Intellectual Property Law

WIPO: Cybersquatting Hits Record

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

The number of cybersquatting complaints reached a record in 2008, the World Intellectual Property Association reported Monday.

Geneva-based WIPO, which is charged with resolving such disputes, said there were 2,329 complaints filed with the WIPO Administration and Mediation Center last year. That's an 8 percent increase from the year prior.

And the numbers are likely to skyrocket as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is expected to launch new top-domain spaces by year's end.

"Cybersquatting remains a serious issue for trademark holders. Supported especially by registrar and registry stakeholders, the 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," Francis Gurry, WIPO's general director, said in a statement.

In the last decade, when the WIPO commenced the dispute process, there have been 14,663 cybersquatting case covering 26,262 domains.

The WIPO said 30 percent of all cases were settled prior to decision. About 85 percent of the cases favored those filing the complaint.

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Full post as published by Threat Level on March 16, 2009 (boomark / email).