Tag Archives: Domain Directors

Domain Name Disputes

Registrar Secures Victory Against auDA

Brisbane, Australia

26 March 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Domain Directors, an auDA and ICANN accredited registrar, had an impressive victory over auDA, the regulator for the “.au” domain space, in the Supreme Court of Queensland on Friday 20 March 2009.  auDA had given an undertaking to reinstate a domain name that it had unilaterally deleted, and the Court ruled that auDA had to pay a significant part of Domain Directors legal costs as a result of auDA’s actions.

In November 2008, auDA deleted one of Domain Directors’ long standing domain names, auregistry.com.au, without informing Domain Directors.  Domain Directors has owned and used the auregistry.com.au domain name for over eight years.

Once Domain Directors discovered that the domain name had been deleted, by being placed on the “pending delete list”, Domain Director’s solicitors, Mallesons Stephen Jaques, tried to negotiate with auDA to have the domain name re-instated.

After days of correspondence and repeated requests to have to domain name re-instated, Domain Directors was forced to file proceedings in the Queensland Supreme Court just 3 business days before the domain name was due to be permanently deleted.

Justice Dutney, of the Queensland Supreme Court, ruled that Domain Directors had no choice but to initiate legal proceedings to protect their interest in the domain name.  Justice Dutney stated that auDA did not do anything to indicate that litigation was not necessary.  Instead, auDA’s actions indicated that the only way Domain Directors was going to get its domain name back was by taking legal action.

As a result of auDA’s behaviour, Justice Dutney ruled that auDA had to pay Domain Directors’ legal costs associated with filing the application in the Supreme Court of Queensland and the initial hearing of the application.

Domain Directors’ CEO, Tony Lentino commented:  “The evidence presented to Justice Dutney showed that Chris Disspain, the CEO of auDA, took a personal interest in this matter.  AusRegistry had made a complaint to auDA earlier in the year about this domain name, that was dismissed by auDA’s policy compliance officer.  Mr Disspain then took it upon himself to unilaterally cancel our domain name, despite the auDA policy compliance officer disagreeing with his actions.”

Mr Tony Lentino said: “By pursuing auDA in the Court, auDA  backed down.  We got our domain name back, a Court order stating that they have to pay a significant part of our legal costs and we showed them that if they act improperly again, they will have to explain their actions to the Court.  auDA is not above the law.  This is a significant victory not just for Domain Directors but for all Internet registrars and their customers.”


About Domain Directors

Domain Directors is an international registrar and provides an extensive range of over 200 country code Top Level Domain name extensions across Europe, America, and the Asia Pacific regions.

Domain Directors is a global supplier in the Domain Name and ENUM industry, with its head office in Melbourne, and offices in New Zealand and China.

For more information about Domain Directors, and its associated company, Instra Corporation, please visit http://www.instra.com

For Media Enquiries, please contact: media@instra.com

Domain Name Disputes

Registrar sues auDA for deleting domain name

Instra Corporation[news release] Domain Directors, an associated company of Instra Corporation, an auDA (Australian Domain Name Administrator) and ICANN accredited registrar, yesterday commenced legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland against auDA, the Australian domain name policy and regulatory body.

Last week, auDA unilaterally cancelled Domain Director’s domain name registration for “auregistry.com.au”. Domain Directors have owned and used the domain name “auregistry.com.au” for the past eight years.

Tony Lentino, the CEO of Domain Directors, said this afternoon:
“I am shocked at auDA’s actions.  auDA brought down one of my long standing websites.  auDA wrote the policy, made the complaint to itself, and acted as judge and jury, and then deleted my DNS entry without informing me.  With auDA governing the system, no Australian domain name is safe.”

Originally, auDA informed Domain Directors that a third party had made a complaint about the “auregistry.com.au” domain name, but after the lawsuit was commences, the lawyers for  auDA’s informed Domain Directors that in fact, no complaint had been made.

John Swinson, partner of Mallesons Stephen Jaques which is representing Domain Directors, says that the dispute will be heard in the Supreme Court of Queensland on Friday, 21 November.

Domain Directors is an international registrar and provides an extensive range of over 200 country code Top Level Domain name extensions across Europe, America, and the Asia Pacific regions.

About Domain Directors
Domain Directors is a global supplier in the Domain Name and ENUM industry, with its head office in Melbourne, and offices in New Zealand and China. For more information about Domain Directors, and its associated company, Instra Corporation, please visit www.instra.com

For Media Enquiries, please contact: media@instra.com

This news release was sourced from Domain Directors/Instra Corporation.