The number of decisions under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – as well as the total number of domain names contained within those decisions – dropped in the third quarter of 2024. This represents the first decline since I began compiling and publishing this data more than four years ago.

The 10-year streak of record-setting filings under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) may come to an end this year, based on data obtained for this issue of GigaLaw’s Domain Dispute Digest, but the decline – if any – is likely to be inconsequential.

I recently interviewed my fellow UDRP panelist Professor Andrew Christie, chair of intellectual property at Melbourne Law School. He created the “passive holding” doctrine in only the second decision ever published under the UDRP, in 2000. The case, Telstra v. Nuclear Marshmallows, is truly a landmark decision because it addressed how a domain name not associated with an active website could be considered that it “is being used in bad faith,” as the UDRP requires.

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.

The number of domain name dispute filings has now risen for 10 consecutive years, as providers for cases under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) report ongoing enforcement efforts by trademark owners against cybersquatters.

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."

The number of domain names in decisions under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) increased by more than 18 percent in the third quarter of 2023, according to data from GigaLaw's Domain Dispute Digest.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won a decision under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) for the domain name mit-dot-gay. The case raises a few interesting issues, and it's one of only a very small number of disputes involving the dot-gay top-level domain.

In a decision under the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS), a panel ordered suspension of the domain name <curbyourenthusiasm.store>, which was being used in connection with a website that sold counterfeit merchandise from the Larry David TV show "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

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.