SlideTheWeb - Slidemark Slot Registration Rules and Procedures

Chapter I: Terms used in the Slidemark Registration Rules and Procedures

The following terms in these Slidemark Registration Rules and Procedures (hereinafter referred to as: Rules) shall have the following meaning:

Slidemark: One or more words

Slot: An entry in the Slidemark database.

Registry: The whole of systems and organisation maintaining the Slidemark Slots and data.

URL: A hyper link address.

Webslider: Our main search engine system for retrieving and presenting image search results as well as the presenting of Slots and their content.

Global Slider: The Webslider system for Trademark based (priority) Slidemark Slots and world search engine results.

Regular Slider: The Webslider system for categorised Slidemark Slots containing both Trademark based and normal Slidemark Slots.

Registration: Recording of data required for designating Slidemarks to Slots.

Applicant: An entity or natural person having submitted an application for registration of a particulair Slidemark.

Registrant: An entity or natural person wich has succesfuly been designated one or more Slots.

Administrative contact: Representative of the Registrant in administrative matters relating to the Slidemark.

Complainant: A party having lawful interest in establishing that the designation of a particular Slidemark Slot violates the Rules and Procedures.

Complainee: a Registrant whose Slidemark Slot is asked to be established as violating the Rules and Procedures.

Application Form: The online request form for submission of an application for registration.

Chapter II: Rules for the application for and the registration of a Slidemark Slot

1. Application for the registration of a a slidemark slot

1.1. Criteria with regard to the Applicant

1.1.1 Registration of Slidemark Slots on the Regular Webslider may be applied for by any natural person or organisation world wide.

1.1.2 Registration of Slidemark Slots on the Global Webslider may be applied for by any natural person or organisation in posession of valid documentairy trademark evidence for that particulair Slidemark of wich the trademark was registered prior to 1 august 2006 or applied for before that date.

1.1.3 For each available trademarked based Slidemark a person or organisation is allowed to apply for one Slot per region. The regions are divided by IP address reference similair to the country area's.

1.2 General rules for the registration procedure

1.2.1 Initiating the registration of a slidemark slot

1.2.1.1. Such Registrant is entitled to apply for the registration of a slidemark slot as has obtained the respective right on the basis of a contract with the Registry who proceeds on the basis of the relevant mandate from the Registrant.

1.2.1.2 The conclusion by the Applicant in writing of a contract with the Registry on the application for registration is a precondition for registration. The application shall be entered by the Registry in the Records. The Application Form itself shall be regarded as a contract on the application for registration subject to the terms and conditions in the Rules. In case of disputes the conclusion of the contract on the application for registration shall be proved by the Applicant. The lack of contract on the application for registration shall result in the immediate termination of the slidemark slot.

1.2.1.3 Slidemark slots shall be registered upon genuine application for immediate use only. Applicant shall provide for the required fulfilments as early as of the date of filing the application of the requirements stated in the Rules.

1.2.2 The Application Form

1.2.2.1 It is a pre-requisite for the validity of the application that the Applicant provides on the Application Form all the mandatory data genuinely and correctly in terms of form and content as well.

1.2.2.2 In case of Application for a Global Slidemark Slot the Applicant will submit the documentairy trademark evidence by uploading them in digital form after submitting the Application.

1.2.2.3 The Registry shall shall keep such records as credibly verify the fact of receiving the Application Forms and the sequence (time) thereof.

1.2.2.4 The Registry shall keep the documents filed with the application or in electronic archives and at least increasingly safe documents for one year upon the termination date of the contract.

1.2.2.5 In accordance with the registration habits on the Internet, the Registry shall handle publicly and make available to anyone any information stated on the Application Form. Applicant or Registrant shall be liable to obtain the approval for public handling of data of other persons named on the Application Form.

1.2.3 The documentairy evidence upload form

1.2.3.1 The following restrictions are imposed on uploaded files:

i) the filename of an uploaded file is not to exceed 30 characters wich include the extention as well as the dot in the extension.

ii) the minimum required resolution of the scanned document is 150 DPI.

iii) the maximum filesize allowed per upload is 8 MegaBytes.

