The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) summed up the work of its arbitration body last year and stated that the number of filings received under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) has once again increased. Throughout 2023, WIPO arbitrators reviewed 6,192 complaints, an increase of 7% compared to the previous year. The statistics include complaints about domain names registered both in gTLDs and in national domain extensions that have granted WIPO the right to resolve domain disputes.
According to the Domain Incite, panelists of the World Intellectual Property Organization came down in favour on the side of petitioners in the vast majority of cases. About 82% of all complaints were satisfied last year. And refusals to satisfy accounted for only 3% of the total number of cases considered. The organization does not publish data on Reverse Domain Name Hijacking findings, but RDNH.com, which tracks these things, shows 31 RDNH finding at WIPO in 2023.
As for domain zones, .COM lead the pack. Domain names registered there accounted for 80% of all complaints. Among national domain zones, the leaders are the national domains of Colombia .CO, China .CN, Mexico .MX, Australia .AU and Anguilla .AI. The last of the domains is new to the leaderboard, but its appearance is not surprising given the enormous popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Moreover, the .AI domain zone showed the greatest increase in the number of domain disputes – more than 10 times. If in 2022 only 4 complaints were filed against domain names registered in this zone, then in 2023 - already 43. The absolute figure, of course, does not yet look threatening, but the dynamics are impressive.
