| Cybersquatters may find their days are numbered now that an arbitration service run by the U.N. is cracking down on the practice of registering famous names for Internet sites.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United Nations copyright and trademark agency that runs the arbitration service, said almost 600 cases have been filed with its global online arbitration service since its creation in December. Nearly 300 have been filed since April alone.
“The rising number of alleged cybersquatting cases shows the growing premium placed on domain names by companies and individuals operating in the wired environment,” said Francis Gurry, WIPO assistant director general.
Gurry said the United States, the world’s largest wired market, represented more than half of all the complainants so far with 299 cases, and half of all the respondents with 332. Of the 179 decisions made so far, 147 led to the transfer or the eviction of the alleged cybersquatter, WIPO said. | 