WIPO Advanced Workshop on Domain Name Dispute Resolution: Update on Precedent and Practice

David H. BERNSTEIN , a national of the United States, is a partner with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and a member of the firm’s Litigation Department, its Intellectual Property Practice Group, and its International Dispute Resolution Practice Group. Mr. Bernstein’s practice focuses on a wide range of intellectual property and unfair competition matters including Internet and domain name law, false advertising, trademark infringement and dilution, counterfeiting, copyright infringement, right of publicity law, misappropriation, trade secret law, and patent infringement.

Mr. Bernstein is past Counsel to the International Trademark Association (INTA), is an adjunct professor of law at New York University and George Washington University Law School, and was a former Co Chair of the Internet Law Subcommittee of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association (ABA). Mr. Bernstein has been a WIPO Domain Name Panelist since 2000.

Mr. Bernstein received a J.D. degree from Yale Law School, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an A.B. from Princeton University.

Tony WILLOUGHBY, a national of the United Kingdom, is a freelance IP Consultant and mediator, previously having been senior partner at Willoughby & Partners (now known as Rouse Legal) where he specialized in contentious and non-contentious intellectual property.

Mr. Willoughby has had the conduct of some patent infringement actions, but most of his work has been in the field of trade marks, passing off, copyright and confidential information. He has acted in many leading reported intellectual property cases and has been a WIPO Domain Name Panelist since 2000. He is also Chairman of Experts for Nominet UK.

Mr. Willoughby was admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in England and Wales, United Kingdom in 1970 and has mediation accreditation with WIPO and CIArb.

Luca BARBERO, a national of Italy, is a partner with Studio Barbero, a firm based in Turin, focusing on Domain Name issues and the protection of intellectual property on the Internet. He is also the Director of Barbero & Associates Ltd, a company based in London, specialized in the registration, management and monitoring of domain names worldwide.

Mr. Barbero advises multinational corporations operating in various fields, as well as international law firms on domain names registration strategy worldwide and Intellectual Property protection on the web. He has negotiated and dealt with over 3,000 cases of domain name abusive registration and assisted clients in litigation and arbitration in Italy and in other jurisdictions for Internet related matters since 1995.

Mr. Barbero has been a WIPO Domain Name Panelist since 2000, is a panelist at the Czech Arbitration Court and serves on different panels as Arbitrator and Mediator including WIPO and the Chamber of Commerce of Milan and Turin.

Mr. Barbero has a J.D. from Turin Law University and a Masters in International Business from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He is an Italian Trademark Attorney and European Trademark Attorney, admitted to practice before the Office for the Harmonization of the Internal Market. He is a Professor at the “Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Intellectual Property” organized by the WIPO Worldwide Academy and the Faculty of Law of the University of Turin, and at the “Internet Law Master” organized by the University of Padova and Professor and Member of the Support Committee of the “LL.M in International Trade Law” organized by the University Institute of European Studies under the auspices of the University of Turin (Italy).  He is also a regular speaker at other conferences and seminars on Domain Names and Mediation/Arbitration issues. He is a member of the ADR Committee of INTA, Cyberspace Team of MARQUES, IPC of ICANN and Internet Committee of ECTA.

Angela FOX, a dual American and British national, is a partner with RGC Jenkins & Co. and a member of its Trademark and Dispute Resolution groups. Ms. Fox’s practice focuses on contentious and non-contentious intellectual property matters including the protection and enforcement of rights in trademarks, copyright and designs, including infringement, passing off, Internet and domain name issues and litigation.

Ms. Fox is a solicitor and higher courts advocate and has been a WIPO domain name panelist since 2002. She is also an attorney-at-law in the state of New York and a registered UK trademark attorney. She serves on the Laws & Practice Committee of the UK Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys and represents the Institute on the users committees for the Patents Court and Patents County Court. She also serves on the AIPLA Committee on IP Practice in Europe and has written and spoken on IP topics in numerous fora, including the AIPLA and the European Intellectual Property Review.

Ms. Fox received an LLB (Hons) from the University of London, an M.St. from the University of Oxford (Keble College) and a BA (Hons) from Washington College.

