March 27, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The number of cases of “cybersquatting,” the act of registering trademarks on the Internet for financial gain, has risen considerably in the past three years, said the World Intellectual Property Organisation (wipo.int) on Thursday.
The organization’s arbitration and mediation centre received a record 2,156 complaints in 2007, 18 percent more than 2006 and 48 percent more than 2005. As a specialized agency of the United Nations, the WIPO strives to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property system.
“These increases confirm that ‘cybersquatting’ remains a significant issue for rights holders,” says Francis Gurry, WIPO deputy director general.
As the domain name registration system continues to evolve, the act of cybersquatting has become a growing concern for trademark owners around the world, said the agency. Cybersquatting cases “reflect current trends and upcoming events,” listing Facebook, MySpace, Stella McCartney and J.R.R. Tolkien as the top targets of abusive registration.
One in 10 complaints stemmed from pharmaceutical companies, because of the “numerous permutations of protected names” registered for websites that offer or link to online medication sales. The next largest group of claims came from the banking and finance industry, followed by Internet and IT.
The most complaints came from the United States which had 40 percent of the total number of complaints, while France and Britain followed in second and third place, respectively. On the other hand, the highest number of culprits came from US, Britain and China.
About a quarter of decisions were settled without a panel discussion, said WIPO. Of the remaining cases, 85 percent of panel decisions called for a transfer of the domain names to the complainant, while 15 percent of the decisions resulted in the registration holder being allowed to keep the domain name.
The agency added that trademark abusers are using privacy services to hide such abusive registrations. Combined with the increase in trademark abuse, this raises significant issues about new domains to be announced for the end of this year.