1.2.4 Submission requirements

1.2.4.1 - An Application is officialy submitted once:

i) - the Application information is succesfully submitted using the online form, and

ii) - the required document or documents are uploaded, in electronic form as specified in Chapter 2 article 1.2.3.1, with the last (or only) document in the upload marked as 'the final document', and

iii) - when payment fee for the requested registration and maintenance is received in full

1.2.4.2 - The Applications that meet the requirements in Chapter 2, article 1.2.4.1 are considered closed and ready for processing. The Registry will process these Applications in sequence of marking date and time (the date and time when the Applicant marks and uploads the final document).

1.2.4.3 - Applications that do not meet the requirement in Chapter 2, article ii) will be pending the uploading of the document or documents and marking till fourteen days after the submission of the Application form.

1.2.4.4 - Applications that do not meet the requirement in Chapter 2, article iii) will be pending the payment till fourteen days after the submission of the Application form. In this case the date and time of payment will mark the Application closing date and time.

1.2.4.5 - Applications that do not meet the requirements in Chapter 2, article 1.2.4.1 fourteen days after date of submitting the Application will be deemed as revoked and deleted from the system.

1.2.5 Honouring the application

1.2.5.1 The Registry shall immediately inform the Applicant of any problem in the administration of the application (e.g. objection to the name selection, etc.) and shall handle the problem in consultation with the Applicant as required by the Rules.

1.2.5.2 The Registry shall process the applications submitted by the Applicant and conforming to the Rules in three business days upon the date of receipt. In the event the Registry notices that the application submitted is incomplete or contradicts the Registration Rules and Procedures, then it shall return to the Applicant notice specifying the reason.

1.2.5.3 Fourteen days shall be available to the Applicant for completing the documents or revoking the application. Should the Applicant fail to enter any of these steps in the records, the application will be automatically deleted by the computerised system of records.

1.2.5.4 If the application can be honoured, the registration will be recorded and the following data shall be registered in the appropriate databases:

1.2.4.6 - For revoked Applications wich are not in processing at the time of revocation the deposited fee will be returned not including any intermediate tranfer costs .

i) name of the slidemark,

ii) the particulars of the registrant and the applicant.

1.2.5.5. The Registry will perform pre-screening (Application validation) of Global Slidemarks with respect to the conformity of the Slidemark selected in relation to the corresponding Trademark. In case that the data submitted in the Application does not match the data stated in the documentairy trademark evidence or the Trademark ceased to exist or the Trademark turns out to be invalid or expired for the selected region then the Application will be rejected.

1.2.5.6 It is the Registry's goal to serve Trademark owners with a Global Slidemark Slot for protection or exploitation of the Trademark in a specific region. Should in certain exceptional cases the Registry refuse to honour the application for that region, it can not be called to account.

1.2.5.7 The Registry shall not refund Applications for wich the verification procedure has been initiated by completing the Application (after uploading the final documentairy evidence).

1.2.5.8 - For revoked Applications wich are in processing at the time of revocation but not yet completed the deposited fee will be returned not including any intermediate tranfer costs and minus the validation fee.

1.3 Procedural rules for registration of Global Slidemark Slots

1.3.1 Such applications shall be accepted for the Global Slider where the selected Slidemark matches the trademark as a series of characters (word or words as the full text protected of textual trademarks or the full text shown on the illustration of graphical trademarks) registered in favour of the Applicant or in favour of the beneficiary party authorising the Applicant.

The Slidemark selected and the denomination (without or with all accents) stated in the document forming the basis of priority shall agree character by character. Names consisting of multiple words can be applied for if they are written as one word or spaced. The following may be omitted from the full or abbreviated name of entities:

i) words and marks relating to the form of business (e.g. llc. ltd., partnership, association),

ii) any and all characters not allowed in Slidemarks (see Chapter 2, article 2)

iii) characters included in the name of the entity which can not be part of a Slidemark may be transcribed into their equivalent meaning in local language, or a foreign language written in Latin letters, with or without accents, or may be omitted.

1.3.2 Documents evidencing the basis of priority :

a) the trademark deed made out by a local Patent Office, or

b) the trademark deed made out by WIPO

c.) the trademark deed made out by the European Community Trademark Office (Community Trademark CTM).

1.3.4 Applications for the same Slidemark shall be honoured according to the closing dates of the Applications as compared to one another.

2. The Slidemark

Some policy rules will be applied to assure that common words that the Slidemark may consist of will be preserved throughout time.

• The word or words may not be similair to the formal name of a national designation of origin unless documents can be submitted wich proof the valid right to use the word or words or the right to act as a representative for that designation of origin. Eg. 'New York' is not allowed but 'TheBigApple' is.
  

