Cyber-Squatting Still On The Rise, Says WIPO

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

13 March 2007

According to figures published on Monday, the number of cybersquatting disputes filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2006 increased by 15% as compared to 2005.

In a related development, the evolution of the domain name registration system is causing growing concern for trademark owners, in particular some of the effects of the use of computer software to automatically register expired domain names and their ‘parking’ on pay-per-click portal sites, the option to register names free-of-charge for a five-day ‘tasting’ period, the proliferation of new registrars, and the establishment of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).

According to WIPO, the combined result of these developments is to create greater opportunities for the mass, often anonymous, registration of domain names without specific consideration of third-party intellectual property rights.

“While electronic commerce has flourished with the expansion of the Internet, recent developments in the domain name registration system have fostered practices which threaten the interests of trademark owners and cause consumer confusion. Practices such as ‘domain name tasting’ risk turning the domain name system into a mostly speculative market. Domain names used to be primarily specific identifiers of businesses and other Internet users, but many names nowadays are mere commodities for speculative gain,” noted Francis Gurry, WIPO Deputy Director General, who oversees WIPO’s dispute resolution work.

He continued:

“The rate at which domain names change hands and the difficulty to track such mass automated registrations challenge trademark owners in their pursuit of cybersquatters,” he said. “With domain names becoming moving targets for rights holders, due consideration should be given to concrete policy responses.”

The recently released figures showed that in 2006, a total of 1,823 (gTLDs and country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs)) complaints alleging cybersquatting – the abusive registration as domain names of trademarks – were filed with WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center, representing the highest number of cybersquatting cases handled by WIPO since the year 2000.

Recommended