The Freename Forum

The International Trademark Association (INTA) spoke to Brian Beckham, Head of the Internet Dispute Resolution Section at WIPO, about the UDRP and its future, among other things.

Beckham has been with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) since 2007, initially at the Arbitration and Mediation Center, and since 2014 as head of the Internet Dispute Resolution Section, where he leads a team of 30 employees working on UDRP proceedings. In the interview, Beckham discusses, among other things, developments in the UDRP environment and highlights the divergence between the UDRP and the behavior of cybersquatters. The UDRP has remained unchanged since its inception, but the number of proceedings is increasing. The approximately 2,000 cases in 2007 were mainly concerned with pay-per-click advertising and there were some cases in which cybersquatters attempted to blackmail trademark owners. However, the methods used by cybersquatters have changed over the years. There are still a few pay-per-click cases, but nowadays we see more cases with high risks for brand owners, for example when a brand name is combined with an industry term or a term such as “login”, “HR” or “careers”. For example, cybersquatters occasionally register ordinary subdomains such as “hr.domain.tld” as the domain “hrdomain.tld”. This can be quite unpleasant for affected companies. Cases involving unauthorized resellers or the provision of services don't make it any easier for brand owners either: Beckham explains that in the past, when there were less sophisticated websites, it was easier for a brand owner to determine whether someone was using their brand fairly or whether they were crossing a line and giving consumers the false impression that they were authorized by the brand when they were not. With the increasing availability of website creation tools, it is becoming increasingly difficult for brand owners to control this. When asked about ICANN's revision of the UDRP, Beckham makes it clear: “We have long said: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And the UDRP is quite remarkable in that it was the first consensus policy that ICANN adopted. It's been working well ever since.”

When asked about the technologies used, Beckham explains that AI components are now also being used. These are currently being used to support the internal process management system. WIPO hopes to streamline and automate the process as much as possible, eliminating manual data entry and allowing them to focus on the legal added value. AI is inevitable these days. Its use can be found in the pleadings of the parties. For example, where the opponent used to provide simple explanations such as “my cat is called that, hence the domain name”, extensive legal explanations are now provided, which makes it more difficult for panelists to process the proceedings. Using AI to shape arguments in statements already works quite well today. The use of AI in the generation of decisions does not - yet - work, but could become possible in the future.

In the further course of the conversation, Beckham goes into more detail about the revision of the UDRP and the requirements of the new nTLD round. Another topic is the cooperation between INTA and WIPO as well as mediation services offered by WIPO, which trademark owners should be aware of. All in all, Beckham provides informative insights into the background work of WIPO, which is adapting its working structures to the changing times.

You can find the interview with Brian Beckham at:
https://www.inta.org/perspectives/inter ... n-beckham/