Thu 19. Dec 2024, 19:07
The Arab Center for Dispute Resolution (ACDR), founded in 2013, has ceased its work. It is the third dispute resolution center accredited by ICANN for UDRP disputes to end its work for Internet governance.
The ACDR was jointly founded in 2013 by the Arab Intellectual Property Mediation and Arbitration Society (AIPMAS) and the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP). These two non-profit organizations are chaired by H.E. Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh. The ACDR was the fifth ICANN-accredited active dispute resolution center worldwide and the first provider of uniform domain name dispute resolution guidelines in the Middle East and North Africa. The Board of Directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the application submitted by ACDR on May 18, 2013. The ACDR began its work in the same year. Over the years, unfortunately (or fortunately) hardly any proceedings have been filed before the ACDR. The “Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) Status Report - Policy Status Report” of March 2023 and its revised version of July 2023 show only nine proceedings at the ACDR up to and including 2020: four proceedings each in 2017 and 2019 and one proceeding in 2016.
Given this low workload, maintaining the ACDR appears to have made little sense. However, it is not possible to say whether this is actually the reason for the end of the ACDR: we were unable to find any information on this, nor on the exact date on which the ACDR was classified as a “Former Provider”. In any case, the ACDR website is no longer accessible and decisions can no longer be viewed directly. Three decisions can be accessed via archive.org. domain-recht.de discussed the ACDR's decision in the dispute over the domain spase.com in May 2021; no further discussions took place. In addition to the ACDR, which has ceased its work altogether (as has eResolution, which had already ceased its work before ACDR's accreditation), the “CPR: International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution” is no longer active for ICANN, but continues to offer dispute resolution in other areas. There are currently five active providers for UDRP proceedings: WIPO, NAF (Forum), CAC, CIIDRC (Canadian International Internet Dispute Resolution Centre) and the ADNDRC (Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre).
You can find an overview of the ICANN-accredited and “former” UDRP providers here:
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/p ... 2-02-25-enThe “Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) Status Report - Policy Status Report” can be found at:
https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/fi ... l22-en.pdf