According to WIPO, it aims ‘to create a stable environment for the further development of electronic commerce and safe guard the interests of owners of rights that are not necessarily based on registered trade marks’.
WIPO currently operates a dispute resolution service to settle conflicts between registered owners of domain names and trade mark owners who feel they have a right to a particular domain name.
Owing to the first come, first serve basis on which domain names are registered, the practice of cybersquatters registering well-known or desirable domain names in bad faith in order to sell them on has become relatively common.
The dispute resolution service offered by WIPO aims to be an efficient, quick and cheap means of settling such disputes. The news that WIPO is to extend its ambit from trade mark resolution to include a number of other matters has been warmly welcomed.
The new areas to be covered include:
- distinctive or famous personal names;
- unique and distinctive generic names of pharmaceutical substances;
- certain names of international intergovernmental organisations;
- geographical indications or terms; and
- trade names
Commenting on the new proposal, Mr Francis Curry, Assistant Director General of WIPO, noted that it “marks a new phase in our attempts to establish greater compatibility between identifiers in the real and virtual worlds".
He added that in examining personality rights and geographical indications, WIPO "will be embarking on a more complex, but no less important legal and policy terrain”.
