---
title: "What is the UDRP?"
term: "UDRP"
description: "An arbitration procedure for transferring or cancelling a domain registered in bad faith, used when abuse reports have failed."
aliases: ["domain name dispute", "Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy"]
category: "Legal instruments"
canonical: "https://fraudox.com/glossary/udrp"
publisher: "Fraudox"
publisher_url: "https://fraudox.com"
license: "Free to quote with attribution to the canonical URL."
---

# What is the UDRP?

**UDRP.** An arbitration procedure for transferring or cancelling a domain registered in bad faith, used when abuse reports have failed.

*Also known as: domain name dispute, Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy.*

UDRP is a contractual arbitration process that every registrant of a generic top-level domain agrees to when they register. It exists to resolve trademark disputes over domain names without going to court, and it can order a domain transferred to the complainant or cancelled outright.

A complaint has to establish three things together: the domain is identical or confusingly similar to a mark the complainant has rights in, the registrant has no legitimate interest in it, and it was registered and is being used in bad faith. Failing any one of the three fails the case.

It is deliberate and expensive relative to an abuse report. Cases run weeks rather than hours and carry filing fees per dispute, which is why it is a last resort for domains that matter and that no faster channel has moved, not a routine tool for volume takedowns.

Its advantage over an abuse report is finality. An abuse suspension can be reversed or reissued elsewhere; a UDRP transfer puts the domain in the brand's own portfolio, where it cannot be re-registered against them.

## Getting it removed

Fraudox handles this as [scam domain removal](https://fraudox.com/scam-domain-takedown): Lookalike and typosquatted domains registered against you, including ones parked before they are used. Handled at the registrar, and escalated to UDRP where suspension is refused.

## Related terms

- [Domain registrar](https://fraudox.com/glossary/registrar): The accredited company a domain is registered through, and usually the layer with the power to suspend it outright.
- [DMCA notice](https://fraudox.com/glossary/dmca-notice): A copyright takedown notice under US law that obliges a qualifying service provider to remove the material or lose its liability shield.
- [Typosquatting](https://fraudox.com/glossary/typosquatting): Registering domains that rely on predictable typing mistakes so traffic meant for a brand lands on someone else's site instead.

*Canonical version: https://fraudox.com/glossary/udrp. Part of the [Fraudox brand protection glossary](https://fraudox.com/glossary).*

---

Published by Fraudox (https://fraudox.com), a brand protection takedown service that
removes phishing sites, impersonating pages, fake social accounts, counterfeit apps,
scam domains and stolen content, and bills only for confirmed removals.