Practice Note on the Administration of Cases under the Procedure

The ICC International Centre for Expertise (“Centre’), named as Dispute Resolution Service Provider¹ (“DRSF) in the New gTLD Dispute Resolution Procedure` (“Procedure’), has accepted ICANN’s invitation to be one of the DRSPs administering cases pursuant to the Procedure.

The Centre will administer these proceedings pursuant to the Procedure and the Rules for Expertise of the ICC² (“ICC Rules’), including Article 17, which shall be interpreted in accordance with this Practice Note on the Administration of Cases under the Procedure (“Practice Note’).

This Practice Note shall be considered as a supplement to the ICC Rules as mentioned by Article 4 of the Procedure.

In accordance with Article 1(d) of the Procedure, anyone filing an application for a new gTLD with ICANN has accepted the application of the ICC Rules and the Practice Note.

1. All documents and notifications shall be submitted by e-mail only to expertise@iccwbo.org, unless decided otherwise by the Centre or the expen(s);
2. Hardcopies of documents may be submitted only, when a party is explicitly invited by the Centre or the expert(s) to do so (Article 10 ICC Rules);
3. For the purpose of determining time limits, a document shall be deemed to have been submitted or a notification shall be deemed to have been made on the day it was transmitted pursuant to Article 6(c) of the Procedure (Anicle 10(3) ICC Rules);
4. A party wishing to file an objection shall use the model form provided by the Centre on its webpage (Article 9(3) ICC Rules);
5. A party wishing to file a response shall use the model form provided by the Centre on its webpage;
6. By accepting the process as defined in Article 1(d) of the Procedure, parties are deemed to have waived the requirements for the expert mission as set out in Article 12(1) of the ICC Rules;
7. The Centre shall not be required to state reasons for its procedural decisions;
8. By accepting the process as defined in Article 1(d) of the Procedure, parties are deemed to have agreed that the expert determination shall be binding upon the parties (Article 12(3) ICC Rules);
9. Challenges and replacements of an expert shall be dealt with in accordance with Article 11(4) of the ICC Rules. They must be filed within five (5) days from the notification of the appointment of the expert or from the date when the party making the challenge was informed of the facts or circumstances on which the challenge is based;
10. Pursuant to Article 13(b)(iii) of the Procedure three experts shall be appointed in proceedings involving a Limited Public Interest Objection. One expert shall act as president, the two others as co-experts;
11. Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the ICC ADR Rules shall apply to any request for mediation made by any of the parties;
12.  Unless otherwise agreed by the parties and the Centre, the expert report shall be submitted to the parties by e-mail only;
13. For the purpose of administering proceedings pursuant to the Procedure, Article 3 of Appendix 11 referred to in Article 14 of the ICC Rules is modified as set out in Appendix In to the Rules;
14. The non-refundable amount payable pursuant to Article 14 of the ICC Rules, shall be considered as the filing fee pursuant to Articles 7 and 11 of the Procedure. If considered appropriate to do so, the Centre can refund this amount to a party.

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Note:
1. Version 2012-01-11
2 In force as from 1 January 2003