It may sound like a broken record, but domain name dispute filings have hit another record in 2018, more than a month before the end of the year.

The Canada International Internet Dispute Resolution Centre (CIIDRC) has submitted a proposal to ICANN to become a dispute-resolution service provider for the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

In some cases, a disputed domain name may simply look like the trademark at issue, even if the domain name doesn’t contain the trademark or fall into any of the popular cybersquatting tricks.

Three months after implementation of the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center has expanded and updated its already helpful web page with important questions and answers about how the GDPR is impacting the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

In the past, contacting a domain name registrant was a pretty simple task: Look up the domain name's "whois" record and send an email to the relevant contacts listed there. But now that the GDPR has redacted names and contact information from many whois records, this is often no longer a straightforward task.

After a record-high year for domain name disputes in 2017, statistics from both the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Forum indicate that the number of disputes may reach a new peak this year.

In a Q&A on how the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) impacts domain name disputes, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has reiterated its intent to provide details about domain name registrants to trademark owners after a complaint has been filed under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

Thanks in large part to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) -- which I have previously discussed multiple times -- getting information about the registrant of a domain name has never been more challenging. So, knowing where to turn for the best "whois" records has never been more important.

Despite legitimate concerns over how the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will impact domain name disputes, there is good (albeit perhaps obvious) news: Trademark owners will still be able to file complaints under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

One way for a trademark owner to prove the "bad faith" element under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is to provide evidence that the domain name registrant has engaged in a "pattern of such conduct" -- a test that may be all but impossible to satisfy after implementation of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).