The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) run by ICANN is only one of the available channels for settling disputes about domains. It thus does not follow that all domain registries have to opt for it automatically. In point of fact, very few of the county code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) actually use ICANN's UDRP.

The motivation for setting up the ICANN dispute resolution procedure was that disputes involving generic Top Level Domains, such as .com, .net or .org, may result in an extremely complex mesh of international relations amongst the parties concerned. It is possible for the domain holder, the complainant and the registrar to be domiciled in three different countries, and it is even possible that the registry may be in a fourth country. Then it may happen that the competent court is not in the same country as the complainant, so the latter is forced to find an additional lawyer in that country, it may prove complicated to have official and court documents served, and the court hearing might be in a foreign language… The list of imponderables is virtually endless. Even assuming that all these hurdles can be overcome and the victorious party wins a court judgement, there is still the potential problem of getting that judgement executed on the territory of another country. From this brief description, it is clear that what is needed for tackling disputes concerning generic Top Level Domains is completely different from what is required when country code Top Level Domains, such as .de, are at stake.

In litigation involving .de domains, all the parties are often based in Germany, the case can be heard by a German court and a judgement can be secured quickly and for a moderate outlay.

The UDRP has another disadvantage in that it only comes into play for trademark infringements and malicious intent on the part of the domain holder, and the losing party still has the possibility of going before the ordinary courts afterwards. Moreover, in the case of the UDRP, it is the complainant who has to bear the costs of the procedure, whereas the practice of the German courts is for the losing party to bear the costs of litigation.

From the above it is clear that anyone holding rights to a name or a trademark would have no reason at all to want to opt for the UDRP procedure or a similar one for .de domains, since a German court hearing – combined with a DISPUTE entry at DENIC – represents an evidently superior alternative, given that it is both faster and cheaper.

Quite apart from all these considerations, the parties at dispute over a domain are perfectly free to refer their case to a dispute resolution procedure or even to a court of arbitration, if that is their preference.

If you yourself are the holder of the ENUM domain concerned, you ought to contact your provider and tell them the correct data, so that it can be communicated to DENIC.

Given that the DISPUTE entry deprives the domain holder of the right to dispose of the domain, it would not be good and also most probably not even admissible to maintain it indefinitely. It is conceivable that the parties might simply give up fighting over the domain and forget about the DISPUTE entry altogether. For that reason, the DISPUTE entry is limited to one year, after which it expires without prior notice. If the DISPUTE entry has been made in your name, it is your duty to inform DENIC as soon as the dispute with the domain holder has been brought to a conclusion, so that DENIC can remove the DISPUTE entry. Once the DISPUTE entry has been removed, the domain holder becomes free to dispose of the domain again by transferring it to someone else and, if the domain is deleted, the claimant will no longer automatically become the new holder. That is why it is particularly important that if a DISPUTE entry has been made in your name, you carefully note the date on which it will lapse, so that you can apply in good time for an extension if appropriate (you should do that no later than about one month before the DISPUTE entry lapses). It is possible to grant such an extension, provided the dispute with the domain holder is still continuing and the holder of the DISPUTE entry can demonstrate this adequately in writing, submitting suitable documentary evidence. In order to grant an extension, DENIC also needs a new copy of the DISPUTE form. Once again, your must complete the form, sign it and send DENIC the original.

No. The DISPUTE entry is intended to be solely a parallel measure to resolving the dispute over a domain. It can thus not be used as a form of guarantee for claims resulting from an agreement between the holder of a DISPUTE entry and the domain holder.

A DISPUTE entry should never be necessary for this purpose anyway. If you fear that the domain holder is not going to respect an agreement entered into with you, you are at liberty not to accept such an agreement to begin with or to take out some other form of protection. One conceivable solution might be for the domain to be transferred to you immediately, but with the agreement that the (existing) holder would be permitted to continue to use it for a transitional period.

