AAA chosen ADR provider for .us Domain

The American Arbitration Association has been selected as the dispute resolution provider for the us domain, known as "America's Internet address." An agreement between NeuStar Inc., the administrator of the country code domain, and the AAA calls for the AAA to provide its services to resolve trademark

"We are pleased to have the AA,, a renowned leader in conflict management services, working with NeuStar on trademark disputes as we bring an enhanced .us to market," said Jim Casey, director of policy and business development for NeuStar. "This is one of the steps we're taking to ensure that the administration of .us serves the public interest."

Debi Miller-Moore, the AAA's vice president of eCommerce Services, was equally enthusiastic. "The AAA is delighted to partner with such an innovative communications provider as NeuStar. It is the AAA's aim to administer fair and effective dispute resolution services that will help NeuStar's customers protect their intellectual property rights," she said when the agreement was announced.

The majority of disputes are expected to involve trademark owners who wish to protect their intellectual property rights against those who register or use a us domain name in bad faith. The disputes will be decided under the Supplemental Rules for Domain Name Disputes developed by the TA.AA. A special panel of about 40 trademark experts, trained in domain name dispute resolution, will be available to settle the conflicts.

"This panel is truly unique," said Miller-Moore. "It is a specialized subset of the AAA's technology panel that has been trained specifically in trademark law. There will also be a special Web page for domain name disputes that can be accessed from the Focus area of the Association's Web site at www.adr.org. That page will include the AAA's procedures and link to both the us policies and the Association's electronic filing system, AAA WebFile."

The us Internet address space allows all U.S. residents, public service organizations, and businesses to establish an identity on the Internet. NeuStar was selected to manage the space for the United States by the Department of Commerce last fall after public discussion and a competitive evaluation process that began in 1998. NeuStar was awarded an initial four-year contract followed by an option to renew for two years.

Registration for .us began with what NeuStar called a "sunrise period." Between March 4 and April 9, 2002, only owners of existing or pending U.S. trademarks were able to apply for us domain names that corresponded to their respective trademarks. Owners of trademarks that had been registered or applied for as of July 27, 2001, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office were eligible to apply for us domain names through us-accredited companies. During that time, NeuStar said, all trademark claims would be verified.

Beginning April 24, .us-accredited companies could begin accepting registrations from United States residents and businesses on a first-come, first-served basis. For the first time, addresses on .us can be short and descriptive ("myname.us" and "mycompany.us," for example).

According to a recent report in USA Today, NeuStar has received over 200,000 registrations for us so far.

For more information about us and how to register a .us domain name, check out www.neustar.us.