WIPO: UDRP 2012: Complainants Win 91%; Parties Settle 20% of Cases

Here are UDRP stats of cases filed under WIPO in 2012:

Trademark holders filed a record 2,884 cybersquatting cases covering 5,084 Internet domain names with the WIPO Center under procedures based on the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). This represents an increase of 4.5% over the record established in 2011.

Since the UDRP’s launch in December 1999, the WIPO Center has received over 25,500 UDRP based cases, covering some 47,000 domain names in both generic and country code Top Level Domains (gTLDs, ccTLDs).

The top three areas of complainant activity in 2012 were retail, fashion and banking and finance.

Of the gTLD cases filed with WIPO in 2012, three quarters (74.8%) concerned registrations in the .com domain, ccTLDs accounted for almost 12% of filings,

The increased filings related to fashion and luxury brands reflect in part a growth in the number of cases filed by brand owners alleging counterfeiting via the web pages offered under the disputed domain name.

Parties settled around one out of five WIPO cases before reaching panel decision. Applying UDRP jurisprudence, WIPO panels in 2012 found evidence of cybersquatting in 91% of all decided cases.