It goes without saying that if a DISPUTE entry has been set up for you, you have the right to ask for it to be removed at any time. You must, however, use the <media 748>special form</media> for this purpose, sign it and send it to DENIC.

Once the DISPUTE entry has been removed, the domain is free again for transfer to others. If the domain happens to be deleted, you will cease to be its holder.

At present, DENIC does not charge for setting up DISPUTE entries or for removing them.

The fact that a domain is not being used to address a website does not mean that it is not being used. It is possible to use a domain in conjunction with various services (such as e-mail or file transfer (FTP)) without this being visible on the outside. Moreover, there is no obligation to use a domain to address a website. In no circumstances, then, does the lack of a website give DENIC any occasion whatsoever to terminate the domain contract. DENIC does not even have the means for doing that, and you have no claim at all to take over the domain concerned.

Apart from that, you should also consider that it can always happen that the domain holder may have encountered short-lived technical difficulties, so that a website that really exists is inaccessible for a while. It may also happen that, in looking for a website, you made a typing mistake in the web address. Another possibility may be that the website has been set up only under a sub-domain that an outsider is never going to find by guessing (perhaps under christmas.easter.specimen.de instead of www.specimen.de).

DENIC is the registry for the Top Level Domain .de and is thus responsible solely for domains ending in .de. DENIC is unable to give you any information about domains under other Top Level Domains. However, we can tell you that most other registries responsible for TLDs also provide more information on this matter.

If the domain that concerns you comes under one of the a so-called generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), such as .com, .net, .org., .info. .biz or .name, you can call ICANN's websites, where you'll find a directory of responsible registries. If certain preconditions are met, you may be able to settle your problem through a so called UDRP (Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure).

If the domain that concerns you comes under a so-called country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) such as .at (for Austria) or .uk (for the United Kingdom), IANA's website is where you'll find a list of registries.

Naturally, it is DENIC's policy to assist its customers in any way it can when they have problems. However, it cannot give legal advice on individual cases. DENIC is not able to help you if, for instance, you want to know how to react to a written warning or what sort of chances you have of defending your domain in a legal dispute or how you can manage to force a domain holder to delete his/her domain. In such cases, you will have to seek specialist advice elsewhere, such as from a lawyer or a patent lawyer if trademark rights are the subject-matter. In Germany, the local professional chamber of lawyers (Rechtsanwaltskammer) and in some localities the local professional associations of lawyers (Anwaltsvereine) will be able to help you find the correct lawyer to handle your particular problem. Some of the German federal states have set up public legal-advice centres (Rechtsauskunftsstellen) and in some cases there may be a scheme of legal-aid vouchers to help you if you are unable to afford lawyers' fees. If in doubt about this last point, you will be able to get more information from the ministry of justice of the federal state concerned (Landesjustizministerium), or the nearest local court (Amtsgericht) might be able to assist you. In many cases, the best first step is often to try and find out more yourself by using the Internet, where there are many websites that provide legal information. There are also various mailing lists for online law, where you may find others willing to discuss your problem with you.

The short answer is no. DENIC is at no time in a position to check whether or not the registration or use of a domain violates the rights of others. Moreover, DENIC has no duty to perform routine verifications of this nature. The German Federal Supreme Court said so quite clearly in its judgement of May 2001 in the “ambiente.de” case. Such a verification would, however, be the precondition for DENIC to intervene, since it ought to be clear to everybody that it cannot be permissible to take a domain away from its holder simply because someone else wants it. You certainly wouldn't want that if it was your domain that was at stake!

In these circumstances, you must pursue any disputes you may have on account of possible violations of your rights directly with the domain holder. DENIC will only take action once the dispute has been brought to a clear-cut conclusion, typically through a final judgement handed down by a court of law (ruling on the substance of the case).

If you yourself are the holder of the domain concerned and if it is administered by a provider, you ought to contact your provider immediately and tell him/her the correct data, so that it can be communicated to DENIC. If you are the domain holder and if your domain is being managed by DENICdirect, you should send your corrections to DENIC without delay, making sure you use the form provided for the purpose.

