Increased enforcement and ease of filing UDRPs are possible reasons for increased filings.
I’m very critical of commentary that suggests an increase in UDRP filings directly correlates to an increase in cybersquatting.
After all, the rate of UDRP filings compared to total registrations remains historically low.
When you have “new filers” suddenly filing over 100 cases in a single year, it leads me to believe that enforcement has increased more than anything else.
Now Go Daddy has released more data that explains why filings may be increasing.
Using its own internal data, the company shows that filings typically aren’t for newly registered domain names. For cases involving its clients’ domains in 2010, domains were registered on average 870 days prior to the UDRP filing. That’s up substantially from prior years.
(I’m confused by the growth percentages in Go Daddy’s analysis, as they appear to just take current year numbers divided by previous year, which is not percentage growth. I’ve sent a note to them about it. UPDATE: this is now fixed.)
Go Daddy’s analysis suggests that UDRP filings are up due to streamlined processes and greater enforcement, not a greater rate of cybersquatting.
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