• The word or words should not conflict with any existing trademark right. Use may therefor possibly be allowed if not for the application of commercial exploitation.
  

• The word or words will be matched in lower and uppercase. The allowed characters are A to Z and 0 to 9 as well as the single quote (' ) the ampersand ( & ) and the whitespace character ( ). Doublequotes and other non allowed meta characters will be replaced with whitespaces. The maximum number of characters allowed is 64 including whitespaces.
  

2.1. Formal requirements relating to the Slidemark

2.1.1 Slidemarks shall consist of at least 2 characters up to 64 characters. (It is recommended to select Slidemarks consisting of at least 5 characters up to 10 characters).

2.1.2 The characters that can be used in Slidemarks are;

a) the letters a to z including the accent of the Latin alphabet (a-z), furthermore

b) numeric characters (0-9), furthermore

c) the ampersand ( & )

d) the single quote ( ' )

e) the whitespace character (   )

f) and the hyphen character ( - )

2.1.3 Only letters or numeric characters may be at the beginning and at the end of the Slidemark. The Slidemark shall not contain two non-alphabetical or non-nummeric characters following each other immediately.

2.2 Other criteria relating to the Slidemark

2.2.1 The Applicant is free to select the Slidemark Slot to be registered within the framework of law in the selected region and the Rules and Procedures, at the same time the Applicant shall act with utmost care in selecting the Slidemark so as the Slidemark selected by the Applicant and the application for and the use of it shall not violate the rights of other persons or entities (e.g. the right of exclusive names, the right of privacy, the right of the dead, copyrights, etc.). Applicants shall be expected to check the commercial register or the trademark database.

2.2.2 No such Slidemark may be selected and used as, in terms of its meaning and/or use, is suspected of being

a) illegal, or

b) shocking, horrifying, or

c) delusive.

2.2.3 No such Slidemark may be selected as belongs to the reserved or blocked names published on the web server.

2.2.4. To keep the slider system clean from unwanted material we reserve the right to remove, without notification, any material, or reference to material, that is unlawful, harassing, libelous, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, racially offensive, inaccurate, or otherwise objectionable material of any kind or nature or that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law or regulation, or encourage the use of controlled substances.

2.3 Liability for Slidemark selection

2.3.1 Liability

a) for the selection, meaning and use of a particular Slidemark and Slot as well as for the consequences thereof,

b) for the lawfulness of Slidemark selection and use of it in a Slot,

c) for damage caused to third persons by the Slidemark selection or use of it in a Slot

shall lie with the Applicant or the Registrant exclusively

2.3.2 The Applicant or Registrant shall

a) exercise appropriate care in selecting the Slidemark and the contents of his or her Slot and verify his or her selection for legality prior to the application,

b) voluntarily give up the Slidemark Slot if the use of the already activated Slidemark Slot violates the rights of others in spite of the careful action,

c) substitute the Registry if another person wants to enforce claims against the Registry in connection with the selected Slidemark or, if there is an obstacle to doing so, provide them with every help in defending against the claim,

d) relieve the Registry from any costs arising out of any legal dispute, damage or claim in connection with the Slidemark Slot thereto, out of the activation and registration process, the selection, meaning or the use of the Slidemark and Slot, and shall do everything so that the interests of the Registry are not prejudiced.

2.3.3 The Registry, acting in this capacity, shall not be held liable for any damage caused to a third person by the selection or the use of the Slidemark and Slot provided that the provisions in the Rules and those in the contract with the Applicant or the Registrant have been complied with.

2.3.4 The Registry shall not be held liable for checking the lawfulness of the selection and the use of the Slidemark and Slot and the compliance thereof with the Rules upon the application or during the use.

2.3.5 The Registry can not be expected to decide whether the selection or use of the Slidemark and Slot is lawful or not. The Registry shall not be held liable for refusing to perform the registration or activation or for suspending or revoking the registration of an already activated Slidemark Slot if such a Slidemark Slot is selected as evidently and clearly violates the law.

2.3.6 The Registry shall fulfil the final court decisions relating to the selection or use of the Slidemark and Slot even if it is not party to the action. The Registry shall not be held liable for fulfilling the decision, final and binding resolution or such a resolution as is declared enforceable on a preliminary basis

Chapter III: Maintenance of a Slidemark Slot

3. Maintenance of a Slidemark Slot

3.1 Maintenance of a Slidemark Slot is subject to the Registrant having a valid entry in the Registry, furthermore to the terms and conditions of the then current Rules being complied with by the Registrant. The Application Form itself shall be considered a contract on the maintenance of a slidemark slot subject to the terms and conditions of the Registry.

