Lessons and questions from WIPO’s UDRP statistics

22-06-2016

Gareth Dickson

Lessons and questions from WIPO’s UDRP statistics

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A review of cybersquatting filings at the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2015 provides some food for thought for brand owners, who need to make their voice heard as ICANN conducts a review of rights protection mechanisms. Gareth Dickson of Cooley reports.

Statistics released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reveal a slight rise in the number of Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) complaints filed with the provider in 2015 compared to the previous year. The increase is explained in part by the continued expansion of the domain name system (DNS) under ICANN’s new generic top-level domain (gTLD) programme.

A closer look at these statistics together with other contextualising data reveals insights into cybersquatting trends, as well as which countries have the most litigious brand owners and those whose residents are accused of the most bad faith registrations

A review of similar statistics for the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) allows participants in ICANN’s review of its rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) to identify the upward and downward trajectories of the UDRP and the URS respectively, and to consider their responses to those trends.


Gareth Dickson, Cooley, WIPO, brand, ICANN, TLDs, gTLD,

WIPR