Are UAE Courts prepared To Solve Domain Name Disputes?

By Rami Olwan
E- commerce legal consultant

UAE Network Information Center (UAEnic) has announced that trademark owners
who discovered that their trademarks have been registered as ae domain names, may
now resolve their domain name disputes either by referring the matter to the
arbitration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or local courts
that will resolve disputes in accordance with laws and regulation applicable in UAE.
The Changes to the registration services has been introduced recently primirlarly to
encourage registrant to register ae domain names with the UAEnic and to
Prepare the UAE to be a truly enabled e – environment that follows best international
standards and practices for solving domain disputes.
In this article, we will first consider the conditions that local courts require to fill
domain dispute claims, why in our opinion local courts are not prepared to solve those
kind of disputes and the steps to be taken that could if and once implemented would
prepare courts to resolve domain name disputes and to reach sound judgments.

1. Conditions to resolve domain names disputes in front of local courts

According provision 4 J) of the Domain Dispute Resolution Policy for the ae, and
UAEnic conformation that domain name disputes may now be settled in local courts
using normal legal methods.
Two conditions must be present in order for a trademark owner or holder (the
plaintiff) to fill a claim in front of the local courts against the party that registered his
trademark as a domain name (the defendant) and they are summarized below in two
separate headings:

A. The Domain name must be ending in AE and registered with UAEnic.

The disputed domain name that the trademark owners asserts his right over it must
be a country code domain name ending in ae, if the domain name is a generic Top
Level Domain Name ( eg. com, .org, …) and not registered with UAEnic system,
local courts will refuse to hear the claim and will demand from the injured party to
refer back to one of ICANN’s approved dispute resolution providers.

B. The parties must reside in the UEA.

To fill a claim against a registrant of a domain name in bad faith with local courts,
both parties (registrant and the trademark owner) must reside in the UAE, this
means that they should have a legal presence or they should do business in the
UAE. If one of the parties does not reside in the UAE, the claim will be denied
accordingly and the court will refuse to issue its judgment since it does not have a
jurisdiction over the disputed domain name.

2. Why Local courts are not prepared to solve domain name disputes?

In my view I do not think that local courts at the time being in the United Arab
Emirates are prepared to solve and settle domain name disputes for the following
reasons:
 1. Although the Dubai Government has issued e- commerce facilitation law No 2
of 2002 and electronic signature in criminal procedures and the trademark
federal law no 37 of 1992, it failed to address in all these laws the conflict that
arise between trademark and domain names, thus there is no legal base that the
holder of the trademark can rely on if he/ she decide to fill a claim against a
domain name registrant, but the trademark owner (plaintiff) may refer back to
traditional provisions of trademark law and this proved to be inadequate and
not reliable to resolve domain name disputes in many circumstances.
2. Many judges are not familiar with the basic technological concepts of the
Internet, most of them are not computer illiterates and they do not know what
are domain names and websites. . Understanding technology is very important
in issuing a judgment concerning a domain name dispute. And this is
illustrated in a recent case that has been filled and concluded in front of
emirate’s criminal courts between Etisalat and Mr. Lee Ashurst the British
national who hacked into Etisalat’s Internet system.

3- Parties will be reluctant to solve their domain name disputes in front of local
courts since it will take time to resolve their domain name disputes and there is no
procedure that can be followed to expedite the matter.

3. What ought to be done?

To prepare local courts to domain name disputes and to reach sound judgments in the
event that a claim has been raised against domain name bad faith registrant in front of
local courts, I recommend the following to be taken into consideration:

New provisions should be introduced into UAE trademark law that state
clearly that registering a domain name identical or confusingly similar to a
registered trademark constitute trademark infringement and unfair
competition, also a provision indicating that compensation should be awarded
to trademark owner if the bad intent of the registrant is proved and the
trademark is severely harmed.

1- Judges must attend workshops and seminars to be aware of the technological

and legal issues associated with the Internet and e- commerce, especially
those related to domain names and the conflict that arise between it and
trademarks.
2- Emirate university faculty of law should consider introducing new programs
or courses that teach law students Internet and e- commerce laws.
3- Lawyers and academics specializing in IT and Internet laws must
continuously right articles in law journals preferably in Arabic language to
educate lawyers and the public about domain names and how disputes may be
resolved either through Arbitration or local courts.
5- we must also train lawyers through workshops on how to fill and initiate
domain name complaints or responses and represent clients in the administrative
proceedings with WIPO under the ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy
(UDRP).

Conclusion
While the UAE is ahead of Arab countries in issuing laws that regulate electronic
commerce and the first country code Top Level Domain Name (ccTLD) authority in
the Middle East to receive the endorsement of the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO). Local courts in the UAE are not prepared to solve domain
name disputes, it is important to amend laws and train and educate judges and lawyers
to truly understand legal and technological implication of domain names, this in the
end will solve domain name disputes more efficiently and will make the UAE truly e-
enabled environment. .