WIPO's Internet domain name arbitration process:
Can it meet the challenges of the trademark and the cybersquatter?

Erik Wilbers, Acting Director of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva.

Wednesday 5 December 2007

1:00 to 2:00 pm, including time for questions

Room 162, level 1,
New Faculty of Law building , UNSW lower campus (near Roundhouse),
Kensington, Sydney
Map: http://www.unsw.edu.au/maps/kensington.pdf (reference F8)

Abstract:

Trademark owners expect that their trademarks will be protected from what they regard as the unprincipled attempts of others to trade on their good name; others – not only "cybersquatters" in the strict meaning of the word – say that the internet should be free from restrictions.

Is this conflict just a piece of special pleading? How is this conflict resolved? Is the UDRP process adequate to resolve it? These and other questions will be tackled by the man who should know the answers – Erik Wilbers.

See also ZDNet story.

Mr Erik Wilbers is the Acting Director and the Head of the Domain Name Dispute Resolution Section of the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, Switzerland. The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center is an international provider of non-profit services for the out-of-court resolution of commercial disputes, in particular those arising out of technology and intellectual property transactions.

At the WIPO Center, Mr. Wilbers oversees the Center’s provision of resources to intellectual property stakeholders to help them achieve time and cost effectiveness in dispute resolution. Reflecting the growing importance of intellectual property, the Center manages an increasing number of arbitration and mediation cases filed by parties from different jurisdictions. The Center’s role ranges from the provision of clause advice to the appointment of appropriate neutrals and the safeguarding of the effiency of the proceedings.

WIPO cases mostly concern contractual disputes (e.g. patent and software licenses, trademark coexistence agreements, distribution agreements for pharmaceutical products and research and development agreements), but also include non-contractual disputes, for example in relation to patent infringement.

Entry is free, no need to book.
If you are coming from off campus, please RSVP to feedback [at] cyberlawcentre.org.