WIPO Caseload Summary
1. Mediation
The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has received over 80 Requests for Mediation.
The mediations administered by the Center relate to patent disputes, software/IT, copyright issues, trademark issues (including trademark coexistence), telecommunications, employment issues in an intellectual property context, consultancy and engineering disputes, and domain name disputes. Most of these mediations were based on contract clauses; only 5 cases were submitted to WIPO mediation as a result of a submission agreement once the dispute had arisen. WIPO mediations have involved parties based in different jurisdictions including Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Amounts in dispute have varied from Euro 20,000 to several hundred million USD.
The Center makes available a number of case examples and a detailed step-by-step description of the development of one of them.
2. Arbitration
The Center has received over 110 Requests for Arbitration.
The subject matter of the arbitration proceedings includes patent infringements, patent licenses, telecommunications purchase and license agreements, software licenses, distribution agreements for pharmaceutical products, research and development agreements, trademark co-existence agreements, consultancy agreements, art marketing agreements, joint venture agreements, as well as cases related to domain name disputes.
WIPO non-domain name arbitrations have involved parties based in different jurisdictions including China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Panama, Romania, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The venues of the arbitration proceedings include France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States of America and the proceedings have been conducted in several languages that include English, French and German.
Amounts in dispute have varied from USD 20,000 to several hundred million USD. The remedies claimed in arbitration proceedings have included damages, infringement declarations and specific performance.
The Center also makes available some examples of arbitration proceedings.
3. Domain Name Administrative Dispute Resolution Procedures
The number of cases administered by WIPO under Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) procedures exceeds 15,800. Together, these administrative proceedings have involved parties from 150 countries and some 28,000 Internet domain names. The Center makes available full statistics about domain name filings, outcomes and geographical distribution of parties.
The UDRP applies primarily to international domains such as .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz. and .mobi. In addition, 60 country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) have now appointed the Center as service provider for their domain name disputes.
Apart from UDRP cases, the Center has administered over 15,000 cases under Sunrise policies relating to registrations in the start-up phase of new domains.
The Center makes available, free of charge on its website, a number of resources, including an online Legal Index of WIPO UDRP Panel Decisions offering structured access to WIPO UDRP Panel decisions.
