Cybersquatters beware. The World Intellectual Property Organisation is launching a new offensive against people who try to hijack Internet addresses.
While efforts have so far focused on the misleading use of trademarks in domain names, WIPO said on Monday it would start consultations on protecting other intellectual property rights such as trade and personal names and geographic regions.
"In examining personality rights, geographical indications and (the other areas) we will be embarking on a more complex, but no less important, legal and policy terrain," said Francis Gurry, assistant director general of the Geneva-based WIPO, a United Nations agency.
The United States, Australia, the European Union and others had all asked the WIPO to tackle the problem.
The discussions aim to expand the ability of bodies like the WIPO to arbitrate in cases of cybersquatting -- when net users register Internet addresses including famous names or trademarks in the hope of making a fast buck by selling them "back."
WIPO expects to submit a final report to its members and the Internet community in April 2001. Members must then approve the report before expanded arbitration capacities can take effect.
Uniform Dispute Procedure
WIPO last year helped put in place a Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy which has been the basis for settling conflicts about trademarks on the Internet since December 1999.
Groups that have evicted cybersquatters through the new procedure include the World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Christian Dior and Nike.
The approval process for the fast-track procedure took about 18 months, with the backing of all 175 WIPO members.
Gurry told a news conference that 2,000 cases had already been filed this year, 800 of them with WIPO.
Arbitrators have 45 days to resolve a case. If the panel then orders a registrar to transfer a domain name, the affected party has 10 days to challenge the decision in a competent court agreed by both sides.
But efforts to stamp out abuse beyond trademarks are tricky because the legal basis is not as clear.
WIPO will have to address the protection of everyday personal names, corner-shop trade names and a multitude of geographic indications -- the names of places that have a product associated with them, such as Roquefort for cheese or Bordeaux for wine.
"These areas are very complicated legally because, unlike trademarks, there is slightly less uniformity in the various national approaches to these areas," Gurry said.
"When you have greater diversity on the national level, it is more difficult to find a uniform approach."
WIPO has already helped actress Julia Roberts win back her name from a cybersquatter, because the arbitration panel ruled she had common law trademark rights to her name. Pop star Sting also has a case pending for the site sting.com.
Share