Party Gaming defends online poker domains

The Party Gaming group has been busy defending its trade marks and domains, judging by the latest report from the Geneva based World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) a body which arbitrates on domain disputes.

Case number D.2006-0470, adjudicated by Gerd F. Kunze refers to a dispute over the domain "partypokerplay.com" registered with GoDaddy by OX5 Consulting L.L.C., Dover, Delaware, United States of America. Laying the complaint is Party Gaming of Gibraltar, represented by an American legal company which presents an impressive list of intellectual property protection for Party Gaming from a wide spread of international authorities.

All the detail is at http://arbiter.wipo.int/cgi-bin/domains/search/CaseCatReport?case=D2006-0470 but long story short is that Party prevailed in the case where the finding was that the domain name <partypokerplay.com> is confusingly similar to the trademark 'Party Poker' of the complainant. The WIPO ruling accordingly orders that the domain name <partypokerplay.com> be transferred to the complainant.

From other references in the case report it is clear that Party has been successfully pursuing other infringements of its intellectual property rights, and clearly means business in protecting its brands and identities.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center was established in 1994 to offer Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) options, in particular arbitration and mediation, for the resolution of international commercial disputes between private parties. Developed by leading experts in cross-border dispute settlement, the procedures offered by the centre are widely recognised as particularly appropriate for technology, entertainment and other disputes involving intellectual property.

The last annual report by WIPO saw a 20 percent increase in the number of cybersquatting (abusive registration of trademarks as domain names) cases filed in 2005 as compared to 2004. In 2005, a total of 1 456 cybersquatting cases were filed with WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center. This increase represents the highest number of cybersquatting cases handled by the WIPO Center since 2001.

WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center has handled a total of over 8 350 disputes, involving parties from 127 countries and covering some 16 000 domain names since the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) - a quick and cost effective dispute resolution procedure - went into effect in December 1999.