Nominet name testThe huge increase in domain registrations in the past four years has led Nominet UK, the national registry for Internet domain names ending '.uk', to plan an overhaul of its dispute resolution procedures.At present, 99% of registrations are unchallenged, and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

When a domain registration is challenged by a third party, the case is referred to Nominet, which invokes its dispute resolution service.

This currently includes mediation, a decision by Nominet under its existing rules, and if necessary, adjudication by a panel of independent intellectual property experts.Last year, Lawyers Online, the legal-dedicated Internet Service Provider, obtained a High Court injunction restraining an on-line commercial legal advice site from using the trade name 'Lawyer Online' and Web address www.lawyeronline.co.uk.

This followed the failure of Nominet's procedure to procure a settlement.The proposed procedure includes a two-stage test to determine an abusive registration: first, whether the name is similar to a name in which the complainant has rights; and second, if the name has been registered in bad faith, so-called cybersquatting.Nominet's company solicitor,Emily Taylor, said that since the current system was put in place in 1997, there has been 'a tenfold increase in the number of registrations' and growth in cybersquatting.'We have decided to overhaul our existing procedure,' she added, 'despite the fact that only a tiny number of registrations are actually controversial'.The proposals are open to consultation until 31 March.LINKS: www.nominet.org.uk/drs-review.htmlVictoria MacCallum