WIPO Handles its 25,000th Domain Name Case

Geneva, October 16, 2006
Press Releases PR/2006/464

In just seven years of operation, the caseload of the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) topped the 25,000 mark with a case that has just been decided. Since it launched its domain name dispute resolution services, the WIPO Center has resolved disputes under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and various other policies. The 25,000^th case related to a cybersquatting dispute handled under the UDRP in which the panelist ordered the transfer of the domain name <redlionhotels.com> to the trademark owner, the Red Lion Hotels chain.

In the period since the launch of its dispute resolution services under the UDRP in December 1999 through August 2006, 9,567 UDRP or UDRP-based cases (generic top level domains, gTLDs and country code top-level domains, ccTLDs) have been filed with the WIPO Center, covering 17,912 separate domain names involving parties from 136 countries.

These figures rise to 25,085 cases (please see Annex 1) when the caseload of the various ad hoc "sunrise" dispute resolution policies, designed to avoid the flood of cybersquatting cases generated by the initial introduction of domain names, namely .info Sunrise, .biz STOP, .name ERDRP and .mobi Sunrise cases, are taken into account. As these policies are applicable for a limited time, these cases are received on a non-recurring, one-off basis. With the exception of the cases in the .mobi domain, which has commenced only recently, all WIPO sunrise cases have been resolved. These so-called sunrise policies established procedures that offered trademark owners additional means to preempt and counter abusive and bad-faith registration of their trademarks as domain names within a specified start-up phase.

Most of the 9,567 UDRP and UDRP-based disputes concern international domains, with .com representing some 79% of names involved, followed by .net (11%), .org (6%), .info (2%), and .biz, .travel, .aero and .edu (jointly 2%).

Of the total of 9,567 UDRP and UDRP-based cases the Center has received through August 2006, 8,936 (97%) have been resolved. In the 7,011 decisions they have rendered, WIPO panels have found for the complainant in 5,842 (84%) cases and 1,112 (16%) were denied. The remainder of the resolved cases were settled by the parties.

The 9,567 UDRP and UDRP-based cases included 418 cases involving domain names registered in ccTLDs. Three hundred and eighty eight of these have now been resolved, through 240 decisions in favor of the complainant, 43 decisions in favor of the respondent and 105 settlements between the parties, with 30 cases still pending. The Center now provides services for disputes in 47 ccTLDs (full list available at https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/cctld/) such as .au (Australia), .ch (Switzerland), .co (Colombia), .fr (France), .mx (Mexico), and .tv (Tuvalu). The latest domain to join this list has been .es (Spain) in early 2006.

The Center also offers dispute resolution services for registrations in non-Roman ("non-ASCII") scripts such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic or Korean ("internationalized" domain names) and has so far received 60 complaints in relation to such names, of which six are pending. The number such cases is expected to increase in future. The Center has managed proceedings in 12 languages, namely, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

For background information on the UDRP and related information, please see https://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/prdocs/2006/wipo_pr_2006_435.html.

For further information about all the activities of the Center, please visit the Center's web site at https://www.wipo.int/amc/ or contact the Media Relations and Public Affairs Section at WIPO:

• Tel: (+41 22) 338 81 61 or (+41 22) 338 95 47;

• E-mail: publicinf@wipo.int

• Fax: (+41 22) 338 82 80.

Annex 1