Domain Arbitration in 2010

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, WIPO was established in 1994 to offer Alternative Dispute Resolution options for the resolution of international commercial disputes between private parties, especially cross-border dispute settlement. The subject matter includes both contractual disputes (patent and software licenses, trademark coexistence agreements, distribution agreements for pharmaceutical products and research and development agreements) and non-contractual disputes (patent infringement). WIPO established an legal framework for the administration of disputes relating to the Internet and e-commerce.

WIPO is recognized as the leading dispute resolution service provider for disputes arising out of the abusive registration and use of Internet domain names both ccTLDs and gTLDs.

Year 2010 was the record braking at WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center with almost 2,700 domain disputes involving 4,285 domain names:

The total number of disputes at WIPO reached 19,409 involving 35,232 domain names from all around the world. In 2010 only 12% of all disputes were ccTLD related.

France leads ranking of top 10 "most popular" ccTLDs at WIPO, followed by Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland...

Number of disputed domain names since 2000.

In 2010, Colombia, a "new" ccTLD, has joined France, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland becoming Number "4". Colombia opened-up their extension (.CO) in 2010, and many disputes resulted just from TM infringements in the first days after the "big bang".