The UDRP Tracking Project
In 2001 the Markle Foundation provided grants to Syracuse University's Convergence Center and the University of Massachusetts' Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution to track the results of ICANN's Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). The purpose of the project was twofold. One objective was to investigate the results and substance of the UDRP. The other was to tackle some of the information organization and retrieval problems associated with keeping track of thousands of domain name dispute cases.
On June 24, 2002 we released a demonstration database and a report, representing completion of the first phase of that project. The Convergence Center database contains detailed summaries of the first 3,850 UDRP cases, starting with the first in December 1999 and ending with cases commenced in July 2001. The database contains a search interface that allows users to locate individual cases or groups of cases, examine patterns or categories of cases, link quickly to the precedents cited in a case, and link to the actual full decision. Also, users who know how to create queries will be able to use the database to perform quantitative analysis of domain name trademark conflicts. The Microsoft Access database will be freely distributed so that practitioners and researchers can conduct their own research using a common data set. Users can continue entering new cases if they desire to expand the scope of the research longitudinally.
Along with the database we are releasing a report, Success by Default: A New Profile of Domain Name Trademark Disputes under ICANN's UDRP. The report utilizes some of the data made possible by the database to make policy recommendations to the ICANN Task Force reviewing the UDRP.
Download the Microsoft Access 97 version

We welcome error reports from those who download and use the database. Submit error reports to Yusuf Ghadiali. We will post corrected versions about every two weeks for the next two months. Versions will be numbered. While about 99% complete, the database still lacks summaries of some cases in languages other than English. Anyone willing to volunteer to summarize Spanish cases contact Yusuf Ghadiali. Anyone wishing to systematically add new cases commencing after July 2001, seek psychological counseling; if that does not deter you please contact us so that we can work out a way to distribute the additional cases as part of the full database.