
to truly understand legal and technological implication of domain names, this in the
end will solve domain name disputes more efficiently and will make the UAE truly e-
enabled environment. .