Matthew HARRIS, a national of the United Kingdom, is a Partner at Waterfront Solicitors LLP. Prior to joining this firm, he was a partner in the IP and IT department of Herbert Smith in 2000 and joined Norton Rose in 2003 where he subsequently became the head of Intellectual Property and Information Technology dispute resolution.

Mr. Harris is experienced in all aspects of intellectual property, information technology, Internet law, data privacy and freedom of information work. Matthew initially trained as a general commercial and intellectual property litigator and although he has extensive experience of both contentious and non-contentious IP and IT work, his practice retains a contentious focus.

Mr. Harris is a recognized expert in domain name law and practice, has been appointed by WIPO, Nominet and the Czech Arbitration Court to decide domain name disputes and he also sits on the Czech Arbitration Court domain name advisory board.

He is a visiting lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich in Switzerland and is the UK contributor to, and a general editor of, the International Trademark Association’s Annual International Review of Trademark Jurisprudence and Volume II of its annual Trademark Law Handbook. Matthew also sits on INTA’s International Amicus Committee.

Andrew D. S. LOTHIAN, a national of the United Kingdom, is Chief Executive of Demys Limited. Mr. Lothian has over twenty years of experience in legal practice both in litigation and intellectual property. He co-founded Demys Limited in 1999, a company that has been instrumental in pioneering the concept of Internet Intellectual Property Management. Demys Limited provides corporate domain name management services to many leading rights owners.

Mr. Lothian has been involved in Internet domain name matters for over fifteen years and personally handled the first Scottish domain name dispute before the Commercial Court of the Court of Session together with the world’s 6th largest domain name acquisition by value (IF.com). Mr. Lothian has been a WIPO Domain Name Panelist since 2002. He has been a serving Expert on the UK Internet Naming Authority’s (Nominet) Dispute Resolution Service Panel since its inception in 2001 and is a member of the Czech Arbitration Court's ADReu panel.

Mr. Lothian has an LL.B and Diploma in Legal Practice, both from the University of Edinburgh, and was enrolled as a Solicitor in Scotland in 1990. He has spoken internationally on e-Business and domain name issues since 1998 and is actively involved in the ICANN process.

Richard G. LYON, a national of the United States, has concentrated on technology and technology-driven transactions in the U.S. and Europe for the past thirty years, most recently as of counsel to a start-up law firm in Dallas, Texas. Previously Mr. Lyon was a member of corporate and litigation departments of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Mr. Lyon also served as Vice President and General Counsel of the United States subsidiary of Ericsson Inc., with principal responsibility for legal and governmental affairs for U.S. and Canadian operations.

Mr. Lyon concentrates his corporate practice in the areas of outsourcing, structure and financing of the acquisition and exploitation of intellectual capital, such as licensing, joint ventures, and strategic alliances. He also advises U.S. and foreign clients on general corporate and finance transactions and distribution matters and assists clients in litigation involving intellectual capital. Mr. Lyon has been a WIPO Domain Name Panelist since 2000.

He now resides in Bozeman, Montana, and has been expanding his work in mediation and dispute resolution.

Mr. Lyon is an active member of the Dallas Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, and The Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Mr. Lyon received his law degree from Harvard University in 1971 and a bachelor of arts from Haverford College in 1968.

William R. TOWNS, a national of the United States, is a Partner at Novak Druce Conolly Bove + Quigg LLP, and also serves as the Firm’s General Counsel. Mr. Towns is an experienced attorney and mediator. His litigation and dispute resolution practice concentrates principally on intellectual property, with an emphasis on trademarks, domain names, unfair competition, and copyrights, and encompasses commercial litigation and other international and transnational disputes.

Mr. Towns is a WIPO Neutral, a member of the INTA Panel of Neutrals, and of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, as well as other international, national and local dispute resolution organizations, including the Global Collaborative Law Council, the Association of Attorney-Mediators, and the Texas Association of Mediators. He has served as a WIPO Domain Name Dispute Resolution Panelist since 2003.

Mr. Towns received his J.D. degree from the University of Houston in 1980 and his undergraduate degree in Government from the University of Texas in 1977. He teaches courses in International Business Transactions and International Intellectual Property as an Adjunct Professor of Law at St. Mary’s University Law School in San Antonio, Texas.