How to file an objection

Jurisdiction of the ICC International Centre for ADR

The Centre does not administer cases filed on the grounds of String Confusion Objections or Legal Rights Objections. They are administered by the International Centre for Dispute Resolution and the Arbitration and the Mediation Centre of the World Intellectual Property Organization respectively.

A Limited Public Interest Objections should be filed when the Objector alleges that the applied-for gTLD string is contrary to generally accepted legal norms of morality and public order that are recognised under international principles of law.

A Community Objection should be filed when the Objector alleges that there is substantial opposition to the gTLD application from a significant portion of the community to which the gTLD string may be explicitly or implicitly targeted.

More information about the specificities of each of the four Objection grounds, as well as on the specific standing a party needs to file an Objection based on one of the grounds, can be found in Module 3 to the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook published by ICANN and in the New gTLD Dispute Resolution Procedure also published by ICANN.

---

Objection deadline

To trigger a dispute resolution procedure, an Objection must be filed within the objection deadline. The Objection Period opened on 13 June 2012 and will close on 13 March 2013 on 23:59 UTC.

---

Filing an Objection

An Objection filed with the Centre must:

• be filed electronically and sent to expertise@iccwbo.org;
• be filed using the Objection Form to be completed by the Objector (New Model Form available as of 19 February 2013);
• be filed within the posted deadline date (i.e., on or before 13 March 2013, 23:59 UTC);
• be filed in English;
• include the following information:
  • name and contact information of the Objector;
  • a statement of the Objector’s basis for standing; that is why the Objector believes it meets the standing requirements to object;
  • a description of the basis for the objection, including
    • a statement giving the specific ground upon which the Objection is being filed;
    • a detailed explanation of the validity of the Objection and why it should be upheld including copies of any documents that the Objector considers to be a basis for the Objection;
    • stay within the limit of 5,000 words or 20 pages, whichever is less—excluding attachments (only the substantive parts of the Form, i.e., “Objector’s Standing to object” and “Description of the basis for the Objection”, will count towards the 5,000 words or 20 pages limit); and
  • include copies of any documents that the Objector considers to be a basis for the Objection

Every Objection filed must be accompanied by the requisite payment of the non-refundable registration fee in the amount of EUR€5,000. For details regarding the payment instructions, please consult the “Costs and Payments” section.

---

Clarifications regarding multiple Objections and multiple Objectors

Following different requests from prospective parties and after discussion with ICANN and the other dispute resolution providers under the new gTLD dispute resolution procedure, ICC would like to make the following clarifications with regard to the proceedings conducted by ICC under the ICC Rules for Expertise in conjunction with the new gTLD dispute resolution procedure from ICANN.

• Every Objection must be filed separately. Accordingly, a party cannot object to a new gTLD application on more than one ground in the same procedure. Therefore, if a party wishes for example to object to a new gTLD application both on Limited Public Interest Objection ground, as well as on the Community Objection ground, it must file two separate Objections. Further, a party cannot object to several applications with one Objection, but must file one Objection for each of the contested applications.
• Each Objection must be filed by one Objector only.
• Each Objector must indicate one contact address that shall be used in the proceeding to notify communications to the Objector. This contact address could be a different one than the address of the Objector itself.
• An Objector may wish to be supported by other entities:
  • An Objector may wish to use the support of other entities to demonstrate its standing.
  • an Objector may also wish to use the support of other entities to finance its Objection.
• However, only the Objector itself will be considered as a party to the proceeding. All other entities will be considered as related entities.
• Accordingly, in case of a Community Objection, the Expert’s test as to whether the Objector has standing, will be tested solely with regard to the Objector itself.
• In order for the Expert to be able to indicate pursuant to Article 7 of the Expertise Rules whether there are any facts or circumstances which are of such nature as to call into question his/her independence in the eyes of the parties, the Objector is required to set out the name, nationality and contact details of any related entity which might be relevant for the Expert’s independence check.
• The Objector is invited to indicate the information about the related entities on the Model Objection Form in the section “Other Related Entities” and add separate tables for any additional relevant related entity.