European Marketing Branding By Buying .eu domains

.eu Domain Registration

We have had many people asking us if having a .eu domain would be beneficial when promoting products and services in Europe.

Clearly having a .eu domain goes some way in creating the right image, however we have cut and pasted the following article from www.eubusiness.com to highlight the pitfalls of pre-registering before .eu domain names are launched in 2006.

Please note if you register for our newsletter will send all subscribers updates on this topic to enable you to register .eu domains as soon as possible.

The EU Commission has warned companies and consumers to avoid confusion and possible fraud when trying to reserve their '.eu' domain names with pre-registration services.

Having approved an agreement between the Internet Corporation for assigned names and numbers (ICANN) and EURid - the organisation selected to operate the .eu Registry - the Commission has paved the way for the introduction of the new top level domain (TLD) at the beginning of 2006.

According to Commissioner for the Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding: 'The agreement reached between ICANN and EURid constitutes a landmark in the history of the .eu project. It gives the green light for the final technical preparations to permit .eu to become a reality before the end of the year.'

However, before the .eu Registry can accept applications to create new domain names, EURid must accredit registrars - companies that register names on behalf of customers - and agree on a registration policy with the Commission and other interested parties.

The Commission says it is aware that some companies are already offering pre-registration services, promising to make an application with registrars for customers as soon as the process is formally opened. However, it notes that: 'Given a risk of confusion and even fraud, use of 'pre-registration' services is not recommended by the Commission.' In all cases, consumers and companies are encouraged to check exactly what is and what is not being offered.'

The agreement concluded between ICANN and EURid officially recognises the latter's authority to run the .eu TLD for the next five years. The new TLD will not replace existing national domain names such as '.hu' in Hungary and '.es' in Spain , but rather complement them by giving users the option of having a pan-European Internet identity as well.

Once officially operational, .eu registrations will begin with a four-month 'sunrise period', during which owners of 'prior rights' (such as trademark holders and public bodies) will be allowed to register their domain names before all other eligible parties. This is done to avoid so-called cybersquatting, whereby organisations or individuals find that someone else has registered their trademark, company or personal name, and then tries to sell it on to them for a profit.

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