3.2 The Registry may subject the Slidemark Slot maintenance service to the payment of charges.

3.3 When a trademark ceases to be valid it is required by the owner of the account to remove the Slidemark Slot, based upon the trademark, from our systems within 3 businessdays and so ending its activation period and related services.

3.4 During the activation period the Registrant shall comply continuously with the terms and conditions set out in the then current Rules.

Chapter IV: Termination of slidemark slot

4. Cancellation of a slidemark slot

4.1 If the Registry decides to terminate the contract on the Slidemark Slot maintenance, it shall notify the Registrant or Administrative contact thereof and enter the fact of termination in the Records.

5. Suspension of a Slidemark Slot

5.1 The Slidemark Slot shall be suspended if

a) it is required in the enforceable resolution or final judgement of the court,

b) the law enforcing organisations communicate a good cause to suspect crime in the selection of the Slidemark,

5.2 The Slidemark Slot may be also suspended if

a) the Registrant fails, in spite of being called to do so, to provide for the conformity of the Slidemark Slot to the requirements defined in the Rules,

b) the Slidemark and/or the use of the Slidemark Slot causes trouble in the operation of the Internet or causes harm to its users,

c) the Registrant fails to pay by the reasonably designated date the registration or maintenance fee to the Registry in spite of being called to do so.

5.3 During suspension the technical service of slidemark slot is stopped but the person of the Registrant remains unchanged.

6. Deletion and revocation of a Slidemark Slot

6.1 The Slidemark Slot shall be deleted if

a) the Registrant gives up the Slot management by virtue of its fully conclusive statement or a statement contained in a public instrument addressed to the Registry,

b) suspension has taken place pursuant to article 5.2 a) , b) or c) and the reason for the suspension has not been eliminated within 45 days upon the beginning of suspension,

c) the Registrant has died or has wound up its business without any legal successor,

d) the application of the entity for getting entered in the records or for registration has been rejected on a final and binding basis,

e) the Slidemark Slot has been revoked.

6.2 The Slidemark Slot shall be revoked if

a.) a statute or the final and binding judgement of the court establishes the unlawfulness of the selection of the Slidemark and/or usage of the Slot,

b) it is so required by the court decision and the Registrant fails to prove to the Registry within 30 days upon the date of delivery of the decision that it has applied to a court,

c) the data provided or the documents presented by the Registrant were not genuine at the time of application or the application should have been rejected on the basis of genuine data or documents, or the change in documents recorded in the Records has not been announced by the Registrant and thus it has breached its obligation contained in the Rules,

d.) in the event specified in article 1.2.1.2 the contract on application for a Slidemark Slot and/or the contract on maintenance turns out to be missing or the Registrant is not able to prove that it has concluded such a contract originally.

6.3 Deletion of Slidemark Slot shall be followed by a moratorium of 60 days in cases specified in articles 6.1. b) during which only the former Registrant or - in case of article c.) - his or her heir or the beneficiary in the statement on transfer may file a new application to release the Slidemark Slot.

6.4. If the Slidemark Slot is revoked pursuant to article 6.2.a) , b) or c), the deletion of slidemark slot shall be followed by a moratorium of 60 days, during which period application for the released Slidemark Slot may be submitted solely by a party upon the request or to protect the interests whereof the revocation has taken place.

7. Transfer of Slidemark Slot

7.1 The Registrant may transfer his or her respective rights to a new Registrant provided that

a) the new Registrant concludes a new contract on Application for the Slidemark Slot according to the terms and conditions of the Application as contained in the Rules with the Registry who enters it in the Records and starts the new procedure, and

b) the new slidemark slot does not contradict the provisions of the Rules.

7.2 Decision on transfer of the Slidemark Slot to the Applicant may be made by court. Except for those specified in article 8.2, the Registry shall not verify the fact of pending proceedings as that shall be certified to the Registry by the party proceeding with the Registry against the transfer of the Slidemark Slot. Even in case of a decision or resolution with such content the Slidemark Slot may be transferred only if the conditions prescribed in article 7.1 are forfilled by the party obtaining the right to use the Slidemark Sslot as a result of the transfer.

