Digital Dispute Resolution: Internet Domain Names and WIPO's Role

Abstract

For several years now, WIPO has played a leading role on issues involving Internet domain names and their relationship to intellectual property rights. One area, in particular, has received a great deal of attention during the last year: the establishment of a new international dispute-resolution procedure available for trademark holders to resolve their domain name disputes. The article elaborates the background of WIPO's dispute-resolution services under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), poses this dispute-resolution system as a model for the future, and outlines several issues concerning domain names where there is more work to be done.