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Despite the National Arbitration Forum’s recent business decision to end administration of consumer arbitration under its Code of Procedure rule set, parties faced with domain name infringement who are seeking a significantly quicker and less expensive legal action than court can still file with the National Arbitration Forum.

Two weeks ago, the FORUM and its administration partner, Forthright, elected to voluntarily stop administering consumer arbitration disputes. This decision surrounds mounting internal and external costs and significant legislative and legal uncertainty about consumer arbitration, including a now settled complaint by the Minnesota Attorney General. The lawsuit was resolved in conjunction with the FORUM’s decision to cease consumer arbitration. Notably, the lawsuit did not allege that consumer arbitration proceedings administered by the FORUM were unfair; it took issue with the FORUM’s communications surrounding consumer arbitration administration.

The decision does not impact the FORUM’s administration of Internet domain name disputes, personal injury protection claims, and cargo disputes that are administered for the Internet Corporation of Assigned Name and Numbers, the State of New Jersey, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, respectively.

Domain name dispute cases, under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, follow established policies and rules. Cases are heard and decided by an independent panel of judges and intellectual property lawyers. Available to parties around the world, domain name dispute resolution proceedings can be conducted by Panelists in several languages including English, French, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese. Domain name dispute resolution is priced low, starting at $1,300, and is significantly shorter than litigation at around 50 days from date filed to date decided.

If you have any questions regarding domain name dispute resolution contact domaindispute@adrforum.com.

About the National Arbitration Forum (FORUM)
Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, the National Arbitration Forum is an international leader in arbitration and mediation services. An innovator in the industry, the National Arbitration Forum was appointed an approved provider of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 1999. Since then, over 10,000 domain name disputes worldwide have been filed through the National Arbitration Forum's state-of-the-art case management system, now optimized by Forthright. For more information, visit http://domains.adrforum.com.