The year 2024 began just like the past 10 years have ended: with a record-setting number of domain name disputes under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). The newest issue (Q1 2024) of GigaLaw’s Domain Dispute Digest provides detailed data about the ongoing increase in UDRP cases, including a 27.52 percent spike in the number of disputed domain names.
A Decade of Record-Setting Domain Name Disputes
'Largely Unintelligible' UDRP Complaints
Drafting a complaint under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) may seem like a simple process – but it's not. In this video, Doug Isenberg discusses two cases lost by trademark owners where the panels referred to "poorly prepared submissions" that were "so sparse as to be largely unintelligible" and where a complainant "failed to offer arguments or evidence to support any of its contentions."
18% Spike in Cybersquatting: Domain Dispute Digest (Q3 2023)
How MIT Won <mit.gay> in a Domain Name Dispute
Curb Your Cybersquatting (with Larry David)
Hyphens in Domain Disputes: <l-e-g-o.com> and more
When it comes to resolving disputes under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), hyphens usually don't matter. For example, UDRP panels have found the domain names l-e-g-o.com, facebook-verifications.com, and bmw---deutschland.info were all confusingly similar to the obvious trademarks. Trademark owners should be aware of how cybersquatters use hyphens in online scams.
UDRP Case Study: When to Avoid Large Complaints
Consolidating multiple domain names into a single complaint under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) can be an incredibly efficient way for a trademark owner to tackle cybersquatters -- but this video discusses a case that makes clear why this practice is not always the right choice and needs to be taken seriously. Here, Doug Isenberg discusses why a UDRP panel at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) rejected a trademark owner's attempt to include 14 domain names in one complaint, forcing the trademark owner to expend additional time and money filing multiple complaints.
Domain Name Disputes Double Over Past Six Years
Only halfway through the year, the number of domain name disputes at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has already surpassed the full-year totals we were accustomed to seeing until recently. The 2023 total is on track to more than double the 3,074 domain name cases that WIPO handled in 2017, which, at the time, was already a record.