Korea’s Place in Domain Name Disputes

In 1999, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) implemented the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which provides for a streamlined and efficient method of resolving disputes involving domain names.  Since 2000, thousands of domain name disputes involving parties from all over the world have been resolved under the UDRP, with decisions issued by an international roster of neutral panelists.  Despite a comparatively small population, Korea has been an active and significant participant in the developing UDRP jurisprudence.
This presentation reveals a database of UDRP decisions administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in which one or both of the parties is Korean or has ties to Korea.  The database includes nearly 800 published decisions in the first fifteen years of the UDRP, involving over a thousand domain names.  A significant majority of the decisions involve a non-Korean complainant who alleges that a Korean respondent improperly registered a domain name that incorporates the complainant’s protected trademark.  In approximately 90% of all cases, the panelist sides with the complainant, and orders the respondent to transfer the domain name to the complainant.  There are other statistical patterns, as well as individual decisions, of interest, all of which invite discussion of international standards, cultural norms and construction, and Korea in the age of the Internet.