The problem this solves
Somebody registered a domain using your business name. Maybe they want to sell it back to you at a markup, maybe they are running ads on it, maybe it just sits there while your customers land somewhere that is not you.
Buying it back rewards the behavior and sets your price at whatever they feel like asking. Suing is slow and expensive. The UDRP sits between those two, and when you hold real trademark rights and the other side does not, it is usually the right tool.
What the UDRP actually is
It is an administrative proceeding built into the domain system itself. Every ICANN-accredited registrar signs up to the policy as a condition of being a registrar, which is what gives a panel decision its teeth. The proceeding runs on written submissions, with no hearing and no need to establish personal jurisdiction over the registrant.
To win, you have to prove three things. The domain is identical or confusingly similar to a mark you have rights in. The registrant has no legitimate interest in it. And the domain was registered and is being used in bad faith. All three, not two.
What it can and cannot do
The relief a panel can order is transfer or cancellation. It can also deny your complaint. Transfer is what you almost always want, because cancellation just releases the name back into the pool where anyone can register it.
It cannot award you money, and it cannot make the other side pay your legal fees. Quoting WIPO’s guidance directly: “The Panel cannot award money judgments, nor lawyers’ costs.” If a squatter has caused you real measurable damage and you want compensation for it, that is a federal cybersquatting suit under the ACPA, where statutory damages run from $1,000 to $100,000 per domain name. That is a genuinely different undertaking in cost, timeline, and effort, and it is not what this flat fee covers.
For most businesses the honest answer is that you want the domain, not a judgment, and the UDRP is the process built to deliver exactly that.
Where it goes wrong
Two risks worth naming before you file, because both are avoidable and neither is obvious.
The first is filing against someone with a genuine claim to the name. If a panel decides you brought the complaint in bad faith, it can make a formal finding of reverse domain name hijacking against you. That is a published decision with your business name on it, and it makes the next dispute harder. Descriptive names, common words, and domains registered before your rights existed are where this happens.
The second is the court door. Filing means naming a mutual jurisdiction, which is your agreement that a court there can hear a challenge to the outcome. After a win, the registrant has ten business days to use it. Most never do. But it is the reason we start with an honest read rather than a filing.
How we handle it
The first conversation is about whether you should file at all. A descriptive name you have used for six months is a weak case. A distinctive name you have traded under for years is a strong one. Filing a weak complaint costs you $2,700 and gets you a denial, so it is worth an honest read before anything else.
If the case is worth bringing, we assemble the trademark rights evidence the panel expects, prepare and file the complaint with WIPO, carry the proceeding through the decision, and coordinate with the registrar on implementing the transfer.
The fee is flat and covers one complaint over as many as five domain names held by the same registrant. That is deliberate, because it matches how WIPO bills. Squatters rarely stop at one spelling, and a complaint covering five variants costs the provider exactly what a complaint covering one does. Bring us the whole list and we will tell you which ones can travel together.
Two notes on the fee so nothing is a surprise. WIPO’s filing fee is separate and you pay it directly. And the flat fee covers a standard single-panelist proceeding through decision, so if the registrant escalates to a three-member panel or takes the dispute to court, that is scoped and quoted before any work starts.