The Scramble for Europe

Registration for the Domain .eu began on 7 December 2005 with a 4-month “sunrise” period during which existing trademark holders and public companies were allowed to register their trademark.

The domain names are being given out on a first-come-first-serve basis. Applicants then have 40 days to provide proof they hold a trademark in that name (to avoid the risk of cybersquatters taking names which are not legally theirs).

Seems like a simple enough process, especially for the Goliaths of industry, right? Well... PricewaterhouseCoopers - official validation agent for all .eu applications - made a clerical error in its own application for pwc.eu and pricewaterhousecoopers.eu and had to re-apply!

Other trademark holders weren't so quick off the draw. There was a race between Ralph Lauren, Nestle and Volkswagen for the domain polo.eu. Apparently all three applied within 5 minutes of each other and Ralph Lauren, owner of Polo.com, missed out by only three minutes and 24 seconds to Volkswagen... German efficiency eh!

If you want to apply to get yourself a pan-European identity on the net, registration will be open to the public from 7 April.

Comments

[Johnnie]

Lol, you're too early. Begins April 7th. Are they really worth it? Guess it's only €9 or €12 or whatever markup they make. Still, it all adds up!

[Damien]

Am I too late to register clientwell.eu ???