.EU moves forward
The newest top level domain .eu is slowly moving forward towards introduction sometime in late 2004.
.EU moves forward
09.07.2004
The newest top level domain .eu is slowly moving forward towards introduction sometime in late 2004. As you can probably guess, .eu is a new top level domain designed for use by residents and businesses in EU member states. It will be the first domain space that is not purely generic, like .com, and not specific to a single country, like .uk, although to allow its introduction the international standards body has effectively designated it as a country - Euro-sceptics take note!
The introduction of .eu has taken some time, with the domain originally being announced some years ago. In May 2003, Brussels-based EURid - an entity made up of a consortium of the Swedish, Italian and Belgium country code naming authorities - were appointed by the European Commission to run the new domain with responsibility for appointing registration service providers and other technical issues.
EURid are currently in the final stages of contractual negotiations with the Commission and are thrashing out the details of the Public Policy Rules (PPR) for .eu which are being drafted in consultation with the Member States.
Once that’s finalised they must then go about getting the technical aspects of the domain arranged by negotiating another agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - the authority that oversees the introduction of new domains into the domain name system’s “root”.
After the legals and technicalities have been completed, the domain will be launched with a “sunrise period” possibly in September 2004. During this period holders of valid trade marks will be able to register domains before they become available on a first-come-first-served basis a few months later. This system was utilised when other TLD’s, including .biz or .info, were introduced and was moderately successful in ensuring trade mark holders got first bite of the cherry before the domain speculators moved in.
.eu will, however, differ in that there will be requirements for registrants to have their sunrise applications verified by a EURid-appointed “Validation Agent” to avoid fraudulent submissions. Once past this stage, trade mark holders still won’t be guaranteed their domain. If there are competing applications that pass the validation regulations, the domain will be issued to the first trade mark holder who applies. Therefore the timing of domains applications during the sunrise period will clearly be critical.
Other questions, such as whether Member States’ trade marks will carry the same weight as Community trade marks during the sunrise period have not yet been settled. But given the thoroughness of the Commission’s preparations so far, it is likely that trade mark holders should be suitably catered for.
As with all new top level domains, it is uncertain how popular .eu will be - that will be dependent on how the domain is marketed and how it captures the public’s imagination - but trade mark holders and their advisers are encouraged to keep a close eye on developments to ensure their intellectual property rights are properly protected in the new space.
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