With 2,050 decisions by panelists in the last 6 months, WIPO has been very active in UDRP cases. 1,728 of those cases went by default because the domain registrant failed to respond to the Complaint. Most of those were cybersquatters who give a bad name to the domain industry in general and domain investors in particular.
For the last number of years, I have been reporting on Panelists who have been outstanding in their fairness in dealing with domain registrants who have contested Complaints, citing those Panelists who have Denied the most Complaints for the last 6 months, year and all time. I will be doing that again here, but in addition, I will be pointing out both good and bad decisions and calling out Complainants and their attorneys who have been found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking and Abuse of the UDRP Process in the next few articles.
I would also like to congratulate my lawyer brethren who have successfully had Claims Denied. In the last 6 months, John Berryhill has succeeded in 5 cases, Jason Schaeffer has successfully defended 2 cases and Zak Muscovitch has won one case. Overall, 322 claims have been adjudicated, with 125 claims being denied. Percentage-wise that means that 39% of the contested cases were denied. Only 7% of the total claims filed with WIPO ended in favor of the Domain Holders. In 28 of these cases, the Panelists found the Complainants guilty of RDNH.
The primary purpose that I have for publishing these lists is so that if you are faced with a UDRP against one of your domains, you can opt for a 3-person panel of which one will be of your choosing. So here are the rankings for the last 6 months ended June 30, 2021, the last 12 months and all time records.
WIPO PANELISTS FOR THE 6 MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2021
RANKED BY NUMBER OF CLAIMS DENIED
WIPO PANELISTS FOR THE 12 MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2021
WIPO PANELISTS ALL TIME DECISIONS
1. HON. NEIL BROWN – 140 Denied
2. JOHN SWINSON – 103 Denied
3. TONY WILLOUGHBY – 84 Denied
4. ROBERT BADGELY – 83 Denied
5. WARWICK ROTHNIE – 81 Denied
6. RICHARD LYON – 71 Denied
7. LUCA BARBERO – 70 Denied
8. W. SCOTT BLACKMER – 68 Denied
9. ANDREW LOTHIAN – 66 Denied
10. NICK GARDNER – 57 Denied
Nest up – Good Decisions, Bad Decisions and we’re naming all of the Complainants and their Attorneys who were found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.
Howard Neu, Esq.
http://Neulaw.com
http:malpracticeAttorneys.com