Should WIPO be Concerned With Cyber Squatters?

A number of posts on this blog have been dedicated to commenting about the difficulty in calibrating the degree of protection for IP rights holders. Whereas I am completely in agreement that a measure of rights is required to spur innovation, I am less sympathetic to the absurd claims that more stringent Intellectual Property rights should be bestowed upon corporations because innovation would otherwise come to a complete halt.

This document on WIPO's site, states that the WIPO has reported that the phenomenon of cyber squatting is increasing. To my mind, cyber names are numerous and the DNS system should be less concerned with a dispute between individuals on cyber names. It is quite unlikely that an individual that takes up a popular name would be able to use the same to market competing products for long before the customers of the genuine corporation are alert to the fact. For that reason, I am at a loss that WIPO even considers the phenomenon of cyber squatting as worthy of this much attention.

Carrying out a successful business on the Internet is a desire of many but one that only a handful of businesses will be capable of. Against that background, I ask why WIPO even considers cyber squatting a sufficiently serious vice to deter through arbitration. There are good number of firms that are less worried appropriations of names by cyber squatters primarily because most of the individuals doing this are unable to make much use of recognized brand names. I am inclined to think that save for a few cases, cyber squatting is just not very profitable and corporations should not negotiate with cyber squatters.