John Demco
Bowring & Co. has won a dispute over bowring.ca. The decision is interesting because it is the second complaint concerning the same Complainant, Registrant, and domain name. The Panel decided that it was entitled to rule on the complaint in spite of the first CIRA proceeding because there is nothing under the dispute policy or rules that prohibit a second proceeding, and because “the earlier CIRA decision involving these parties did not address the substantive merits of the Complainant’s claim but was decided on the basis that the Complainant had not provided evidence to demonstrate that it was an Eligible Complainant under the CPR [Canadian Presence Requirements] and that it had rights in the Mark. These procedural defects have been corrected in this Complaint and this Panel is reviewing the claim on the merits for the first time.” The Panel went on to state that it “does believe, however, that there may be cases in which a Complainant may be barred from initiating a second complaint in respect of the same domain name registration where a Complainant uses the CIRA process in order to harass or intimidate a Registrant.”
DotMobi, the registry operator for the .mobi domain, has announced that it has received approval to register single-character and two-character names, e.g. x.mobi, g3.mobi. The releases will be done via Requests For Proposals (RFPs).
Timeline
- Wed, Dec 3 – Mon, Feb 2: .tel domain registrations commence for trademark holders
- Mon, Dec 8: Last day for comments on new gTLD Applicant Handbook
- Mon, Dec 8: Last day for comments on gTLD Registries and Registrars report
- Tue, Feb 3 – Mon, Mar 23: .tel domain registrations commence at a premium price
- Sun, Mar 1 – Fri, Mar 6: ICANN meetings in Mexico City, Mexico
- Tue, Mar 24: .tel domain registrations open to all