More than a year on from the launch of .eu, ‘the domain name for Europe’, many brand owners have successfully registered their key brands. Others, however, were either not aware of the launch or were poorly advised and their applications were unsuccessful, losing out to unscrupulous third parties or competitors.
Aggrieved parties have the option of using the specifically-designed .eu alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedure, which has a unique set of operating rules. Since 1 January, 2007, it is the only such ADR procedure that allows wholly electronic filing; the first all-electronic filing of a .eu complaint was submitted by Lovells on 10 April, 2007.
