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WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center had to conduct a total of 2,156 arbitration proceedings concerning so-called “cybersquatting” in 2007. That was almost 18 percent more than in 2006 and the highest number since the introduction of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) in 1999. “This increase shows that cybersquatting remains an important issue for rights holders,” says Francis Curry, WIPO Deputy Gneral Director. The planned introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) could exacerbate the cybersquatting problem further, the expert suspects.
Almost half the domain complaints in 2007 came from the USA, which also accounted for the most respondents at more than 40 percent. The total number of proceedings reached its highest level ever in 2007, representing an increase of almost 50 percent compared with 2005. Problems involving domains using brand names could, however, worsen further as early as 2008 through the introduction of new gTLDs planned by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) http://www.icann.org online, WIPO warns.
“The potentially useful purposes of any new domains would be undermined if they were filled primarily with automated pay-per-click content,” Curry says. This concern appears to stem not least from the phenomenon of “domain tasting”. This exploits a five-day period within which domain registrations can be cancelled free of charge, for example in the USA. Fraudsters use this period to make money from advertising-only websites on domains with names that are actually protected. Because of the time constraints, the WIPO Center generally cannot even be called upon under the UDRP in such cases. ICANN, for its part, has now announced that it intends to tackle domain tasting at least through financial measures.
To protect against cybersquatting, trademark owners are often advised to register the corresponding domains under various top-level domains. If the number of TLDs rises significantly, however, this approach would become a major cost factor because of the annual cost of domain registration. “With 500 TLDs at an average of 20 euros per year, that would add up to a considerable sum,” says Richard Wein, managing director of Austrian registry nic.at, in an interview with pressetext. Expert estimates of how many new TLDs will appear in the next few years are up to a factor of ten higher. Wein also stresses that large companies in particular often have many brand names to protect.
The UDRP applies particularly to generic TLDs such as .com, .org and .mobi, and this area also accounted for most cases in 2007. Of a total of 3,549 disputed domain names, 93 percent fell under gTLDs, and almost three quarters of those involved .com domains. By contrast, of more than 200 country zones (ccTLDs) on the Internet, only 51 fall within the WIPO Center’s jurisdiction, although these include some major European ccTLDs such as .fr, .es and .pl, as well as the Swiss domain .ch. The share of complaints relating to these ccTLDs remains small at seven percent overall, but has risen over the years. (
