Top UDRP filers for 2009.

Here’s a message to all the cybersquatters out there: don’t mess with the companies on this list.

Using data from UDRPSearch, Domain Name Wire tabulated the total number of UDRP cases filed by these companies in 2009. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, given that both WIPO and National Arbitration Forum use different names for some companies, and some companies even use multiple names when filing cases with the same provider. Furthermore, National Arbitration Forum doesn’t disclose the complainant until after a case is decided, so a few late cases aren’t included in this data.

F. Hoffmann-La Roche (56) - the pharmaceutical giant filed 54 cases with WIPO and 2 with National Arbitration Forum. Part of the uptick was to take down sites promoting Tamiflu for swine flu. La Roche didn’t lose any of them.

LEGO Juris (55) - just because it sells colored blocks, doesn’t mean Lego is all fun and games. It filed 55 cases last year, and has yet to lose.

Google (45) - Google was fairly quiet with UDRPs until this year. It won every decided case except one — Groovle.com.

State Farm Mutual Insurance (36) - a perfect 36-0 on 2009 cases.

Farouk Systems Inc. (35) - this hair care company doesn’t mess around. In addition to filing 35 cases last year, it is out of the gate with 17 cases filed in just the first few weeks of 2010. It hasn’t lost a case yet.

Sanofi-Aventis (30) - another active drug company.

Microsoft (28) - a perfect record in 2009.

AOL (26) - AOL lost one case in 2009. But it is delusional when it comes to trademarks.

Nervous Tattoo (26) - Ed Hardy make turned on the spigot in the second half of the year. It’s a perfect 26-0.

American Automobile Association (25) - interesting strategy results in wins of aaaerotica.com, aaanudes.com, and aaablondes.com. It lost a UDRP for AAA.net, but convinced the owners to hand over the domain when it filed a lawsuit.

Compagnie Gervais Danone (23) - The company won most of its cases, but lost cases for Activia.ch and ProActivia.com, and got a partial victory on another.

Victoria’s Secret (21) - lingerie retailer runs the table 21-0.

Lottery wins domain name it says was stolen in 2006.

German state-owned lotto company NKL Nordwestdeutsche Klassenlotterie has won the transfer of the NKL.com domain name, three years after the domain name was allegedly stolen. NKL won the domain name through a WIPO proceeding.

In a strange series of events, it appears the domain name may have been stolen in 2006 but NKL didn’t realize this until 2009. The domain name was set to expire on October 10, 2006. In August 2006, the whois information suddenly changed and the domain was renewed. The whois ownership information then changed several times in the next three years, but the nameservers continued to point the domain name to NKL’s web site. For three years, NKL had no idea the domain name wasn’t under its control.

It wasn’t until the domain name pointed to another web site in 2009 that NKL says it became aware of the alleged theft. NKL alleged the owner of the domain name listed it for sale on expired domain name site NameJet. A look at historical whois records shows that it was likely added to NameJet because it expired on October 10, 2009.

The owner of the domain name didn’t respond to the complaint and the panel awarded the domain to NKL.

Auction enters final hours with over 100 domains meeting their reserves.

Over 100 domain names in this month’s Snapnames Showcase Auction have met their reserves. The auction ends later today.

The auction features 1-4 character domain names as well as one word country code domains. The highest bid on a domain name that has met its reserve is COA.com at $17,500. Compete.com suggests the domain receives over 1,000 uniques a month. BGM.com has seven bidders and has met its reserve with a current bid of $11,000.

A number of three character .net and .org domain names have met their reserves with bids between $300-$1,000. It’s worth taking a look.

Moniker/SnapNames’ next auction will be in conjunction with DOMAINfest Global 2010 next week. Among the domain names to be auctioned are Let.com, Trick.com, Terrorists.com, and Paper.com.

Cybersquatting challenges fall in 2009.

The number of cybersquatting cases filed under Uniform domain-name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) fell to a three year low in 2009, and the rate of cybersquatting cases compared to the total number of domains registered fell to an all-time low, according to an analysis by Domain name Wire.

Data from WIPO, National Arbitration Forum, Czech Arbitration Court, and UDRPSearch, show there were just over 3,700 cases filed in 2009. Cases filed at WIPO fell from 2,329 in 2008 to 2,107 in 2009. Cases at National Arbitration Forum fell from about 1,770 cases to approximately 1,605* in 2009. Czech Arbitration Court oversaw fewer than 20 non-.eu cases.

The overall numbers represent a 9% decrease in cases filed. The number of domain names involved in disputes at WIPO increased due to multi-domain cases.

Both WIPO and National Arbitration Forum found in favor of the complainant nearly 90% of the time cases were decided.

The rate of cybersquatting — defined by the number of cases filed divided by the number of total .com domains registered — fell to about 1 in 22,000 domain names, the lowest ever recorded since the introduction of UDRP.

*Estimated. Unlike WIPO, NAF does not keep up-to-date cumulative numbers on its web site.

CNNIC plans to re-open registration.

Individuals may regain the ability to register .cn domain names sometime in the future, China Daily is reporting.

CNNIC, which manages the .cn country code domain name for China, banned individuals from registering the domain names late last year as it cracked down on pornography and false registrations. .Cn became very popular thanks to cut rate pricing, but the low pricing made the domain a popular tool for criminal activity.

Earlier this month, CNNIC also banned non-Chinese registrars from registering .cn domain names for anyone, including businesses.

These moves have pushed many people in China to other top level domain names, such as .com. The China Daily story quotes school teacher Wu Xiaofei: “I have to hand in a lot of material if I register a “.cn” domain name, but I can have a “.com” domain name by providing just my e-mail address and paying the agent about 40 yuan, which is more convenient.”

CNNIC would not provide a time table for restoring registration capabilities to individuals.