WIPO cases UP, theft UP, hijacking UP. Have a nice day.

[Gerry]

A fabulous article that leaves little doubt regarding what we are witnessing - an increase in WIPO cases, domain theft, and reverse hijacking.

This article makes some startling points and some incredible numbers.

Such as;

What % does the claimant win the WIPO decision?

From DNJournal, compiled by Ron Jackson

Pingdom.com just published an interesting article analyzing the upsurge in WIPO disputes over the past five years. They found that the number of WIPO cases has doubled since 2003. That reversed a trend from 2000-2003 that saw disputes dropping each year.

While Pingdom posits that the introduction of Google Adsense might be the key factor in the increasing number of domain disputes I think a bigger factor has been the steady rise in domain values that began in late 2003. When mainstream media started reporting on the domain boom, awareness of the high value of good domains became far more widespread. That prompted legal experts in our annual State of the Industry reports to predict that WIPO cases would shoot up as covetous parties looked for ways to get their hands on those valuable assets without paying market value for them.

In our January 2006 report, attorney Ari Goldberger noted, "We witnessed a big increase in domain name disputes in 2005 as the increased value of domains justified the associated legal costs. There were also more attempted reverse domain name hijackings and domain thefts. Domain owners need to make protection of their domains a primary part of their business strategy, being careful to avoid collisions with parties that own trademarks identical or confusingly similar to their domains. That means being careful to avoid PPC links for products sold by such trademark owners or their competitors. In 2006, as ecommerce continues to grow internationally, there will be more and more disputes of all kinds involving domain names - the real estate and storefronts of the Internet."

Pingdom's new report shows how prescient Goldberger was when he made those comments almost three years ago. Since complainants have won 85% of WIPO cases even those with flmsy claims are emboldened to make a run at domains they would like to take from current owners.

[acesfull]

Many of the cases that are won by complainants are for legitimate infringements. Many so-called "domainers" think it's okay to register domains referring to established brand and product names.

On the other hand, many disputes are bogus. There are a number of different complainant types, including but not necessarily limited to these...

1) The Misguided Complainant - who thinks he or she has a legitimated right to the domain, when in fact they don't.

2) The Unsure Complainant - who thinks he may or may not have the right to your domain, so, they spin the UDRP wheel of fortune anyway.

3) Those who know they don't have a legitimate right to the domain, but will take a shot, hoping they can fool the arbitration panelists into a favorable decision, or win by default if the respondent fails to respond at all.


It's also pathetic, when someone hires a schlock-lawyer to file a UDRP, and the schlock-lawyer fails to advise their client that they don't have a legitimate claim, but are glad to collect their fee to file the case, knowing its totally unfair to the domain owner and the chances of winning are a long shot at best. It's that kind of abuse that ultimately, and greatly, raises the price of quality domains, that are clear of trademarks, to domain buyers who want to establish new sites, products, companies and brands.

[jasdon11]

Over the past year I've lost two WIPO's - in one case I offered the complainant's lawyer's the names if they covered my reg fees as I didn't feel they had a clear cut case, but the names were non-productive. They went to WIPO instead.

The other case, I offered them the name FOC as it was a blanket registration of a .info name (amongst approx 150 names that I reg'd that day) that got some traffic. They went to WIPO instead.