WIPO warns of problems to come with new top-level Internet domains

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is closely watching the process of introducing new Top-Level Domains (TLDs) to the Internet. TLDs are the final part after the last dot in an Internet address, such as .com or .net. Some of the new TLDs are aimed at non-English-speaking areas and this could cause problems, especially with trademark abuse.

In recent years, several new TLDs have been introduced, including various sponsored domains, requested and managed by trade bodies for certain specific sectors, such as .museum, .aero, .travel, .tel and .mobi. Currently, most of these focus on the English-speaking world, but new domains such as .asia are intended for use by large non-English speaking populations – a potential minefield for companies trying to protect their brand names. While most sponsored domains are limited – only companies in the air-travel business can register domains in .aero – domains such as .asia will essentially be open to anyone in that region.

WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center is already working hard. Since 1999, it has arbitrated over 13,500 domain-name disputes. In 2007, there were 2,156 from 96 countries, an 18 per cent increase on the previous year. As well as generic top-level domain (gTLD) disputes, WIPO also arbitrates disputes for 54 of the country-code ones (ccTLDs). Legal cases are brought to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) under its Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) procedure, based on a WIPO recommendation.

WIPO would like to see watertight "sunrise procedures" and a pioneer application period for the launch of the new domains, where before the domains are officially launched, trademark holders can reserve keywords associated with their brands.

ICANN and WIPO are going to be busy. Disputes that are currently fall within the jurisdiction of a single country will become international once it becomes possible to register domains such as ".cola" or even ".britain".

(lghp)