The .EU domain registrar management organisation, EURid has suspended 10,000 EU domain names which have been apparently legally registered by a Chinese woman – reports out-law. EURid has the power to remove the domain names from the woman – but has said that it would prefer a court to do it.
According to reports, the woman was buying the names to sell on to other parties at higher prices – nothing new in that then. EURid says that is has received complaints – not particularly new either. One key point is that only European-based organisations are allowed to hold .EU domain names.
Out-law carries this great quote from EURid, “When we screen our data bank we see that some people have an amazing amount of names. Nobody needs 10,000 names.” Strange. You’d have thought that EURid had a little more knowledge and insight about the industry in which they operate. Perhaps that’s why there were so many complaints at launch!
3 responses
Jean – if you’re a large company with many different brands, products and marketing campaigns – it’s actually not difficult to get up to the number of domain names. But having had the sunrise period and making life very difficult for trademark owners to get together every last piece of paperwork – how can we end up with such a case of cybersquatting. Something does feel right in this story.
Andy
Hello,
Having worked for a Registry (EURid during Surise and Landrus periods), as a Registrant managing a large domain name portfolio and recently for the biggest Corporate Registrar as a consultant, I kind of disagree with one thing here. Many companies have 10 000+ domain names. Some corporations need a local presence worldwide. Securing a brand in major countries requires registering a ccTLD. If you own 50 brands…
But I agree with one thing here: no one needs 10 000 .EU: the European Comission maybe ?
Regards,
Jean Guillon
I do totally agree there is no need of 10 000 .EU, I wanted to mention that again. Now my idea about fighting cyber squatting right after a landrush starts during accreditation at the registry. The registry is the one to have a responsibility in cyber squatting: checking networks of accredited Registrars is a “must-do†prior to Sunrises and Landrush. Too many domains where made available for bidding on pool.com right after Landrush for .EU. Was it fair? Is bidding fair for the final consumer, the Registrant? Is the .ASIA registration process the right one?
I once though bidding was a solution because it finally is a cheaper and faster way to find a solution instead of going to court. Today my fear is every registry starts to do the same: bidding is an efficient way to get rid of problems fast. I think the consumer has no other way but…to pay.
Sharing a domain name is a solution prior to bidding or finding an agreement. After all…if a name is branded, why not share/rent a page at the Registry until an agreement is found?