If DENIC has provided you with information on the holder of a specific third-party domain, upon individual request (read more on the Eligibility Criteria for Domain Holder Data Disclosure to Third Parties), and if subsequently you find the disclosed data to be incorrect, you can send your relevant observations to DENIC, provided you also submit evidence of the inaccuracy of the data, or provided it is obvious that the data is wrong. For this purpose, dual evidence must be supplied including, first of all, evidence of the failure to deliver to the domain holder a document at their postal address stored in DENIC’s registration data. Suitable means of verification might either consist of an envelope sent to the domain holder and returned by the postal service bearing an "unknown at this address" or "moved to an unknown address " postmark, or of a notice, issued by a court, that a formal notification of documents could not be delivered to such address. In no way will it be adequate evidence to show that the domain holder simply refuses to accept letters or does not collect (registered) letters from a post office, since in such circumstances, the domain holder might actually exist at the address registered. A returned envelope bearing postmarks saying "delivery refused " or "not collected" will thus not be accepted by DENIC as an adequate evidence of a false address. Secondly, an official notice provided by an appropriate register (i.e. the residents' registration office, in the case of a natural person, or the companies' or trade register, in the case of a legal person) needs to be submitted, stating that no person or company of the relevant name is residing at the given address.

If, after receiving information on the holder of a specific third-party domain from DENIC (read more on the Eligibility Criteria for Domain Holder Data Disclosure to Third Parties), you find that the respective holder’s registered e-mail address does not work, DENIC will follow up a related notification from your end in case you will provide us with appropriate evidence (such as a screenshot of a notice of non-delivery).

To get a DISPUTE entry made in your name you must apply to DENIC. It is mandatory to use the appropriate form in the paper or online version, to sign it and to send the original to DENIC. Please note that you must have submitted a request to DENIC to get information about the holder of the domain on the applicable form before you can apply for a DISPUTE entry to be set. This request must have been made by the applicant within the month preceding the application for a DISPUTE entry. Please attach a written copy of the information received in response to the request to the application for a DISPUTE entry. This is particularly important, since, in signing the application, you confirm that you have already started the process of resolving the dispute with the domain holder or that you intend to do so very soon.

When you send your form to DENIC you must also enclose documentary evidence to show that there are reasonable grounds for claiming that you might have a right to the domain. Suitable documents for showing the existence of a potential right might be: in a case based on a trademark, the certificate granting you that mark, in a case based on a company, an excerpt from the commercial register, in a case based on your name, a copy of your identity card or passport, and in a case based on the name of a commune (i.e. a German local-government body), the commune's official letterhead.

Once you have applied to DENIC for a DISPUTE entry and DENIC has accepted your application, DENIC will send you confirmation with further guidance and an indication as to the period of validity of the DISPUTE entry. DENIC will also inform you if it decides that it cannot grant you a DISPUTE entry, possibly because there is insufficient evidence to support the rights you claim or possibly because there is already a DISPUTE entry on the domain. If you receive no communication from DENIC, you cannot automatically assume that DENIC has set up the DISPUTE entry. After 2-4 weeks, you should contact DENIC again and ask about the status of your application.

In such a case, you instantly become the new holder of the domain. DENIC will also communicate this fact immediately either to you in person or to your representative who originally set the DISPUTE entry for you. DENIC will also inform you as to what further steps you'll need to take.

DENIC's function is limited to the registration and administration of domains and it is thus not responsible for the contents of websites.

