How to file a UDRP complaint
A UDRP complaint is a written document filed with an approved provider, usually the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. There is no hearing. The panel decides on the papers, so the complaint is effectively your whole case.
Before you do anything
Do not contact the registrant. It sounds counterintuitive and it is the most common mistake. Once someone knows a trademark owner wants the domain, the price goes up, and anything you write can appear in their response as evidence that this is a commercial negotiation rather than a bad faith case.
Take evidence first. Screenshots of the website as it stands today, with the date visible. Archive.org captures of what it showed previously. WHOIS records. Any emails sent from addresses at the domain. Sites change fast once a complaint lands, and a parked page full of competitor ads has a habit of turning into a blank holding page the week after you make contact.
What the complaint has to contain
The complaint sets out your trademark rights, identifies the domain and the registrar, and then argues the three elements: that the domain is identical or confusingly similar to your mark, that the registrant has no rights or legitimate interests in it, and that it was registered and is being used in bad faith. The three elements covers what panels accept for each.
It is capped at 5,000 words under the WIPO Supplemental Rules, with annexes on top. That is enough for almost every case and a complaint that needs more is usually a complaint that is arguing too much.
You also elect one panelist or three, and specify the remedy: transfer of the domain to you, or cancellation. Transfer is what almost everyone wants. Cancellation just releases the name back into the pool for someone else to register.
What happens after filing
WIPO checks the complaint for formal compliance and notifies the registrar, which locks the domain so it cannot be sold or moved while the case runs. The registrant then has twenty days to respond.
Most do not. Roughly speaking, default is the normal outcome in clear cybersquatting cases. Default does not mean automatic victory. The panel still has to be satisfied that you proved all three elements, and complaints do fail undefended when the evidence is thin.
If a response arrives, there is no automatic right of reply. Some panels accept a supplemental filing, many do not. Assume you get one shot.
The panel is appointed once the response period closes and normally issues its decision within fourteen days. If you win, the registrar implements the transfer about ten business days later, unless the registrant starts court proceedings in that window.
Where complaints go wrong
The second element defeats more complaints than the other two combined. You have to prove a negative, that the registrant has no rights or legitimate interests, which panels handle by requiring you to make out a prima facie case that then shifts the burden. If your complaint simply asserts it without evidence, a registrant with any plausible story will survive.
The other frequent failure is bad faith at the wrong time. The test is registered and used in bad faith. If the domain was registered years before your trademark rights existed, the registrant cannot have been targeting a mark that did not exist yet, no matter how badly they are behaving now.
What we do
We assess the case first and tell you whether it will succeed, before you commit to the filing fee. If it will, we gather the evidence, draft the complaint, file it and handle the procedure through to transfer. Our fee is EUR 1,050 plus the WIPO filing fee.
If the case is weak, we say so. A failed complaint costs you the fee and puts the registrant on notice that you want the name.