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World Intellectual Property Organisation
(Wipo) says cyber-squatting is on the increase, according
to figures from the World Intellectual Property Organisation
(Wipo).
The UN-backed Wipo received 2,156 complaints
alleging abusive registration of trademarks on the internet
last year, an increase of 18% over 2006 and 48% over 2005.
Pharmaceutical companies are the most frequent target, followed
by banking and finance.
Blaming new generic TLDs, such as .biz
and .mobi, is an implicit dig at ICANN, the not-for-profit
California-based organisation which oversees many internet
administration tasks, including name registration.
"The potentially useful purposes
of any new domains would be frustrated if these get filled
predominantly with automated pay-per-click content,"
said Francis Gurry, deputy director general of Wipo, who oversees
the organisation's dispute resolution work.
"It comes down to a question of
quantity versus quality. If the stated purpose of new generic
TLDs is to increase choice and competition in domain registration
services, due consideration must be given to ICANN's core
principles during the policy development work and implementation
plans.
"This is not just an issue of protecting
the rights of trademark holders, but an issue of the reliability
of the addressing system of the internet in matching interested
parties with authentic subjects."
The ongoing trademark abuse, reflected
in Wipo's rising caseload, raises concerns about the introduction
of a number of new generic TLDs announced for late 2008, according
to Wipo.
The UN has long maintained that it should
be responsible for overseeing the administration of the internet
, rather than ICANN which is perceived to be biased towards
the US
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