The Interpretation by the Supreme People's Court
for Several Problems of the Applied Laws on Hearing the Civil Dispute Cases Involving Internet Domain Name

(passed in the 1182nd session by the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court on June 26th ,2001) No.24 (2001)

In order to try the civil dispute cases involving the registration and application of internet domain name properly, according to the Civil Law of the PRC (CL for short), the Fair Competition Law of the PRC (FCL for short) and the Law of Civil Procedure of the PRC (LCP for short), the interpretations are made as follow :

Rule 1 For the civil dispute cases involving the registration and use of internet domain names, when the parties concerned institute legal proceedings to the people's court, the people's court shall accept and hear the cases when it is in conformity with Article 108 of LCP after the examinations.

Rule 2 Cases involving the infringement act of domain name shall be governed by the intermediate people's court in the delict or the defendant's living place. For those difficult to identify the delict or the defendant's living place, the site where the plaintiff discovers the computer terminal and etc. for the use of the domain name shall be regarded as the delict place.

Foreign-related domain name dispute cases include that when one or both of the parties are foreigners, stateless person(s), foreign enterprises or organizations, international organizations, or the domain names are registered in foreign countries. The foreign-related cases which happen in the PRC shall be governed by the regulation stipulated in Chapter 4 of LCP.

Rule 3 The subject of the domain name cases shall be determined according to the legal relationship which is under dispute between the parties concerned, and shall be named as "for domain name". When the legal relationship is difficult to determine, the case can be called "domain name dispute cases".

Rule 4 For the cases meeting the followings, the people's court, whilst trying domain name dispute cases, shall affirm that the defendant's acts of registering and using the domain name constitute infringement or unfair competition.

　(1)The protection for the civil rights and interests of the plaintiff is lawful and valid.
　(2)The domain name or its major component(s) of the defendant forms copying, imitation, translation or transliteration of the well-known trademark of the plaintiff; or it is identical or similar to the plaintiff's registered trademark and domain name, which would cause confusions among the relevant public.
　(3)The defendant does not enjoy the rights of the domain name or its major component, and has no sound reason to register and use the domain name.
　(4)The defendant bears bad faith for the registration and use of the domain name.

Rule 5 When the acts of the defendant meet one of the followings, the people's court shall affirm that the defendant bears bad faith.

　(1) Registering others' well-known trademark(s) as domain name(s) for commercial purposes.
　(2) Registering and using the domain names which are identical or similar to the plaintiff's registered trademarks or domain names for commercial ends, and intentionally creating confusions of the products and service offered by the plaintiff or the website of the plaintiff, and misleading users visiting their or other website.
　(3) Having intended to sell the domain name at a high price, rented it out, or used other means to obtain illegal profits.
　(4) He himself does not use or will not use the domain name after registration, but has a mind to prevent the person(s) who has /have the rights from registering the domain name.
　(5) Other acts of bad faiths.

When the defendant puts to the proof that his domain name has already obtained some notability before the dispute, and his domain name can be told from the registered trademark and domain name of the plaintiff; or he has other state of affairs to prove that there is no bad faith, the people's court shall not determine that the defendant has bad faith.

Rule 6 Trying a domain name dispute case, according to the request of the parties concerned and the concrete conditions of the case, the people's court can make a verification on whether the involving trademark is a well-known one.

Rule 7 Trying a domain name dispute case, the people's court shall apply the corresponding regulations when it falls into the conditions regulated in the above Rule 4 and constitutes the infringement. When the case is of unfair competition, the people's court can apply Article 4 of CL and Item 1, Article 2 of FCL to it.

Foreign-related domain name dispute cases shall be handled according to Chapter 8 of CL.

Rule 8 When the people's court determines the acts of registering and using domain name as infringement or of unfair competition, the defendant can be ordered to stop the infringement or/and withdraw the domain name; or, according to the plaintiff's request, the court can allow the plaintiff to register the domain name. When there are concrete damages to the person(s) who shall enjoy(s) the rights, the people's court can order the defendant to compensate for the damages.

LLA Note: The above Interpretation has been effective since July 24, 2001