Pitiful excuses for a DRS – it’s still not working!
I got a DRS notification recently. Fortunately the submission details were wrong and so it was invalid. But it gave me an excuse to look at the actual complaint and vent my anger/frustration at the still imperfect .uk DRS system and the glaring opportunity they missed when the system was reviewed recently.
The specifics of the complaint remain private. Suffice it to say that the complaint resolved around several premises:
1. That the domain was registered shortly after the expiry period.
Wrong – it was registered according to the standard release cycle when available. If your registrar has screwed up your renewal – including the 60 days suspension when the site would not resolve then your complaint is against the registrar, not the new registrant or Nominet.
2. That many years and millions of £££ have been put in to brand awareness.
Wrong – the main site is little more than an affiliate link site and part of a link farm.
3. The company has a global presence.
Erm – so what? A global presence does not confirm exclusivity. Even myspace don’t deserve that!
My point is that each of these innacuracies – and particularly false statements, could have been seen for what they were and the DRS case thrown out before acceptance and the time & effort taken to involve the plaintiff & mediators. It took me no more than 30 minutes to deconstruct their claim…
As part of the DRS review I recommended a DRS review panel which whould provide a type of ‘DRS firewall’ for complaints. It may have to cost ~£50-100 to submit a DRS for review but if accepted then this could be part of the final decision.
It’s simply the case now that any DRS can be submitted – including summary decisions – so long as it conforms to a template that is limited to style & length rather than content. Nominet missed a real opportunity to be progressive, and to provide a suitable and fit for use DRS system. When it still does not have. In the face of an ever increasingly competitive UK market where there is a demand for appropriate & premium domain names this is more than ever essential.
I’ve been at both sides of the DRS system, and I know just how much time & effort – personal and financial – it takes to defend a domain against a spurious claim. And in the light of this there are still outrageous mistakes that a ‘single’ expert makes in the final decision e.g. finecheeses.co.uk, that a DRS panel consisting of a mixture of Nominet members, mediators & experts would avoid in the first instance. It could even be done remotely by email etc.
