After several minutes of pondering and looking at keyword analyzers, you find the perfect domain name for your new website. You see if it is available through your desired domain name company. When you find that it is, you get excited because it seems that it is going to be quite profitable for your site. So, you sign up for it, thinking that it is up for grabs, since your domain name company has said it is available.

After several minutes of pondering and looking at keyword analyzers, you find the perfect domain name for your new website. You see if it is available through your desired domain name company. When you find that it is, you get excited because it seems that it is going to be quite profitable for your site. So, you sign up for it, thinking that it is up for grabs, since your domain name company has said it is available.

Then after a few months you get correspondence from an lawyer saying that your new domain name has violated one other company's trademark. You are now caught with a possible battle that could trigger you to lose your domain name, your status and possibly even worse. Thankfully, with domain name arbitration, there's a chance you may get out of such a situation and avoid any possible legal consequences.

What is domain name arbitration? It is a process in which the complainant and the original holder of the domain name try to work out a reasonable agreement as to who actually has the rights to the domain name in question. The arbitration in itself is done through the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, (also known as UDRP). This is a special arbitration method set forth by the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) organization. It is used for most domain name disputes, because it is cheaper and less time-consuming than 'traditional' litigation.

With a view to provoke a domain name arbitration proceeding, a webmaster should go through a dealer that has been permitted by ICANN to handle such disputes. Once the arbitration begins, the dealer will first determine if the complainant has merit of their claim. They may do that by evaluating whether or not the domain name in question is just like a trademark or domain name set forth by the claimant.

They will then determine what rights the claimant has to the title along with whether or not the domain was chosen accidentally or with the intention of taking advantage of the claimant's brand popularity. If it is found the domain name was chosen in bad faith, rights to it will be granted to the claimant. Otherwise, the original owner will retain possession of the disputed domain name.

If both parties are just not happy with a site domain name arbitration proceeding, they'll problem the findings in a regular courtroom. An example of this occurred with Robert De Niro, when he tried to assert the rights to any domain name containing the phrase 'Tribeca.' He's still in courtroom trying to retain the rights to Tribeca.net, which has been claimed by another person.

In conclusion, domain name arbitration is a good method to avoid taking a website domain name dispute into a courtroom, a minimum of initially. There may be the choice to go to court if both parties feels an arbitration is not fair. Yet, for many webmasters, the decisions made by the UDRP panel are good enough for them, since getting their consul is rather a lot cheaper than going to a judge.