How did WIPO get involved in the resolution of disputes?
The Internet grew rapidly over the last decade as a place to do business, although no international legal standards existed to resolve domain name disputes. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for, among other things, management of the generic top level domains such as .com, .net and .org, was in urgent need of a solution to the dispute resolution problem. The process of negotiating a new international treaty was considered too slow, and new national laws would most likely be too diverse. What was needed were internationally uniform and mandatory procedures to deal with what are frequently cross-border disputes.
The Internet grew rapidly over the last decade as a place to do business, although no international legal standards existed to resolve domain name disputes. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for, among other things, management of the generic top level domains such as .com, .net and .org, was in urgent need of a solution to the dispute resolution problem. The process of negotiating a new international treaty was considered too slow, and new national laws would most likely be too diverse. What was needed were internationally uniform and mandatory procedures to deal with what are frequently cross-border disputes. With the support of its member States, WIPO – which is mandated to promote the protection of intellectual property worldwide – conducted extensive consultations with members of the Internet community around the world, after which it prepared and published a report containing recommendations dealing with domain name issue
