NEWS WIPO data reveal cybersquatting rise and record patent filings
Te World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has announced a record number of cybersquatting cases for 2011 and a 10.7 percent rise in the number of patent applications.
Te number of trademark holders filing cybersquatting cases with WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center under procedures based on the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) rose to 2,764—an increase of 2.5 percent on 2010, and 9.4 percent on 2009.
Cybersquatting refers to the practice of bad faith registration, trafficking, or use of a domain name to profit from someone else’s trademark. Te UDRP, introduced in 1999, allows trademark holders to resolve domain name disputes outside the courts. To have a domain name transferred or suspended under the UDRP, a trademark holder is required to prove that the disputed domain is confusingly similar to its trademark, that it is used in bad faith and that the domain holder has no legitimate interest in that domain name.
Cases filed in 2011 involved complainants and respondents from 110 countries. US complainants filed 929 cases—more than any other country— followed by France with 300 and the UK
with 244. Te majority of cases (17.8 percent) concerned retail but the Internet and IT, and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, also ranked highly. WIPO also received the first UDRP case concerning the new .xxx domain. Complainants included a range of household names such as Nestlé, Microsoſt and Volkswagen.
With the increase in the number of generic top level domains (gTLDs) such as .com underway, a further rise in cases is expected in 2012. Speaking at a press conference, WIPO director general Francis Gurry said: “Tese UDRP filing trends illustrate that even under today’s domain name system, brand owners already have to make difficult choices for their stretched
online enforcement resources. With the domain name coordinating body, ICANN [the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], allowing for a massive increase in the number of new domains, brand owners’ resources will likely be stretched further.”
Record patent filings
WIPO also reported a record increase in patent applications. Tere were 181,900 international patent filings under the WIPO- administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) last year—10.7 percent more than in 2010. China, Japan and the US accounted for 82 percent of the growth and the top applicant was Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corporation, which filed for 2,826 patents.
With 48,596 applications, the US was the top filing country, followed by Japan, Germany and China. Russia and Brazil recorded double-digit growth, but the number of patents filed by the UK was down by 1 percent. Te top-ranking industries were digital communications, followed by electronic machinery and medical technology. n
10 World Intellectual Property Review March/April 2012
www.worldipreview.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76