Akerman Intellectual Property Partner Georges Nahitchevansky has been selected as a neutral by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center. He is one of 111 panelists worldwide named to decide objections under the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) New Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Program, which recently accepted applications for new domain name extensions (the endings of web addresses, like .com and .org) for the first time since 2012.

WIPO is the exclusive provider of dispute resolution services for certain objections raised during this application round, including Legal Rights Objections, which concern the potential infringement of existing trademark rights, and String Confusion Objections, which concern confusion between a new extension and existing, applied-for, or allocatable extensions. Panelists like Georges may be appointed to hear and decide these objections.

Georges has long been involved in domain name disputes. He has been a WIPO panelist since 2015 and a FORUM panelist since 2024, and he has issued more than 250 domain name decisions to date. He has also handled hundreds of internet-related disputes in courts and under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy and other dispute resolution policies, recovering domain names on behalf of major corporations and celebrities.

Georges is a commercial litigator with 30 years of experience focused exclusively on intellectual property matters. He litigates and counsels on trademark, copyright, and internet matters in the United States and internationally, and he advises clients on online enforcement programs, domain name registration programs, and U.S. and worldwide strategies for brand enforcement. Best Lawyers and the World Trademark Review 1000 recognize him among the top intellectual property litigators in New York.