In the first dispute over Internet domain names in an Asian alphabet, a United Nations panel has ruled in favor of Japanese pharmaceutical company Sankyo.

An arbitrator for the World Intellectual Property Organization ordered the transfer of the two-character Japanese name which corresponds to sankyo.com. The name had been registered by Zhu Jiajun, of Shantou, China. Sankyo said it had been using its name for more than 100 years, and it was well-recognized in Japan, China and the United States. It is so famous that Zhu must have been aware of it when he registered the name, the company claimed. It also pointed out that Zhu had registered the names of other Japanese pharmaceutical companies, which suggested that he was "cybersquatting" - registering names in order to sell them for a higher sum to the legitimate owner. Zhu said he had registered the name, which literally means "three together" in order to publicize an art salon which would bring together literature, music and painting. He said many other companies use the name Sankyo in their titles, so Sankyo could not claim to have exclusive rights to the name. Arbitrator Sang Jo Jong ruled that Zhu had no legitimate right to the domain name and ordered that it should be transferred to Sankyo. Domain names with characters of Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese and Korean were introduced late last year as an alternative to English. Others, including Arabic and Thai, are to be introduced soon. The move prompted Internet entrepreneurs to grab potentially valuable domain names which they hope to resell for a higher price, while companies also rushed to pre-empt speculators by seizing their names first. It costs only about $25 to register the domain names. In the English-language cyberspace world, some of the simplest names have commanded thousands, even millions of dollars in the resale market. Speculators are hoping for similar markups on the Asian characters. WIPO's arbitration system was set up in 1999 to allow those who think they have the real right to a domain to get it back without having to fight a costly legal battle or paying large sums of money.