15 | 02 | 2019

EU Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights Published the Comparative Case Study on Alternative Resolution Systems for Domain Name Disputes

Photo: Freeimages.com/anna maria lopez lopez

The European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights at the EUIPO published a new study titled “Comparative Case Study on Alternative Resolution Systems for Domain Name Disputes”.

While the internet has provided numerous advantages to markets and consumers, the development of the internet has also led to the increased risk of intellectual property infringement. Trademarks are particularly susceptible to infringement because they can be incorporated into a domain name as text, which may lead to abuse of domain names. Due to the problems of efficient enforcement of intellectual property rights related to abuse of internet domain names, an array of possibilities to resolve disputes via the internet was introduced without the need for costly and time-consuming court proceedings as well as various domain name dispute resolution policies such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) established by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

This study deals with comparing the likely outcomes of ten selected dispute resolution policies (including the UDRP) for eleven theoretical case scenarios. The objective of the study was to identify key points of similarity and difference as well as to compare and contrast the key characteristics of each dispute resolution policy such as procedures, fess, durations and case statistics.

The study has concluded that the dispute resolution policies assessed are substantially similar to the UDRP (with the exception of the Danish Domain Complaints Board); therefore, the likely outcomes for the eleven theoretical case scenarios were substantially similar.

The results of this study should provide more clarity for intellectual property rights holders, domain name stakeholders and policy makers in respect of various characteristics of dispute resolution systems analysed.

The entire study is available through the following link, and a summary of the study in Croatian is available at the same link.