Internet Commerce Association

Internet Commerce Association

Non-Profit Trade Organization Representing Domain Name Owners
Joined on April 21, 2017
Total Post Views: 120,818

About

Founded in 2006, the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) is a non-profit trade organization representing domain name investors, website developers and related companies. The ICA is made up of responsible businesses and individuals who have joined together to improve public confidence in Internet commerce. Based in Washington D.C., our mission is to promote and share best practices among participants in the domain name industry and to educate consumers, policy makers, law makers and the media about the value and benefits of direct navigation traffic and the domain name industry.

Except where otherwise noted, all postings by Internet Commerce Association on CircleID are licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Company Updates

Hundreds of Millions of Dollars at Stake as .COM Price Freeze Set to Expire

Verisign, the company granted exclusive rights to issue .com domains, is expected to request a price increase for .com domains when its current 'price cap' agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) expires on November 30, 2018. Will NTIA impose a price increase on millions of Internet users to further enrich Verisign, "The Most Profitable Company You've Never Heard Of", which is already enjoying huge windfall profits? more

ICA Statement on ADO.com UDRP Decision: Overreaching Panelists and Interference With Domain Market

In the recent ado.com UDRP decision, the panel made the speculative and factually incorrect finding that a "high" asking price indicated bad faith targeting of a trademark. The UDRP is intended to address clear-cut cases of cybersquatting, not to second guess the asking prices set on inherently valuable domains in an open and competitive marketplace. more

A Re-Examination of the Defense of Laches After 18 Years of the UDRP

After 18 years of the UDRP, it is time to re-examine the defense of laches. When the UDRP was launched in 1999, the defense of "laches" was likely not foremost on anyone's mind. After all, "laches" refers to a lack of diligence in making a legal claim - and since the UDRP was brand new and the commercial use of domain names was in its relative infancy in 1999, nobody was really concerned with a trademark owner having "unreasonably delayed" making a UDRP complaint. more

Why UDRP Panelists Must Follow the Policy: A Look at the Devex.org Decision

Observers of the UDRP are aware that ICANN has substantially abrogated responsibility for oversight of the UDRP. ICANN accredits dispute resolution providers (DRPs) without requiring a contract so that the DRPs are held to no enforceable standards. more

Why the Record Number of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking UDRP Filings in 2016?

By replacing the core criterion of the Policy with repurposed language found elsewhere, panelists inadvertently encourage Complainant companies to attempt to misuse the UDRP to steal domains that were registered long before those companies and associated product trademarks came into existence. more

UDRP: Better Late than Never - ICA Applauds WIPO for Removing Misguided ‘Retroactive Bad Faith’

The Internet Commerce Association (ICA), a non-profit trade group representing the domain industry, applauds the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for removing misleading guidance from the newly released updated version 3.0 of its Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions. more

The Rise and Fall of the UDRP Theory of ‘Retroactive Bad Faith’

Since its establishment in 1999, the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy has required complainants to prove inter alia, "bad faith registration". In practice, this has meant that where a domain name was registered before a trademark came into existence, that "bad faith registration" would be considered chronologically impossible. more