If you happen to find a website whose contents appear illegal or harmful to young people, you should report it to the appropriate law-enforcement agency (such as the police or the public prosecutor's office). Alternatively, you can contact the complaints' unit of the Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Multimedia-Diensteanbieter FSM, which was founded in 1997 by several associations in order to prevent the spreading of contents that is illegal or harmful to young people (e.g. incitement of the people, display of violence, so-called hard pornography) via online services. Please note: FSM is not responsible for complaints concerning the following subjects:

• Spam mails (unsolicited advertising e-mails) without pornographic content or content harmful to young persons. Contact: eco e.V.
• Breach of the duties with regard to provider identification of non-members of the FSM. Contact: Zentrale zur Bekämpfung unlauteren Wettbewerbs e.V. (Centre for Combating Unfair Competition) 
• Infringements of data privacy laws. Contact: Responsible State Data Protection Officer 
• Contents of news groups and forums. Contact: ICTF Working Group of eco e.V. (Association of the German Internet Economy)

No. DENIC does not "block" domains in such a way that they are no longer available for registration. That even applies if you believe that you have rights on account of your name or a brand or trademark you own to stop anyone apart from yourself from holding a particular domain. Given the many thousands of millions of people and legal entities throughout the world, nobody can ever say for certain that they are unique and that there is no-else or no organization that might not have the right to register the domain for themselves. That fact that DENIC has no obligation to "block" domains was expressly confirmed in a judgement handed down by the Court of Appeals in Dresden when it found against a leading politician in the German federal state of Saxony who had taken action against DENIC with the aim of forcing it to "block" the registration of a domain called kurt-biedenkopf.de. Despite that, there is an easy way to prevent domains from being registered by others and then used in a way you would not like: you should get in first and register them yourself.

If you are concerned with the contents of websites, first of all you must make sure to clearly understand the fundamental difference between websites and domains.

While domains (under .de) are registered with DENIC, websites are located on servers, and these are not operated by DENIC but by the respective domain holder or their provider. DENIC does not have access to these servers.

From this it follows that DENIC has nothing to do with either the contents or technicalities of websites accessible under .de domains. DENIC cannot determine the contents of websites, nor can it even influence them; they are not even saved on DENIC's own servers.

From this alone, it is already clear that DENIC is not in a position to do anything to prevent the spread of a particular website. And this is why DENIC has no obligations in this respect, as has also already been confirmed explicitly in a court judgement.

It is possible that the registration or use of a domain infringes the rights of others. DENIC makes it quite clear in its Domain Guidelines and Domain Terms and Conditions that it is your duty, before you register a domain, to check whether this domain might infringe any rights. Apart from that, of course, it is in your own interest, to perform such a check, since if, in the final analysis it turns out that your domain does infringe the rights of others, you will, in case of doubt, find you have problems with the holders of those rights, resulting in the loss of the domain.

In order to find out if other people might have conflicting rights, the least you can do, for instance, is the following:

Firstly, you should see if there are any (trade)marks that are identical or similar to your domain that have been registered or applied for with the German Patent and Trademark Office (Deutschen Patent- und Markenamt , DPMA). You can find that out from the information center of the patent office, through a commercial (trade)mark search service or with the assistance of patent attorneys or lawyers.

Secondly, you should check whether companies that are identical or similar to your domain have been entered in the commercial register. This sort of search is already available online, at least partially. Apart from that, you might find that institutions such as a German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Industrie- und Handelskammer, IHK) would be able to assist you or, again, you could turn to a legal professional.

Thirdly, it is advisable to make use of the other search facilities available, such as Internet search engines, commercial registers or even the Yellow Pages.
If you find out that someone else might also have a right to the domain, you must do what a court of law would do in the event of litigation, namely, weigh up whose right is greater, yours or the other party's. This is exceedingly difficult to do, since even court judgements in domain cases are partly contradictory. Reviewing these judgements, one aspect that usually seems to play an important role is "priority", which means establishing who has been effectively using a particular designation longer. Another important consideration is the public familiarity with the designations and/or their users.

