With a rising frequency, the Czech judiciary faces the necessity to deal with disputes involving domain names, registered in the top level domain .cz. Most of these disputes are cases of blunt domain name grabbing, or registration of domain names for speculative purposes. As the local registrar does not provide for an efficient dispute resolution mechanism, similar to UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy), and failing the attempts of a business solution of the matter, most domain name controversies end up in litigious proceedings with ordinary civil courts.

The Czech legal system does not specifically regulate legal aspects of domain names, and so it is up to the courts to develop doctrines how to deal with domain name cases on the basis of existing concepts, such as general civil liability, protection of trademarks and trade names and unfair competition.

In a recent ruling, the court awarded a monetary satisfaction, although modest, to a foreign company who has been a victim to domain name piracy. The monetary satisfaction has been awarded despite the fact that the registrant did not use the domain name for any specific illegal purpose other than preventing the rightful owner from its registration, and despite the fact that the registrant was a natural person involved in a field of business different from that of the plaintiff.

In another ruling, the court ordered the defendant to refrain from using the domain name, and imposed upon the defendant the obligation to transfer the registration of the domain name to the plaintiff. Remarkable in the ruling is the satisfaction of the plaintiff's claim to have the domain name transferred, since it has been controversial until recently whether the claim to remove an illegal state of affairs may encompass not only abandoning an illegal domain name registration, but also its transfer to a legitimated party.

Both rulings were based on trademark infringement and unfair competition and show a clear tendency of the Czech courts to combat speculative registrations of domain names and other acts of domain name piracy. Nevertheless, many issues concerning the system of domain name registration remain unresolved, such as the extent to which the local registrar is bound by court rulings handed down in proceedings to which the registrant was not a party.

The system of registration of domain names is a subject matter of an animated debate in the Czech professional public and there are signals that this debate might result in some fundamental changes in the whole system.

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