WIPO's Anti-"Cybersquatting" Service for .CN and
.中国 passes 100th case milestone
The WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center has received the 100th WIPO case under the dispute resolution policy for the .CN and .中国 (China) country code Top-Level Domain, two years after becoming the only non-Chinese entity to be accredited to provide this service. The case was filed by Chinese technology company Tencent against a registrant based in China and concerns five Tencent-related domain names, such as <tencentwechat.cn>.
WIPO’s designation as service provider took effect on August 1, 2019, through a “Letter of Authorization” presented by the Director General of China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). The .CN and .中国 domain is among the largest in the world and is open to registration by any person or entity.
In the two years since WIPO started receiving .CN and .中国 cases, the top complainant countries have been France, United States of America, Germany, China, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The most frequent filing entities in this space have included Bulgari, Facebook, Osram, Siemens, and Tencent.
The top complainant sectors in these cases have been Internet and IT, Fashion, Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals, Banking and Finance, Electronics, and Heavy Industry and Machinery.
Complainants’ principal reasons for filing their .CN and .中国 cases have been that the registrant opportunistically tried to sell the domain name to the brand owner, that the registrant tried to impersonate the brand owner, or that it used the domain name to advertise competing goods or services. Complainants prevailed in 96 percent of these WIPO cases.
“This filing milestone is another reminder of the need for continuing vigilance by trademark owners against abusive domain name registrations,” said WIPO Director General Daren Tang. He added “ The increasing reliance on the Internet to work from home, shop online, and engage with the world puts a premium on easily accessible trademark enforcement tools, such as the .CN and .中国 policy administered by WIPO.” Erik Wilbers, Director of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, noted: “ We look forward to continuing the collaboration with CNNIC, in the interests of rights holders, Internet users and other stakeholders in this important domain.”
As the leading global provider, WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center principally operates the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). The UDRP was created in 1999 by WIPO, and is used by brand owners around the world to combat abuse of their trademarks in domain names. As of today, WIPO has administered almost 54,000 UDRP-based proceedings covering some 98,000 domain names, and involving parties from over 180 countries. Total WIPO domain name case filing over the first eight months of 2021 is 23% up on WIPO’s caseload over the same period last year.
While the UDRP applies to all domain names registered in the international domains, such as .com, over 75 operators of national domains have adopted similar dispute resolution policies administered by WIPO.
Parties interested in WIPO’s .CN and .中国 domain name dispute resolution services should consult the dedicated WIPO webpage. WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center administers these cases in English as well as Chinese, and makes available WIPO Model Pleadings in both languages. The dedicated webpage also features a comparison table highlighting the differences between the .CN Policy and the UDRP.
Please contact the WIPO Center with any questions.