Congratulations on owning your own domain name.   Now we’ll show you how easy it is to lose that domain due to the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy, or UDRP for short.

Anyone can claim a right to your domain and file a UDRP complaint.   It will cost you thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer to defend your right to keep your domain.   Your case might be decided by one of the most creative legal minds in the field.   The panelists in UDRP cases have found ingenious, creative ways to justify turning your domain names over to companies who don’t have a right to them.   These companies have found in the UDRP a cheap, convenient way to obtain the domains they covet without having to pay you a penny for your domain.

We know of no other asset where the owner can so easily be deprived of ownership without compensation.   It is open season on domain owners as the institutions charged with maintaining an impartial arbitration procedure fall all over themselves to make themselves more attractive to the companies who want to take your domains.   Panels are rife with arbiters who view domain speculation as illegitimate and who disregard the clear language of the UDRP to order the transfer of domains to the complaining companies.   WIPO and NAF, the arbitration bodies, allow these panelists to operate for years deciding hundreds of cases without requiring that they adhere to the UDRP guidelines.

Here we highlight the most egregious UDRP decisions.   Read ‘em and weep.