Last April, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center and the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) had published an Initial Report of the WIPO-ICA UDRP Review Project Team. The document (available here ) did not recommend that the ICANN’s Phase 2 Review consider, as part of its initial work, the expansion of the UDRP scope to GIs.
On 27 June, oriGIn submitted its comments to the WIPO-ICA Initial Report (available here), advocating for the inclusion of GIs as legitimate rights under the UDRP.
The final version of the WIPO-ICA UDRP Review Project Team was then published on 2 December .Given the interest in expanding the scope of the UDRP to include other identifiers, such as GIs, the report considers that the topic of the UDRP expansion should be part of the Phase 2 Review within ICANN’s GNSO Council (see page 30).
Meanwhile, on 10 November, the European Commission published a report on the Analysis of the Necessity and Feasibility of a Domain Name Information and Alert System for Geographical Indications (GIs). A domain name information and alert system would enable GI applicants to verify whether a GI is already registered as a domain name and, if they wish, to receive alerts when a domain name identical to a GI is registered.
The report concludes that such a system would allow an early detection of potentially abusive second level domain names registrations. The report also considers how a voluntary provision of information by EU-based ccTLD registries could work in practice. In 2026, the Commission will continue technical consultations and pilot projects with the EUIPO, EURid, and participating ccTLD registries to test practical arrangements.
For more information on GIs in the domain name environment, please consult the dedicated page of our web.
