New domain names and ambush marketing: which protection for sport events?

The control of the commercial exploitation of major sport events is a key element for the funding of these events.Unsurprisingly, the creation of new generic top-level domain names (new gTLDs) therefore caused disputes involving international sport federations.Objection decisions however highlight that panels have diverging opinions on the need to protect sport federations by granting them exclusive rights on the use of generic terms designating the sport they are managing.For further comments on this issue, seeLe contentieux des nouveaux noms de domaine(par. nr. 305).“