What is the World Intellectual Property Organization?

Helping to "encourage creative activity" since 1967

The Headquarters of the WIPO in Geneva, Switzerland

WIPO

The WIPO is an international organization of the United Nations whose purpose is to aid in the protection of intellectual property. This, they believe, helps “rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest."

One of the ways that WIPO does this is through their Arbitration and Mediation Center, which is located in Geneva, Switzerland. They mediate and bring resolution to property disputes brought by commercial entities

For more information on intellectual property, please read my Hub: Types of Intellectual Property and Legal Protection

What is the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and how does it work?

The UDRP is essentially the set process for resolving internet domain name disputes. It has been established by ICANN (which stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a quasi-government organization based out of Marina Del Ray, CA). Before registering a domain name, the party registering “must ‘represent and warrant,’ among other things, that registering the name 'will not infringe upon or otherwise violate the rights of any third party,' and agree to participate in an arbitration-like proceeding should any third party assert such a claim” (Wikipedia, 2010). Basically, before registering you must agree that your not stealing someone else’s name and that if necessary, you will agree to mediation over a dispute.

UDRP helps to resolve disputes quicker. If a complaint is found valid, then the responding party loses rights and ownership to the domain name in question.