The National Arbitration Forum (N.A.F.) announced in a press release on Wednesday that its domain name disputes resolutions increased by 21% in 2006 compared to 2005. With the Forum handling 1,658 Internet trademark disputes in 2006, it was the largest filing year since the inception of their domain name dispute program. Notable disputes included trademarks such as George Foreman, Stevie Wonder, Vin Diesel, Louis Vuitton and the New York Yankees.

In National Arbitration Forum was appointed as an approved provider of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) in 1999 by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Since then, it has handled more than 7,600 Internet Domain Name disputes, 6,508 of these decided by the National Arbitration Forum’s panel of 150 intellectual property experts. With many of the remaining cases settled by the parties.

"There continues to be a need for cost-effective and timely resolution of Internet trademark disputes," said Curtis Brown, vice president of the National Arbitration Forum. "On average the National Arbitration Forum resolves domain name disputes in less than 50 days compared to what may take years in court," he added.

The online services provided by N.A.F. allows parties from across the globe to file claims to resolve trademark disputes over Internet domains, with the majority of cases filed with the National Arbitration Forum involving .com, .org and .net domain names. The National Arbitration Forum also handles disputes involving .biz, .info, .name, New.Net extensions and several country code top level Domain Names ranging from .us (United States) to .tv (Tuvalu) and .ro (Romania) to .cc (Coco Islands).

N.A.F. expanded its spectrum of services in 2006 to include the resolution of domain name disputes involving: - Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), those domain names that display in a language using non-standard characters such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese or Korean. - The .pro domain name extension, which is designed for professionals and professional organizations. - The .mobi domain name extension, designed for mobile devices.

The National Arbitration Forum (FORUM) is one of the world’s leading providers of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services, including arbitration and mediation. Committed to the integrity of America’s legal process, the National Arbitration Forum administers efficient, cost-effective dispute resolution programs and services for all parties. It maintains a distinguished panel of over 1,500 attorneys and retired judges who follow and apply the substantive law when rendering legal decisions. Mediators and arbitrators on the panel are located across the US and in 35 countries around the world.