Domain Name Registration and Dispute Resolution Policy

These terms are part of, and are incorporated by reference into, the Terms of Service.

 

1. Purpose

This Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Policy”) has been adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”), which is incorporated by reference into this agreement, and sets forth the terms and conditions in connection with a dispute between you and any party other than mightlittlewebsites.com® (“MLW”) over the registration and use of an Internet domain name registered by you. Proceedings under Section 5 of this Policy will be conducted according to the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“Rules of Procedure”), which are available at www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm, and the selected administrative-dispute-resolution service provider’s supplemental rules.

 

2. Your Representations.

By MLW applying to register a domain name, or by asking MLW to maintain or renew a domain name registration on your behalf, you hereby represent and warrant to us that (a) the statements and contact information provided to us when setting up your account are complete and accurate (See TOS, Section 2, Contact Information); (b) to your knowledge, the registration of the domain name will not infringe upon or otherwise violate the rights of any third party; (c) you are not registering the domain name for an unlawful purpose; and (d) you will not knowingly use the domain name in violation of any applicable laws or regulations. It is your responsibility to determine whether your domain name registration infringes or violates someone else’s rights.

 

3. Domain Name Procedure.

If you need a new domain name(s), upon account setup with MLW, a new domain name(s) will be registered by MLW on your (registrant) behalf. If you already own a domain name(s), control of your current domain name(s) may be transferred to MLW to manage on your behalf.  If you choose not to transfer control of your domain name(s) to MLW, you will be solely responsible for managing your own MX record(s) and renewal(s). In all cases, you remain the legal owner of your domain name(s) as long as your registration(s) is (are) current.

If MLW registers a domain name(s) on your behalf, then while MLW is providing the Services defined in the TOS, MLW will, upon termination or cancellation of the Services, transfer the registration of your domain name(s) to you.  MLW is not liable for domain name renewal after the termination and cancellation of the Services, nor for renewal of domain names for which MLW does not have renewal rights, nor for customers whose account is delinquent.

One registered domain name is free for the first year.  When registrant is billed in the twelfth month of each year’s Service, registrant will be charged automatically for the yearly domain renewal fee along with regular monthly MLW service fee if applicable. MLW will provide notification in registrant’s eleventh month bill that the twelfth month’s bill will include this additional charge. No refunds are available for domain name registration.

Customer warrants and represents that all information it provides to MLW (See TOS, Section 2, Contact Information), is true and correct, including up to date payment information.  MLW will process renewals through our registrar. MLW is not responsible for any loss, interruption of services, service error or loss of data caused by our registrar.

If you fail to pay for renewal of your domain name, your domain name will revert to public availability, and will no longer point to your web site until and if you are able to repurchase it, even if you are current with your monthly service fees. MLW has no control over the availability to you of expired domain names. MLW is not responsible for any third party fees for reinstatement of an expired domain name.

 

4. Cancellations, Transfers, and Changes.

We will cancel, transfer or otherwise make changes to domain name registrations under the following circumstances:

a. subject to the provisions of Section 9 of this policy, our receipt of written or appropriate electronic instructions from you or your authorized agent to take such action;

b. our receipt of an order from a court or arbitral tribunal, in each case of competent jurisdiction, requiring such action; and/or

c. our receipt of a decision of an Administrative Panel (“Administrative Panel”) requiring such action in any administrative proceeding to which you were a party and which was conducted under this Policy or a later version of this Policy adopted by ICANN.

We may also cancel, transfer or otherwise make changes to a domain name registration in accordance with the terms of the TOS or any other incorporated agreements.

 

5. Mandatory Administrative Proceeding.

This Section sets forth the type of disputes for which you are required to submit to a mandatory administrative proceeding. These proceedings will be conducted before one of the administrative-dispute-resolution service providers listed at www.icann.org/udrp/approved-providers.htm (each, a “Provider”).

a. Applicable Disputes. You are required to submit to a mandatory administrative proceeding in the event that a third party (a “complainant”) asserts to the applicable Provider, in compliance with the Rules of Procedure, that

(i) your domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights; and

(ii) you have no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and

(iii) your domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

In the administrative proceeding, the complainant must prove that each of these three elements are present.

b. Evidence of Registration and Use in Bad Faith. For the purposes of Section 5(a)(iii), the following circumstances, in particular but without limitation, if found by the Panel to be present, shall be evidence of the registration and use of a domain name in bad faith:

(i) circumstances indicating that you have registered or you have acquired the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to the complainant who is the owner of the trademark or service mark or to a competitor of that complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of your documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name; or

(ii) you have registered the domain name in order to prevent the owner of the trademark or service mark from reflecting the mark in a corresponding domain name, provided that you have engaged in a pattern of such conduct; or

(iii) you have registered the domain name primarily for the purpose of disrupting the business of a competitor; or

(iv) by using the domain name, you have intentionally attempted to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to your web site or other online location, by creating a likelihood of confusion with the complainant’s mark as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of your web site or location or of a product or service on your web site or location.

c. How to Demonstrate Your Rights to and Legitimate Interests in the Domain Name in Responding to a Complaint. When you receive a complaint, you should refer to Section 6 of the Rules of Procedure in determining how your response should be prepared. Any of the following circumstances, in particular but without limitation, if found by the Panel to be proved based on its evaluation of all evidence presented, shall demonstrate your rights or legitimate interests to the domain name for purposes of Section 5(a)(ii):

(i) before any notice to you of the dispute, your use of, or demonstrable preparations to use, the domain name or a name corresponding to the domain name in connection with a bona fide offering of goods or services; or

(ii) you (as an individual, business, or other organization) have been commonly known by the domain name, even if you have acquired no trademark or service mark rights; or

