WIPO’s headline is misleading.

Today World Intellectual Property Forum (WIPO) did its annual release of how many UDRP cases it handled last year. It was a record 2,696 cases.

That’s a lot of cases, and National Arbitration Forum also saw an increase in cases this year.

But I take issue with WIPO’s headline:

Cybersquatting Hits Record Level

A more accurate headline would be Cybersquatting Enforcement Hits Record Level.

It reminds me of when the border patrol says “we’ve recovered a record amount of drugs crossing the borders this year.”

Is that because people tried to smuggle more drugs or because border patrol did a better job catching them?

I briefly analyzed the rise in UDRP cases when I wrote about this last month. A couple notes I made:

- While the number of cases was up, the ratio of cases to total domains registered has only been lower once in the past decade.

- The spike in cases can largely be attributed to a few mass filers using trademark enforcement companies. For example, Lego filed over 100 cases with the help of Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services. I should also note that Lego’s actions seemed to be directed at people who were selling Lego goods on these web sites — it seems to be less of a cybersquatting issue than an a counterfeit/unauthorized reseller crackdown.

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Related posts:

1. Cybersquatting Cases Fall in 2009
2. UDRP Cases Spike in 2010
3. Rate of Domain Cybersquatting Hits All Time Low

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