The law of domain names is one of oldest branches of cyberlaw, yet its mostly important part is not really 'true' law but rather soft law. The domain name system (DNS) is centrally administered by a non-state organization, the ICANN. It developed into a complex body with strong regulatory agenda. Basic information about ICANN and the DNS is summarized in this guide:

Mostly important for legal considerations about particular domain names are their top level domains (TLD). Legal regime of each domain name, including available procedures, can be determined according to them. In this course, we focus mostly on generic TLDs such as ".com" or ".org" and on a specific TLD ".eu". Complete list of TLDs is here:

Disputes about domain names with gTLDs are governed by the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) which is technically a part of a registration contract. Despite being not a 'true' law, it is the core source of rules for dealing with most of the disputes. Mostly important is Art. 4 that lays down substantive requirements for a successful complaint:

Procedures are governed by the Rules for UDRP that are supplemented by rules of particular dispute-resolution service providers. The dispute resolution acts as a sort of arbitration, yet it does not have all the properties required by the The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (as there is no actual arbitrary agreement between the two disputing parties).

Most important provider is the WIPO and its case-law is regarded as mostly relevant for all disputes regarding domain names under gTLDs.

.eu TLD has a bit different regime. There are two EU regulations that lay down registration procedures as well as the rules for dispute settlement.

These two regulations will be repealed from 13 October 2022 by the new regulation. There are some important changes but the issues that are relevant for our course (namely the substantive provisions for domain disputes) will remain unchanged:

ADR for .eu disputes is carried out by one approved dispute resolution provider which is the Czech Arbitration Court. It has its own case digest, but it also analogically applies established case-law of WIPO from UDRP proceedings.

Here is the presentation in Prezi: