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How ICANN Supports Community Discourse via Domain Name Marketplace Indicators

25 August 2022
By

ICANN recently released updated industry metrics as part of its Domain Name Marketplace Indicators initiative. This information, which is available via ICANN's Open Data platform, includes statistics related to generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and country code top-level domains (ccTLDs).

One of the objectives of this initiative is to provide the Internet community with an unbiased source of internal indicators to track the evolution of the Domain Name System (DNS) industry. These indicators can also play a role in facilitating community discussions on a range of topics, including registrant choice, registrant domain adoption, service provider marketplace entry and competition, service provider contractual compliance, and industry safeguards.

As an example, the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is considered the longest-standing alternative dispute resolution procedure for domain name disputes concerning the registration and use of legally protected trademarks. Created in 1999, the policy was the result of an extensive international process of consultations concerning the form and scope of a dispute resolution procedure. ICANN org recently prepared a Policy Status Report on the UDRP for the consideration of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council as part of the ongoing review process for this policy. This report utilizes the DNMI statistics shown in the table below.

Number and Percentage of UDRP Complaints Decided Against Registrants (2014-2021)

 

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Number of UDRP Complaints decided against registrants 4,077 4,192 4,387 4,562 5,469 5,277 6,011 7,506
Percentage of UDRP Complaints decided against registrants 76% 75% 77% 81% 71% 81% 77% 75%

A review of UDRP provider's summary case data for the 2014–2021 observation period revealed that complainant win rates ranged from 71 percent to 81 percent over the past eight years, even as absolute case counts decided against registrants and the derived overall number of UDRP complaints filed have trended higher. A holistic view points to tens of thousands of cybersquatting disputes resolved outside of the courts, as shown by the number of proceedings during the observation period.

There are multiple and alternative ways of interpreting this data. Viewing datasets such as those presented above can lead to a number of highly relevant questions and help initiate further discussions. It is not ICANN's org's role to unilaterally derive the potential policy implications of data such as this. However, ICANN does seek to ensure that pertinent available datasets are disseminated through initiatives such as the DNMI so that they can serve as an input for community review efforts to support data-driven policymaking.

Authors

Russ Weinstein

Russ Weinstein

VP GDD Accounts and Services