Cybersquatters stayed busy last year, according to a new report from the World Intellectual Property Organization. Indeed, they set a record, and it looks like they’re on track to do so again in 2009.
Exactly 2,329 complaints were filed in 2008 under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). This represented an increase of eight percent over 2007’s levels and the continuation of a years-long trend. (MarkMonitor offered an even scarier take last week.)
WIPO Domain Name Cases
As for the future, ICANN’s getting ready to introduce new generic top level domains, and Francis Gurry, WIPO’s Director General, stated, “The creation of an unknowable and potentially vast number of new gTLDs raises significant issues for rights holders, as well as Internet users generally. Cybersquatting remains a serious issue for trademark holders. . . . [T]he sale and broad expansion of new top level domains in the open market, if not properly managed, will provide abundant opportunities for cybersquatters to seize old ground in new domains.”
Companies may do well to register domain names defensively, then, even if they’re quite happy with their existing networks of sites. Better to pay a small amount of money now than go through a huge hassle later.
Here’s one bit of good news, though: when it does come to a fight, the squatters usually lose. A full 85 percent of WIPO panel decisions favored the complainants in UDRP or UDRP-related cases.
