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Registrar hit with second porn UDRP breach notice this year
A Chinese registrar group has been accused by ICANN of shirking its UDRP obligations for the second time this year.
ICANN has put Hong Kong-based DomainName Highway on notice that is in breach of its contract for failing to transfer the domain 1ockheedmartin.com to defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
The domain is a straightforward case of typosquatting, with the initial L replaced with a numeral 1. At time of writing, it still resolves to a page of pornographic thumbnail links, despite being lost in a UDRP case January 4.
Under UDRP rules, registrars have 10 days to transfer a UDRP-losing domain to the trademark owner, unless a lawsuit prevents it.
The circumstances are very similar to a breach notice ICANN issued against ThreadAgent.com over a case of BMW’s brand being cybersquatted with porn last month.
Both ThreadAgent and DomainName Highway appear to be part of the XZ.com, aka Xiamen DianMedia Network Technology Co, which is based in China but has about 20 accredited registrars based in Hong Kong.
DomainName Highway has about 30,000 gTLD domains under management.
BMW porn site leads to registrar getting suspended
A Hong Kong registrar has had its ICANN contract suspended after failing to transfer a cybersquatted domain to car maker BMW.
ThreadAgent.com, which has about 32,000 .com and .net domains under management, attracted the attention of ICANN compliance after a customer lost a UDRP case concerning the domain bmwgroup-identity.net.
The domain led to a site filled with porn and gambling content, and the UDRP was a slam-dunk win for BMW.
But ThreadAgent failed to transfer the domain to BMW within the 10 days required by ICANN policy, leading to Compliance reviewing the registrar for other areas of non-compliance.
A December 22 breach notice led to the registrar transferring the domain to BMW last week, but it had failed to resolve the other issues ICANN had identified, leading to a suspension notice the very next day.
ICANN wants ThreadAgent to explain why the UDRP was not processed according to the policy, and how it will be compliant in futre. It also says the company is not operating a web Whois service as required.
ICANN has told the company it will not be able to sell gTLD domains or accept inbound transfers between January 28 and April 28, and must display a notice to that effect prominently on its web site.
That second requirement may prove complicated, as ThreadAgent appears to be one of about 20 registrar accreditations belonging to XZ.com, a Chinese group based in Xiamen. It has not used the domain threadagent.com in several years, and its other accreditations, which use the same storefront, are all still unsuspended.
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