Domain Names: 10 Years of UDRP


On 12 Oct 2009 I attended the 10th anniversary conference of the UDRP at WIPO in Geneva. I did not post anything about it at the time because I was expected that there would be a good summary of the proceedings on the WIPO website. That has happened. If anybody wants to read it he or she will find it here.

A conference usually takes place at that time of the year for domain name panellists, but the papers read there are never published. This conference was an exception because it was open to the public. The full programme and all the presentations together with a video address from Francis Gurry, WIPO's Director-General, can be downloaded from "WIPO Conference: 10 Years of the UDRP - What Next?" There were some really lively debates to which I contributed.

My main point was on what seems to me to be a dilution of the notion of "bad faith" for the purposes of para. 4 (a) (iii) of the Policy and paragraph 15 (e) of the Rules on reverse domain name hijacking. I expressed my unease in my last two published decisions in D2009-1192 balenicaga.com and D2009-1410 balenciage.com.

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