The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has published its annual statistics relating to domain name disputes. The year 2025 marks a historic record in terms of UDRP proceedings and related mechanisms. Beyond the figures themselves, these data provide valuable insight into the evolution of cybersquatting practices, the role of extrajudicial dispute resolution mechanisms, and the challenges ahead for online brand protection, against the backdrop of a profound transformation of the Internet naming system.
The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has released its annual statistics on domain name disputes (wipo.int). The year 2025 stands out as an unprecedented level of activity since the creation of the UDRP procedure more than twenty-five years ago.
According to the data published by WIPO, more than 6,200 proceedings were administered in 2025 under the UDRP and related mechanisms. This volume represents a historic high and confirms the central role of these extrajudicial procedures in addressing conflicts arising from abusive domain name registrations.
The cases handled concern both generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and a wide range of country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) for which WIPO provides dispute resolution services. The gradual expansion of the range of extensions covered reflects a sustained demand from rights holders for specialized, efficient, and internationally recognized mechanisms.
These statistics do not constitute a ranking in the hierarchical sense of the term. They nevertheless offer useful insight into the activity of actors involved in UDRP proceedings and related mechanisms, which require a methodical approach, thorough knowledge of the applicable case law, and close attention to the factual elements specific to each case. The increased activity observed in 2025 primarily demonstrates the continued relevance of the UDRP as a tool for regulating Internet naming practices.
From a geographic perspective, the data published by WIPO show a strong representation of rights holders established notably in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. This distribution should, however, be interpreted with caution. WIPO does not hold a monopoly over the extrajudicial resolution of domain name disputes. Other approved dispute resolution providers receive a volume of complaints which, although not comparable to that handled by WIPO, is nonetheless significant. In particular, the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre (ADNDRC) handles a substantial number of complaints filed by trademark owners based in Asia.
The year 2025 also marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the UDRP, an occasion on which WIPO brought together practitioners, policymakers, and experts to assess the system and consider its future developments. This anniversary took place in a context of ongoing transformation of the DNS ecosystem, characterized by diversification of uses, an increasing number of extensions, and growing sophistication of abusive practices.
The publication of these statistics also comes at a time when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is preparing to open the application window for the next round of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). In this context, the figures serve as a reminder that the expansion of the naming space, while offering opportunities for innovation and structuring for many stakeholders, is also accompanied by renewed challenges in terms of trademark protection and the prevention of abusive registrations.
Taken as a whole, the statistics published by WIPO confirm that UDRP proceedings remain a central instrument of Internet naming governance, likely to play a decisive role in the next phases of DNS expansion.
In this environment marked by an intensification of domain name disputes, supporting rights holders requires proven legal expertise and a detailed understanding of extrajudicial dispute resolution mechanisms. In this respect, IP Twins is listed, according to WIPO’s published statistics, among the ten representatives of trademark owners who filed the highest number of UDRP complaints in 2025, as discussed in our dedicated article [link to the previous article].
IP Twins’ teams assist companies and institutions in the prevention, strategic analysis, and resolution of domain name disputes, whether through UDRP proceedings, national mechanisms, or broader digital asset protection strategies. This approach is based on responsiveness, legal rigor, and case-by-case adaptation, in an Internet naming environment that continues to evolve rapidly.