WIPO launches paperless UDRP proceedings

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: Even as going green has become the buzzword of the day in the backdrop of the debate on climate change and the Copenhagen Summit, the World Intellectual Property Organization, (WIPO) said it is is launching paperless procedures in matters relating to domain name dispute from today.

The decision of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center to launch essentially paperless Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) procedures removes the requirement for mandatory filing and notification of paper pleadings in WIPO cases filed under UDRP, it said in a statement.

This latest development of the UDRP is expected to substantially improve the efficiency of the mechanism by reducing the time and cost involved in submitting WIPO UDRP filings and to save up to one million pages of paper filed per year making it a greener and largely paperless procedure.

While this leaner, more efficient procedure will become mandatory from March 1, 2010, ICANN in an announcement dated December 7, 2009, has signaled that UDRP providers may begin accepting electronic filings with immediate effect as long parties also have the option of submitting hard copies.

WIPO said the modified rules arose from a WIPO Center proposal made to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) in December 2008. Following an ICANN public comment process on the proposal in August 2009 which reflected broad support from UDRP stakeholders, an amendment package was submitted by WIPO to ICANN in September 2009.

The statement said these modifications to the rules governing the UDRP were approved by the ICANN Board at its Seoul meeting on October 30, 2009 with an implementation process subsequently announced by ICANN on December 7, 2009.

The UDRP provides trademark owners with an administrative mechanism for the efficient resolution of disputes arising out of the bad-faith registration and use by third parties of Internet domain names corresponding to those trademark rights.