On Monday, October 12, 2009, the World Intellectual Property
Organisation’s Arbitration and Mediation Centre - internationally
recognised as the leading institution in the resolution of domain name
disputes - will host a Conference in Geneva, Switzerland to mark the
tenth anniversary of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
(UDRP).
Adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) at the initiative of, and with drafting and implementation
assistance from WIPO, this quick and cost effective dispute resolution
procedure has met with great demand. Since December 1999, the WIPO
Centre has administered over 30,000 proceedings, of which over 15,000
under the UDRP or UDRP-related policies.
The UDRP applies to disputes in the generic top-level domains (gTLDs)
(e.g., .com, .net , .org, .mobi), as well as an increasing number of
country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). The UDRP provides holders of
trademark rights with an administrative mechanism for the efficient
resolution of disputes arising out of the bad-faith registration and
use by third parties of Internet domain names corresponding to those
trademark rights.
The Conference will seek to draw lessons from the UDRP experience of
the WIPO Centre, panellists, parties, and other stakeholders, with a
view to informing similar or other processes in the future of the
Domain Name System and in the broader context of intellectual property.
What are the defining features of the UDRP and how have these
performed? Which of these would lend themselves to the resolution of
other types of disputes in relation to the digital or physical world?
What role is information technology playing in these processes? How
have the fact patterns and decision principles evolved in the course of
so many WIPO UDRP cases? What are the connections with dispute
resolution processes under consideration for the approval and operation
of new Top Level Domains, including post-delegation and expedited
suspension mechanisms proposed by the WIPO Centre? Are there lessons to
be learned for and from other alternative dispute resolution
procedures, such as Arbitration, Mediation and Expert Determination?
The provisional Conference Programme is available at www.wipo.int/amc/en/events/workshops/2009/10yrs-udrp/program/.
Among the participants of this event will be numerous WIPO domain name
panellists. The Conference should also be of interest to intellectual
property counsel, UDRP and Domain Name System stakeholders, as well as
authorities and individuals concerned with the implementation of
dispute resolution mechanisms.
The faculty for this Conference will consist of prominent names in
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and the Domain Name System,
including a number of experienced WIPO UDRP panelists. Full profiles of
the faculty will be made available at
www.wipo.int/amc/en/events/workshops/2009/10yrs-udrp/profiles/index.html.
The conference will be held at WIPO Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland
and run from 9.00 to 18.00. A cocktail will be offered after the
Conference and the conference language will be English.
The conference will be limited to 250 persons and the conference fee will be CHF500.
For more information and registration details see:
wipo.int/amc/en/events/workshops/2009/10yrs-udrp/index.html