A new center to settle disputes over Internet domain names will be launched today by two chief arbitration institutions -- the Beijing-based China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center.

The Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center is the first dispute-resolution service provider in Asia authorized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to administer and provide neutral ground for disputes alleging registration abuses in the use of Internet domain names.

Liu Wenjie, vice-chairman of the arbitration commission, said disputes arising from domain-name registration abuses have been increasing and there is much room for expansion of the business.

The center is to provide a dispute-resolution service for disputed generic top-level domain names such as .com, .net and .org, according to Neil Kaplan, chairman of the Hong Kong arbitration center.

The Asian domain-name center provides a web-based online domain dispute-resolution system, which is designed to help quickly resolve disputes at a very economical cost.

The center, which has branches in Beijing and Hong Kong, is one of only four approved dispute-resolution centers in the world, two of the others being in the United States and one in Geneva, Switzerland. Some 7,000 disputes over top-level domains have been settled by the other three centers.

(China Daily February 28, 2002)