Region: Asia-Pacific

The Ministry of Information Industry has issued a statement setting out the way in which bad-faith acts involving domain names should be handled. If someone applies to register a domain name, but does not submit formal application documents or the registration fee within 30 days, the application will be denied.

04 December 2001

Singapore companies now have an alternative to the courts for the resolution of disputes over internet addresses. The new national domain name dispute resolution policy consists of a framework for sorting out '.sg' domain disputes and is largely based on the policy rules developed by ICANN.

23 November 2001

auDA, the '.au' regulator, has dropped NetRegistry as the host for the '.au' database. The move comes following disclosure that hundreds of names and contact details were made publicly available.

16 November 2001

The industry self-regulatory body for the '.au' domain, auDA, has issued a request for tenders for the provision of domain name registry services for seven '.au' second-level domains, including 'com.au', 'id.au', 'org.au' and 'edu.au'. The cut-off date for tender responses was November 12.

14 November 2001

Malaysia's Trademarks Act 1976 has been amended to recognize and protect well-known marks in compliance with the TRIPs Agreement. The amendments have important implications for e-businesses that wish to use their trademarks as part of their domain names.

13 November 2001

A Korean court has issued an injunction preventing the transfer of domain names as ordered by a French court. The decision suggests that a court not located at the place of the registrant or the registrar does not have jurisdiction to order the transfer of a domain name in another jurisdiction.

31 October 2001

The Supreme People's Court has issued guidelines that provide courts with objective standards for the trial of domain name disputes. However, foreign trademark owners that have not yet started doing business in the country may find it difficult to protect their marks.

24 October 2001

The Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company Limited has taken over the role of administering '.hk' country code top-level domains and has implemented new, liberalized registration rules and a new dispute resolution policy.

11 September 2001

The registry for Christmas Island is in the midst of an 18 month-old battle with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority over transfer of control of the domain '.cx'. Because the island is a dependency of Australia, the authority wants the Australian government to approve the transfer. A temporary truce has been reached, but the war has yet to end.

11 September 2001

In an attempt to keep pace with the impact of the internet revolution on traditional IP rights, the Indian courts have been expanding the traditional principles of trademark law to protect the rights that owners, such as Yahoo! and SAP AG, may claim in domain names.

28 August 2001