In September 1998 WIPO's meeting of the Assemblies of Member States approved "the WIPO Process" to explore the intersection of intellectual property and domain names. See WIPO documents A/33/4 and A/33/8. Members agreed to conduct a second process in 2000. See WIPO documents WIPO/GA/26/3 and WIPO/GA/26/10, paragraph 26. At a joint session of the Assembly of the Paris Union for the Protection of Industrial Property and the WIPO General Assembly at the Thirty-Sixth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO (September 24 - October 3, 2001), members adopted the Joint Recommendation Concerning the Protection of Marks, and Other Industrial Property Rights in Signs, on the Internet. The text was sent to for adoption following its development in the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT), which concluded this work at its sixth session (March 2001).

The terms of reference for the first WIPO Process were published in Request for Comments on Terms of Reference, Procedures and Timetable for the WIPO Internet Domain Name Process [source], with the proposed terms of reference then adopted for the first WIPO Process.

The terms of reference for the second WIPO Process were published in Request for Comments On Terms of Reference, Procedures and Timetable for the Second WIPO Internet Domain Name Process [source], with the proposed terms of reference then adopted for the second WIPO Process. Providng more background to the Joint Recommendation Concerning Provisions on the Protection of Marks, and Other Industrial Property Rights in Signs, on the Internet, the preface to this instrument categorizes this instrument as an "achievement ... implementing WIPO’s policy of finding new ways to accelerate the development of international harmonized principles. This new approach to the progressive development of international intellectual property law was implemented by WIPO pursuant to the WIPO Program and Budget for the biennium 1998-99."