GEOGRAPHIC IDENTIFIERS IN DOMAIN NAMES―NO SPECIAL PROTECTION AT THIS TIME

摘要

The use of geographical identifiers, such as the names of cities, municipalities, provinces, and towns in domain names has become a hot topic over the past few years among World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Member States and Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) panels. As city and municipal governments seek to establish homes on the Internet, they may learn that their names have already been registered as a domain name. A growing number of cities have taken their cases before UDRP panels, only to discover that the UDRP, as originally drafted, was not designed to provide relief where a trademark was not at issue. In this article, we review the major UDRP decisions involving city names. In all but one case, cities have lost their UDRP complaints against domain name registrants.