News and Overviews

Founded in 1994 in Switzerland, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre (Centre) provides various dispute resolution services for the settlement of international commercial disputes, including international commercial arbitration. Rules of arbitration, mediation, and expert determination, which were developed by the leading experts in the sphere of cross-border dispute settlement, are widely accepted as the most suitable rules for disputes relating to technologies and other issues involving intellectual property rights. Since 2010 the Centre has been running an office in Singapore as well.

Categories of cases

According to the Centre’s rules cases administered by it include both disputes arising out of contracts (such as patent provisions, license agreements, pharmaceutical distributorship agreements, research contracts, etc.) and disputes that are not related in any way to contract relations (e.g. those connected with the violation of patents).

Today the Centre is a recognized leader in the administration of disputes relating to wrongdoings in the sphere of domain name registration and use. As of the date of this overview (2012), the number of settled cases of this category has exceeded 20 thousand. Parties from 153 countries have been involved in the cases with approximately 35 thousand domain names being the subject of the disputes. Most cases have been settled using the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDNP). Persons registering sites within such international domains as .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and mobi automatically accept the applicability of UDNP to possible future disputes.

It is particularly important that the Centre places on its web site the freely accessible database of UDNP cases and decisions.

The Centre also focuses considerable effort on the creation of a favourable organizational and legal environment for the administration of disputes in the sphere of electronic trade.

The Centre provides a general overview of cases administered in accordance with its Rules and a brief description of several administered cases.

Peculiarities of the Rules of Arbitration and assistance of the Centre

The parties to a dispute may also agree on the use of WIPO Expedited Rules and, what is particularly interesting, on the use of the so-called WIPO Electronic Case Facility which allows the linking, storing and accessing of all documents available for a specific case on-line.

The Centre provides assistance in the selection of mediation specialists, arbitrators and experts from the respective database, which includes over 1,500 independent persons who have experience in settling appropriate disputes and the required knowledge in the sphere of intellectual property.

For practicing lawyers a course in distance training in arbitration and mediation (50 hours including examinations) may also be of use.

25.11.2012

Specialists of Genuine Arbitration Service, Ltd. represent clients’ interests in arbitration administered by WIPO and will be happy to provide you with any possible assistance in arbitral proceedings governed by the WIPO Arbitration Rules.