WIPO urges tradename protection for new domains

June 2005

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is suggesting some safeguards to stop cybersquatters from grabbing trademark-protected names under new generic Internet domain names.

WIPO is recommending a "uniform intellectual property (IP) protection mechanism" to prevent illegal domain name registrations in any new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), the organization said earlier this week in a statement.

Its report, "New Generic Top Level Domains: Intellectual Property Considerations," was commissioned by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for overseeing the domain name system (DNS).