The Arbitration Center for Industrial Property on Oct. 19 will begin arbitration services to resolve ownership disputes over Internet domain names, association officials said Thursday.
The center, jointly run by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations and the Japan Patent Attorneys Association, plans to set up a panel of about 40 lawyers, patent attorneys and scholars to examine requests for cancellations and confirmations of domain names, which are used as addresses on the Internet, the officials said.
Arbitration rulings will be issued within 22 days of the filing of complaints, they said. The move marks the first attempt in Japan at a third party arbitrating in disputes related to domain names. A similar system has already been introduced in the United States.
The Japan Network Information Center, which issues domain names in Japan, will provide support by way of supplying necessary information in arbitration, the officials said.
Unlike home or office addresses, WWW domain names may be registered on a first-come, first-served basis.
Some opportunists have taken advantage of this and registered domain names identical or similar to the names of famous people, companies or trademarks, often merely to sell them to the person or company at a high margin.