The European Commission selects EURid to manage .eu Registry
The European Commission has now officially announced the selection
EURid to run the .eu Registry. EURid is a not for profit consortium
with members from the Belgian, Italian and Swedish Registries.
This decision has been rumoured for some time now, but it was not
until last week that it was officially announced. It is the latest
step in the process of creating a new European Top Level Domain.
EURid has said that .eu domains could go live within six months
of the agreement's finalisation.
N3 lite will keep you updated on all developments with the .eu
domain, such as the registration requirements and the dates for
sunrise period and go-live, which are still to be determined.
WIPO receives it's 5,000th cybersquatting case
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has announced
that it received its 5,000th domain name case under the Uniform
Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
English football club Tottenham Hotspur filed the case on May 12
against an alleged cybersquatter's registration of the domain tottenhamhotspur.com.
WIPO receives on average three cases a day under the UDRP. This
compares to an initial five cases a day when the scheme was launched
in December 1999, to protect trade mark owners against bad faith
registrations of infringing domain names.
NetNames reveals increase in 'Shock and Awe' domain
name registrations
Over 140 domains registered as speculators move in to capitalise
on the second Gulf War
London, 29 May 2003 - NetNames, a leading provider of domain
name management services, has reported a huge increase in the registration
of speculative domain names since the end of the second Gulf War.
According to analysis from NetNames’ Brand Audit software,
over the past three months over 140 variations of the term “Shock
and Awe” have been registered as domain names.
Research from NetNames reveals that the majority of these domain
names have no website associated with them. This suggests that many
may have been registered by individuals with the intent to sell
on the domains to commercial companies at a profit.
“Shock and Awe”, the term used by the US military to
explain its strategy for the first phase on the war on Iraq, entered
the modern lexicon following the extensive media coverage of the
conflict. Existing public awareness of the term was presumably a
primary motive behind Sony’s attempt to register the phrase
as a trademark for its electronics division. This attempt was abandoned
following negative media coverage that portrayed the move as insensitive.
Jonathan Robinson, Director of Business Development at NetNames
comments: “Businesses need to be aware that both legitimate
and illegitimate domain name speculation is still alive and kicking.
As the Shock and Awe example demonstrates, many individuals will
be very quick off the mark in registering a term or phrase which
may become commercially valuable. Companies that wish to take advantage
of a phrase that has suddenly gained widespread public recognition
will need to have the correct IP procedures and policies in place.
This involves consulting with a domain name management company to
register the appropriate names as quickly as possible and ensuring
that legal teams pursue and secure the relevant trade marks.”
The process of registering domain names and trade marks for commercial
purposes can be a complex process, Stephen Reid, an intellectual
property lawyer at leading law firm Simmons and Simmons, has this
advice:
“Registering a domain name is the easiest and quickest way
to establish a tradable stake in a newly coined term or phrase.
Once in possession of the domain, the registrant must check whether
anyone owns a trade mark registration for that term. If so, dispute
resolution procedures such as the UDRP and Nominet’s DRS could
forcibly prise the domain name from the registrant’s grasp,
reducing its value. If not, the registrant has two choices: he can
either sit back and wait for the offers to flood in, or, if he intends
to use the term as a trade mark, submit a trade mark application
as soon as possible.“
“Filing a trade mark application is likely to give more effective
and long-lasting legal protection to that term, but only if the
registrant intends to use it. If the registrant is merely looking
for an opportunistic “investment”, then, in the absence
of pre-existing rights, a speedy domain name registration could
prove very profitable.”
At present there are currently two European wide Community Trade
Mark applications for the Shock & Awe slogan, both submitted
by computer game developers.
Hollywood couple battle cybersquatters
Hollywood couple Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas have
registered a number of domain names for their recently born daughter
in a fight against cybersquatters. Domains they have registered
include caryszetadouglas.com, carysdouglas.com and caryszetadouglas.co.uk.
It is important for celebrities to proactively protect their
names by registering key domain names. Many celebrities including
actor Kevin Spacey, singer Madonna and actress Julia Roberts have
had to resort to the URDP to try and retrieve domain names that
have been registered by cybersquatters.
© Copyright
NetNames 2003. All rights reserved.
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