7.3 In case of transfer the contract with the former Registrant shall be discontinued. The transfer shall enter into force as of the date the new Application is completed and fully verified.

Chapter V: Legal disputes

8. General rules

8.1 In disputes arising between the Applicant and the Registry in connection with conformity to the Rules the opinion of the Registry shall be decisive.

8.2 The fact of legal dispute on a Slidemark Slot shall be entered by the Registry in the Records on the basis of the request by the party initiating the legal procedure or on the basis of the court decision.

8.3 The Complainant can object to the activation of a Slidemark Slot, as announced publicy on the web server of the Registry as is designated there, the Complainant may do so by contacting a legal aid to initiate a legal dispute towards the Applicant of the Slidemark Slot.

8.4 The Registry shall submit herself to the decision made in accordance with these Rules or by the court decision.

8.5 The Registry shall implement the decision of the court within 30 days upon the receipt thereof.

8.6 The Registry shall not be held liable for executing the court decision.

9. Administrative contact

9.1 The Applicant or the Registrant shall have the obligation to designate an administrative contact person to represent him or her in matters relating to the Slidemark Slot and registration as well as the maintenance and use of the Slidemark Slot.

9.2 The Applicant or the Registrant shall be regarded as the administrative contract unless they have provided otherwise. Should the Applicant or the Registrant authorise another person, they shall be responsible for ensuring that such an authorised person undertakes the consequence thereof.

9.3 The Registry shall be notified by the Registrant or the administrative contact himself or herself of any change in the person or the particulars of the administrative contact. The Registry shall not be liable for damage arising out of the failure to notify the Registry of the changes.

9.4 Such natural or legal person may be designated as administrative contact if is able to communicate in the English language. .

9.5 Official notices and calls addressed to the Applicant or the Registrant shall be sent to the Administrative contact's (and/or Registrant's) e-mail address or postal address entered in the Records. It is his or her own responsibility to update the addresses contained in the Records so that he or she is immediately informed of the notices and calls addressed there. The Registry shall not be liable for damage arising out of the failure of notification if the administrative contact can not be reached at the address contained in the Records.

10. Miscellaneous provisions

10.1 The Applicant or the Registrant shall save and hold the Registry harmless from any cost arising out of any dispute, damage or claim relating to the Slidemark and/or usage of the Slidemark Slot for himself or herself or to the activation and registration proceedings, to the selection or meaning of his or her Slidemark or use of his or her Slot, and do otherwise his or her best to save the Registry from suffering any prejudice to their interests. The Registry shall not be held liable for compliance with the Rules and for implementing the decision of the court.

10.2 Administration in the course of slidemark registration shall be performed usually by way of e-mail (electronic mail) or facsimile. Until proved to the contrary, notices sent by e-mail or facsimile shall be deemed as received by the addressee. E-mails generated in the communication between the parties in connection with slidemark slot administration shall be considered an instrument in writing and authentic even for the lack of qualified electronic signatures as the contents thereof - until proved to the contrary - are identical to the original, without changes, having the grounds for reference thereto by any of the parties.

10.3 The Applicant and the Registrant shall be liable to give immediate notice to the Registry of any changes in their particulars upon the occurrence of such changes. If the Applicant or the Registrant is an entity having started its operations prior to being entered in the Records or being registered, it shall be liable to notify the Registry immediately upon receipt of the respective judgement of the fact of being entered in the records or being registered or of the fact of the final judgement rejecting the respective application..

10.4 In the course of the registration procedures (application, amendment, termination, transfer, etc.) the Registry shall examine the rights or the identity of the concerned parties (Applicant, Registrant, transferor, beneficiary, administrative contact person, etc.) to the extent expected thereof, based primarily for private individuals an entities as beneficiaries of trademarks on the instrument evidencing the protection of trademark,

Where the Registry finds it necessary, then for the sake of safety in judging upon the applications for transfer or major modifications it may ask for an instrument identifying the Registrant or other document certifying the respective rights.

10.5 Wherever Rules or Registration Rules and Procedures are mentioned in a contract or any other instrument, they shall be understood to mean these Rules and Procedures as described in this document.

10.9 For Slidemark Slots activated earlier, the lawfulness of activation shall be judged according to the Rules in effect earlier.

These Registration Rules and Procedures, taking into force as of October 30, 2006, were adopted by the resolution of the SlideTheWeb board of members.