.eu is a Euro domain, for Euro people - top legal bod Only businesses established in the EU can register trademarks as web addresses in the '.eu' domain, a legal advisor to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said. Businesses based outside of the EU cannot contract with other companies based within the trading bloc to register trade mark domain names at the .eu domain on …
A common misconception, however .COM long predates the commercialisation of the internet, and does not stand for 'company'.
It stands for 'computer', and indicated that a particular net address belonged to a computer that was directly accessible via the net, as opposed to a router serving as a gateway to a LAN.
You should check up on your internet history before spouting such shit. DARPA paid for the development of the internet and, as such, got first dibs on the DNS when it was developed: .edu, .gov, .mil, and .com were reserved for US use when they were developed with everyone else supposed to use their country's TLD. Only ICANN and its precursors saw the financial advantage in selling to everyone on a first come, first served basis and the .us domain was effectively "surplus to requirements". Personally, I reckon that ".usa" would get the Yanks back on track.
They can feel free. Nothing they do could be as obstructive as the barriers Europe currently has in place to getting anything made in Europe in the first place.
Have a look at the "why it's made in China" explanation for the Raspberry Pi.
... but this looks to me as though a company with a legitimate trademark registered in the EU is being banned from using it in a domain name in the EU in favour of a company not having registered said trademark.
Whether the latter comany is acting in good faith or attempting to get parasite business from the trademark reference is not clear from the report.
OTOH, many trademarks are held by different companies in different territories - look up some of the old board games, for example. In such cases, you'd clearly want the EU based holder to get the domain.
I agree that this appears a clumsy way of going about that, however.
"this looks to me as though a company with a legitimate trademark registered in the EU is being banned from using it in a domain name in the EU in favour of a company not having registered said trademark."
I think we're being told that the judge decided that's what the US company and their EU front wanted you to think, but that in fact they -aren't- entitled to trademark protection.
A lot of the time in these stories, you can accidentally read too much of one side of the argument.
Sounds like the old .au domains before they went to shit. They were tightly regulated, if you wanted a .com.au domain you needed to have a registered business with that name (or similar), etc.
I always thought that was a good practice. Pity it's too late to impose order on domains, I personally would have liked .com to have been for international companies only, and every other nation having their own suffixes.
15 years too late though.
That's as maybe, however the .gov TLD was created for government bodies by the US. No other governments at that time had any interest in a presence on what was almost entirely a US internet.
It's the same kind of historical reason why the UK is the only country which does not print its country name on postage stamps.
Some big US business to purchase a new .europe TLD and simply undercut prices and undermine the registration of .eu entirely?
This whole business of money and litigation over domain names is ridiculous in the face of it. I can type stuff.com in a browser, I can type stuff.eu in a browser, I don't need any kind of visa or documentation before I can access the website.
Any website that has legitimate, interesting content or specialist product, is going to get the traffic anyway. Having a .eu or a .us or .anything is not going to drive you more traffic based on that - it will be based on links, which comes from word-of-mouth, instore advertising or viral. The TLD is completely irrelevant.
In any case, anyone who does attempt to find their special interest thing online who types in a .com address and doesn't find it, will simply try .co.uk, then .eu. With apologies for invoking a grating term, Cyberprotectionism is not really something that works in practice.
"Some big US business to purchase a new .europe TLD and simply undercut prices and undermine the registration of .eu entirely?"
Because if they don't impose a similar restriction underneath .europe, the domain won't offer the same guarantee to end-users (ie, that the owner is completely subject to EU laws, rather than just being after a fast buck wherever theyu can get it).
The restriction is not a bug, it's a feature. If you don't want that feature, no-one is forcing you to have it.
Look lets be honest, .com an .net are treated by the US are there TLD's, and with this massive fragmentation of the internet thats going to happen a .eu TLD open to EU owned companies makes sense.
Hell I am considering moving my TLD's from .com to .co.uk and .eu one is about 8 years old and is a simple blog with about 3 regulars, one is a site I take care of for a friend who is a photographer (both are .com's) two are .net one is a joke site I own intended as a joke for a few friends who are in on the joke and the other is another joke for work about the weekly kebab night I registered last year, the last one is a .co.uk I got for a couple of quid that's redirected to a .com.
Not a vastly huge domain collection but I am personally worried that I may post something that will annoy some one and my non commercial content an domain might be ceased by the US government (also don't help I am hosting with a US based company on a eu server). As such I am considering the TLD move as I dont want to piss off the 3rd most temperamental government in the world.
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Anyone know how much in total this bit of "git orf moi laaand" cost? Presumably it went through a variety of registration / appeals processes, national courts and such before getting to the ECJ.
Nice to see that they have their priorities right, lengthily debating the nit-pickery of who gets to have ".eu" on a web address, while the EU itself picks up speed on its continuing journey to hell in a bucket.
I can't help feeling that the bloke who coordinated the movement of deckchairs on the Titanic had a more productive job.
.co.uk
Considering that the world and it's dog are able to get .co.uk domains, ( and very many scammy, rip off people do from vary many countries ) without any oversight whatsoever..Those pontificating about how the .eu or any other register is being "difficult" should first ensure that Mr Pot isn't name calling in the direction of Mr Kettle..
Those who can't get a dot com, dot net or dot org because the domain name they want is already taken go for dot co dot uk..and can get it with no problem at all even if they register from Shanghai or Argentina...co.uk is the scammers dream..sure it publishes your name and address, but more than half of them are not in the UK , nor are they UK companies..
I have multiple UK limited companies, and only ever register the .co.uk versions to prevent cyber squatting, ( I never use them, the .co.uk may have some reputable domains on it, but is also a refuge of thieves and scoundrels, "passing off"..and I'd rather not be associated with it ) it is as wide open to abuse as .com ..and as most of the public both within and outside the UK think there is a some sort of "policing" of it , or some requirement to be UK based and thus "traceable" if they have a problem, the potential for abuse is greater than that of .com..
It should be restricted to only UK citizens or businesses..until it is , it is at best a joke, and at worst a "Union Jack" painted rock for non UK based scammers to hide under..
I own ( strictly speaking one leases them ) at present just under 200 domain names ( used to own very many more ), less than 10 of them are .co.uk..
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