    1. you are making a legitimate noncommercial or fair use of the domain name, without intent for commercial gain to misleadingly divert consumers or to tarnish the trademark or service mark at issue.

d. Selection of Provider. The complainant shall select the Provider from among those approved by ICANN by submitting the complaint to that Provider. The selected Provider will administer the proceeding, except in cases of consolidation as described in Section 5(f).

e. Initiation of Proceeding and Process and Appointment of Administrative Panel. The Rules of Procedure state the process for initiating and conducting a proceeding and for appointing the Administrative Panel that will decide the dispute.

f. Consolidation. In the event of multiple disputes between you and a complainant, either you or the complainant may petition to consolidate the disputes before a single Administrative Panel. This petition shall be made to the first Administrative Panel appointed to hear a pending dispute between the parties. This Administrative Panel may consolidate before it any or all such disputes in its sole discretion, provided that the disputes being consolidated are governed by this Policy or a later version of this Policy adopted by ICANN.

g. Fees. All fees charged by a Provider in connection with any dispute before an Administrative Panel pursuant to this Policy shall be paid by the complainant, except in cases where you elect to expand the Administrative Panel from one to three panelists as provided in Section 6(b)(iv) of the Rules of Procedure, in which case all fees will be split evenly by you and the complainant.

h. Our Involvement in Administrative Proceedings. MLW will not participate in the administration or conduct of any proceeding before an Administrative Panel. In addition, MLW will not be held liable as a result of any decisions rendered by the Administrative Panel.

i. Remedies. The remedies available to a complainant pursuant to any proceeding before an Administrative Panel shall be limited to requiring the cancellation of your domain name or the transfer of your domain name registration to the complainant.

j. Notification and Publication. The Provider shall notify us of any decision made by an Administrative Panel with respect to a domain name you have registered through us. All decisions under this Policy will be published in full over the Internet, except when an Administrative Panel determines, in an exceptional case, to redact portions of its decision.

k. Availability of Court Proceedings. The mandatory administrative proceeding requirements set forth in Section 5 shall not prevent either you and/or the complainant from submitting the dispute to a court of competent jurisdiction for independent resolution before such mandatory administrative proceeding is commenced or after such proceeding is concluded. If an Administrative Panel decides that your domain name registration should be canceled or transferred, we will wait ten (10) business days (as observed in the location of our principal office) after we are informed by the applicable Provider of the Administrative Panel’s decision before implementing that decision. We will then implement the decision unless we have received from you during that ten (10) business day period official documentation (such as a copy of a complaint, file-stamped by the clerk of the court) that you have commenced a lawsuit against the complainant in a jurisdiction to which the complainant has submitted under Section 4(b)(xiii) of the Rules of Procedure. (In general, that jurisdiction is either the location of our principal office or of your address as shown in our Whois database. See Sections 1 and 4(b)(xiii) of the Rules of Procedure for details.) If we receive such documentation within the ten (10) business day period, we will not implement the Administrative Panel’s decision, and we will take no further action, until we receive (i) evidence satisfactory to us of a resolution between the parties; (ii) evidence satisfactory to us that your lawsuit has been dismissed or withdrawn; or (iii) a copy of an order from such court dismissing your lawsuit or ordering that you do not have the right to continue to use your domain name.

 

6. All Other Disputes and Litigation.

All other disputes between you and any party other than us regarding your domain name registration that are not brought pursuant to the mandatory administrative proceeding provisions of Section 5 shall be resolved between you and such other party through any court, arbitration or other proceeding that may be available.

 

7. Our Involvement in Disputes.

You agree to not involve MLW in any dispute between you and any party other than us regarding the registration and use of your domain name. Please refer to the TOS, Section 12, for MLW’s rights to indemnification.

 

8. Maintaining the Status Quo.

We will not cancel, transfer, activate, deactivate, or otherwise change the status of any domain name registration under this Policy except as provided in Sections 3, 4 and 5 above.

 

9. Transfers During a Dispute.

a. Transfers of a Domain Name to a New Holder. You may not transfer your domain name registration to another holder (i) during a pending administrative proceeding brought pursuant to Section 5 or for a period of fifteen (15) business days (as observed in the location of our principal place of business) after such proceeding is concluded; or (ii) during a pending court proceeding or arbitration commenced regarding your domain name unless the party to whom the domain name registration is being transferred agrees, in writing, to be bound by the decision of the court or arbitrator. We reserve the right to cancel any transfer of a domain name registration to another holder that is made in violation of this subsection.

b. Changing Registrars. You may not transfer your domain name registration to another registrar during a pending administrative proceeding brought pursuant to Section 5 or for a period of fifteen (15) business days (as observed in the location of our principal place of business) after such proceeding is concluded. You may transfer administration of your domain name registration to another registrar during a pending court action or arbitration, provided that the domain name you have registered with us shall continue to be subject to the proceedings commenced against you in accordance with the terms of this Policy. In the event that you transfer a domain name registration to us for administration during the pendency of a court action or arbitration, such dispute shall remain subject to the domain name dispute policy of the registrar from which the domain name registration was transferred.

 

10. Policy Modifications.

We reserve the right to modify this Policy at any time with the permission of ICANN. We will post our revised Policy at least thirty (30) calendar days before it becomes effective. Unless this Policy has already been invoked by the submission of a complaint to a Provider, in which event the version of the Policy in effect at the time it was invoked will apply to you until the dispute is over, all such changes will be binding upon you with respect to any domain name registration dispute, whether the dispute arose before, on or after the effective date of our change. In the event that you object to a change in this Policy, your sole remedy is to cancel your domain name registration with us. The revised Policy will apply to you until you cancel your domain name registration.