The Freename Forum

WIPO recently presented its latest “WIPO Domain Name Report 2024” and announced that the number of proceedings remains high. However, it actually recorded a few fewer procedures than in the previous year 2023.

The report, which is short, concise and clearly laid out, includes a number of graphics to illustrate the developments and make the information clearer. According to the report, trademark owners from 133 countries initiated 6,168 proceedings under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and its ccTLD variants in 2024. This is the second-highest number of domain proceedings filed with WIPO since 1999. The number of cases shows the continued relevance and effectiveness of the UDRP in combating cybersquatting and fraudulent activities with domain names. Compared to 2023 with 6,192 proceedings, 2024 fell minimally to 6,168 proceedings. With 2,157 complaints, the majority of proceedings came from the USA, followed by France with 1,324 and the United Kingdom with only 422 proceedings. Germany initiated 198 proceedings. In terms of opponents, the data shifts slightly: the USA is again number one with 1,814 opponents, followed by China with 831 opponents and France with 353 opponents. Germany is also in 6th place here with 156 opponents.

The proceedings were conducted in a total of 18 different languages, with English leading the way with 91 percent of all proceedings. French is again in second place with a share of 3 percent, followed by Spanish with 2.3 percent and Chinese with 0.9 percent. The focus of the industrial sectors affected is basically evenly distributed across the first four places, with just over 400 proceedings each in retail, banking and finance, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals as well as internet and IT, and then - dropping to under 400 proceedings - heavy industry and mechanical engineering. Carrefour, the meta-platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp), Lego and other well-known brands filed the most complaints.

The report also lists the legal representatives of the complainants, who are generally more or less large law firms; only Doug Isenberg is listed as an individual lawyer under his GigaLaw firm. The report also provides information on the newly added country extensions that have been managed by WIPO since 2024 with their dispute resolution rules based on the UDRP: .ad (Andorra), .cv (Cape Verde), .lv (Latvia), .rw (Rwanda) and .sn (Senegal). This means that 85 country extensions are now participating in the WIPO program. For the country extensions .ai (Anguilla), .ae (United Arab Emirates) and others, WIPO recorded a significant increase in procedures, with .co (Colombia) in first place in 2024 - as in previous years - but this time followed by .ai and .cc (Cocos Islands). This is followed by Spain's .es as the EU country with the most procedures.

The “WIPO Domain Name Report 2024” provides a good overview of the developments in UDRP proceedings at WIPO. It should not be forgotten, however, that there are also The Forum and other accredited UDRP providers. Domain name lawyer Doug Isenberg includes these in his “Domain Dispute Digest” for Q4 2024, which we will be looking at in the coming weeks.

The “WIPO Domain Name Report 2024” can be found at:
https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/new ... _0001.html