According to the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), legal experts are now working on a new regulation that could expand the jurisdiction of arbitrators in handling domain name disputes.

Under the new regulation, arbitrators will be able to mediate disputes over English-language domain names, said Liu Zhijiang from the CNNIC.

Arbitrators could also have the power to decide the ownership of domain names by taking into account criteria other than the fact that the domain names contain registered trademarks, Liu added.

This would be a significant step forward in the settlement of domain name disputes in China since the pilot mechanism, officially launched at the beginning of this year, limits the influence of the Domain Name Dispute Settlement Centre, the mainland's only such peace-making agency, to Chinese-language domain names and can only protect trademark ownership.

"We expect that there will be a sharp increase in the number of cases with the new regulation," said Li Hu, secretary-general of the Domain Name Dispute Settlement Centre under the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission.

Li's centre has accepted 11 Chinese-language domain name dispute cases in the past six months. These cases, including seven involving domestic parties and four involving foreign parties, account for about 5 percent of the centre's total settlements, according to centre figures.

But Li said that the centre's business could be greatly expanded because a larger number of domain names contain company or agency names or abbreviations.

Despite the current light workload, Li promised that the centre will gear itself up for the influx to avoid a backlog once the new regulation takes effect.

Li's centre could face competition as the new regulation is expected to allow the CNNIC to authorize more arbitration agencies into the market.

Parties involved in domain name disputes will be able to choose to go to court or to arbitrators for settlement. However, arbitration has an edge over courts in that settlements are quicker and they can rule over the ownership of domain names.

Courts are catching up, though.

According to sources with the Supreme People's Court, a judicial interpretation of the settlement of disputes over domain names is expected to better guide trials of such cases.

The judicial interpretation will outline rights violations, and give particular clarification on issues such as malicious tort and the protection of well-known trademarks, according to the source.

(China Daily 07/03/2001)