If there is any doubt - especially if you yourself feel apprehensive - you should most certainly obtain professional advice (from a lawyer, for instance, or from a patent lawyer, if trademark rights are an issue). In unclear cases, paying for specialist advice beforehand often costs a lot less than being sued later on by someone whose rights you had overlooked. You might also find it helpful to search for further information yourself (perhaps using the Internet) on matters such as court judgements.

It is possible for the registration or use of a domain to infringe the rights of others. DENIC makes it quite clear in its Domain Guidelines and Domain Terms and Conditions that it is your duty, before you register a domain to check whether this domain might involve infringing rights. Apart from that, of course, it is in your own interest, to perform such a check, since if, in the final analysis it transpires that your domain does infringe the rights of others, you will, in case of doubt, find you have problems with the holders of those rights, resulting in the loss of the domain.

In order to find out if other people might have conflicting rights, the least you can do, for instance, is the following:

Firstly, you should see if there are any (trade)marks that are identical or similar to your domain that have been registered or applied for with the German Patent and Trademark Office (Deutschen Patent- und Markenamt , DPMA). You can find that out from the information centre of the patent office, through a commercial (trade)mark search service or with the assistance of patent attorneys or lawyers.

Secondly, you should check whether companies that are identical or similar to your domain have been entered in the commercial register. This sort of search is already available online (at least partially). Apart from that, you might find that a German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Industrie- und Handelskammer, IHK) would be able to assist you or, again, you could turn to a legal professional.

Thirdly, it is advisable to make use of the other search facilities available, such as Internet search engines, commercial registers or even the Yellow Pages.

If you find out that someone else might also have a right to the domain, you must also do what a court of law would do in the event of litigation, namely, weigh up whose right is greater, yours or the other party's. This is exceedingly difficult to do, since even court judgements in domain cases are partly contradictory. Reviewing these judgements, one aspect that usually seems to play an important role is "priority", which means establishing who has been effectively using a particular designation longer. Another important consideration is the public familiarity with the designations and/or their users.

If there is any doubt (especially if you yourself feel apprehensive), you should most certainly obtain professional advice (from a lawyer, for instance). In unclear cases, paying for specialist advice beforehand often costs a lot less than being sued later on by someone whose rights you had overlooked. You might also find it helpful to search for further information yourself (perhaps using the Internet) on matters such as court judgements.

If you have been assuming that a particular domain was registered for you and that someone else has been registered as the domain holder from the very beginning, the first thing you should do it to check if you have entered into some sort of agreement (possibly with your provider, your advertising agency or even someone else) whereby another person was to be named as domain holder and not you. If that is not the case, you'll have to resolve the matter directly with the other party registered as being the domain holder.

It might well be worthwhile applying to DENIC to have a DISPUTE entry placed on the domain, making it impossible for it to be transferred to anyone else. DENIC cannot do anything for you in this situation, since the person registered has become the domain holder in fact, even if something different was perhaps agreed with you or at least if that had never been your intention.

The first thing you should do is to make sure that there isn't a sound reason for the change in the domain holder. It might be that you have concluded an agreement of transfer or that either you or DENIC has terminated the Domain Contract (perhaps because a court judgement against which there is no appeal has gone against you). If that is not the case, you should next contact your provider and request an explanation and/or a reversal of the change. Sometimes such mistakes happen without any form of malicious intent, and they can be corrected immediately with little fuss and outlay. If your provider is unable to help you, you can then turn to DENIC to investigate the matter. You should send DENIC all the documents that might be helpful in clarifying the situation.

Fundamentally, holding a domain is inheritable, so the heir of the late domain holder replaces the deceased person. Such an heir will need to show evidence of the inheritance to their provider and will then be entered in DENIC's database as the new domain holder. The heir, of course, also has the right to delete the domain or to transfer it to someone else.

If you can submit appropriate documentary evidence of your rights, you can use the form provided by us to request information about the domain holder.

If you come to the conclusion that you have a right to the domain and intent to carry out a dispute about it with the domain holder, DENIC makes available the so-called DISPUTE entry to you.