Owing to strengthening collaboration between the European Registry for Internet Domains (EURiD) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the applicants and holders of the European Union trademarks will be able to receive automatic alerts of registration of .eu domain names being identical to their EUTMs.
Any physical person, a company or an organization with the registered office in the territory of the European Union, Iceland, Norway or Lichtenstein, can file an application for registration of a .eu domain name. However, it is deemed to be an infringement if such domain name incorporates the name being equivalent to an earlier EU trademark applied or registered by another party. So far combating this kind of infringement has involved ‘manual’ checking of availability of a given domain name through among others the website of EURiD – eurid.eu/pl.
In order to make the whole monitoring process more effective, and to limit the cyber-squatting infringements consisting in registration of .eu domain names incorporating the names of EUTM applications or registrations of other parties, and also to enable the holders to react more quickly, EURiD jointly with EUIPO have developed the system of informing the European Union trademark owners about registration of .eu domain names incorporating the names of their registered or applied trademarks.
This innovative solution has already been implemented and the professional representatives of EUTM holders can have it activated both in the course of filing a new EUTM application and also in respect of already filed or registered EUTMs. After opting-in, the EUTM owners will receive automatic alerts in each case when their trademarks are registered as parts of .eu domain names by other parties, for example competitors.
According to EURiD and EUIPO, this solution will enable the EUTM owners to combat more effectively cybersquatting and unfair competition in the future. Both institutions have also declared further collaboration in order to ensure better protection of EUTM registrations.
If you are interested in obtaining more information about the possibility of receiving automatic alerts of registration of your EUTM as a .eu domain name, you are welcome to contact one of our trade mark attorneys at:
https://www.patpol.pl/en/zespol-dzialy/2-trademarks-and-designs/
Written on the basis of:
https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/news/-/action/view/5140548
https://eurid.eu/en/ {access: 28.05.2019]
Nina Zabielska (Jankowska) is a patent attorney in Trademark and Industrial Design Department at Patpol.. She is a graduate of e-business at the Warsaw School of Economics and a graduate of law at the Kozminski University. Contact with the author
