Initially, the Internet suffered from an absence of international legal standards for resolving these disputes. Nearly 10 years ago, WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization) published a report containing recommendations which led to the establishment of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) by ICANN on January 1, 1999.

Today, a company can obtain the cancellation or transfer of a domain name registered by a third party if it can prove:
− that the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to one of its trademarks;
− that the owner of the domain name has no rights or legitimate interests in the name;
− and/or that the third party is using it in bad faith. In France, WIPO sentenced an individual to retrocede frieskies.fr, natexisinterepargne.fr and more recently
laydernier.fr, from the name of a bank belonging to the French Crédit du Nord Group.

On the other hand,WIPO dismissed pop singer Sting’s request to recover sting.com. The reasons included that the rights holder was legally known by that name, that it is a common English word and that it is not necessarily an
exclusive mark.

To read more about this subject: 
http://www.wipo.int/aboutip/fr/studies/publications/domain_names.htm

On the necessity of serious prior trademark research before registering and using a trademark. There are numerous obstacles to the registration and free use of a trademark, the first of which is prior trademarks. Add to that company names, trade names, some geographical names, domain names orweb sites, and copyrights. 

By adopting an unavailable trademark, you run the risk of an opposition at the trademark office or a trademark infringement action in Court.

Though in trademark infringement cases the courts do not always award damages and interest matching the damages incurred, the consequences of a court decision banning the use of a trademark can be formidable. The owner must abandon themark theywere using within a short timeframe, resulting in lost financial investments in terms of communication, packaging changes, and informing customers of the change. These are consequences thatmay prove dramatic both at the product launch stage and once the mark has become established.

It is therefore imperative to perform appropriate research proactively before adopting a trademark, which requires a certain amount of time for the negotiations that sometimes prove necessary.

The USPTO (the American trademark office) system for protection differs quite appreciably from the practice in so-called Roman law.

If we start with the European example, a trademark must be exploited within five years from the date its registration is published. Bearing in mind that an EU trademark can take between 18 months and five years to be submitted for registration, the owner has a comfortable time period in which to put his rights into operation.

The American conception is especially rigorous, for it is based on proven use; in other words, a trademark can be registered only if it is proven to have serious and related use for each of the products and services asserted, and the rights are maintained (at the time of renewal, in particular) by producing proof of exploitation.

Applicants must therefore pay particular attention when registering, to claim only the products and services for which they have very serious and imminent projects, keeping in mind they can always make additional registrations later if they prove necessary.