PETILLION has one of the world’s leading practices in Internet governance, top-level domains (TLDs), and domain names. We have handled landmark arbitrations between TLD applicants and ICANN regarding due process violations in the application processes for a new TLD. Most recently, we represented one of the largest independent registrars, Namecheap, in an unprecedented arbitration, succesfully challenging ICANN’s decision to remove price caps in the .ORG and .INFO gTLDs.
We provide regulatory, policy, and transactional advice to both established and new players in Internet-related industries.
During the 2012 round, our team advised more than 100 interested parties and prepared 93 unique applications for a new TLD. We helped secure these and other applicants secure their investment through dispute resolution when necessary.
These cases include:
- Representation of Amazon’s applications in different community objection proceedings intitiated with the ICC by the Japan Association of New Economy (JANE), Rakuten, Inc. and the Universal Postal Union.
- Representation of Booking.com to secure its application for .hotels against a string similarity objection with the ICDR and in arbitration proceedings against ICANN.
- Representation of Vistaprint in the largest public gTLD auction to date. Vistaprint paid $1 to operate .webs, while Verisign (through its funding of Nu Dot Co) paid $135,000,000 to operate .web, which it has still not secured up to today.
As thought leaders, we advocate for the protection of intellectual property rights on the Internet. ICANN’s response to the GDPR had drastic consequences for the availabilty of domain name registration data, which complicated the private enforcement of intellectual property rights on the Internet. Our advocacy efforts have contributed to having the EU Commission provide a clear legal basis in NIS2 and multiple public statements for disclosing domain name registration data to legitimate access seekers, which may include intellectual property owners.
We provide clients with day-to-day counselling on all issues relating to their online presence and services, such as information obligations, e-advertising, e-contracting, online terms of use, distance selling.