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Access to Advocacy Online: Domain Name Defense

Jennie DalBusco

The Harvard Defenders Clinical offers free defense services to clients at the clerk-magistrate level in the state of Massachusetts. The program is extraordinarily well run and organized to offer hands-on advocacy and client-interaction experience to law students of all levels. At the same time, the Defenders program provides the Boston/Cambridge community with a valuable service and is just one of the ways Harvard Law School demonstrates its commitment to the public at large.

Inspired by my experiences in Defenders, I want to extend this model to assisting the Internet community with advocacy in UDRP domain name. This fits within the Chilling Effects agenda as well as the greater aims of the EFF, and offers immediate hands-on opportunity to students at HLS to practice in dispute resolution, international law, intellectual property, advocacy basics, etc.

The details and parallels in operationalizing this project are in the ppt presentation, attached. The cases would be submitted by claimants and defendants, and reviewed by intake officers. Team leaders would review cases for their own interests (e.g., strong interest in trademark or strong interest in first amendment rights / IP rights, strong interest in international law, etc.), and select ones that they wish to work on. Given the pace and turnaround on UDRP cases, students would receive swift feedback while providing advocacy in a forum where a JD is not required.

Legal resources are scarce, and this project would (in my vision) build eventually into a networked organization with branches in other law schools. We are unlimited in what we can do, and will be providing a tremendous resource to the Internet community.

 
 
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The Berkman Center for Internet & Society