The Resolution of Domain Names vs. Trademark Conflicts: A Case Study on Regulation Beyond the Nation State, and Related Problems

With the Internet a new kind of problem has emerged at the interface between a specific property right system traditionally protected by territory-bound approach and a new property right system requiring global protection. After three years of experience, an assessment of the Uniform Dispute Settlement Policy as the institutional solution established to solve domain name vs. trademark conflicts comes to an ambiguous result. While the sheer number of solved cases not only underlines the necessity of the UDKP but also its efficiency, statistical data on forum shopping activities of trademark owners and the strong bias of panel decisions in favour of trademark owners, together with the mandatory character of the UDKP and its self-executing decisions, present cause for serious concern, with questions of accountability and public control being most important. The UDRP shares this concern with a variety of self-coordinating, self-organising, and self-regulating private transnational institutions that claim quasi-public authority in a functionally specified sector of the global economy.