Over at VoxPI, Alexandre Nappey reports that, a few days ago, the first French judicial decision over a .eu domain name was released—or more specifically the first decision over an application for a .eu name.

The two parties own a trademark "EUROSTAR". They agreed on the coexistence of their respective marks in September 2004. Both applied for the same name 'eurostar.eu', on the same day (December 7, when the registry opened its systems to receive applications for .eu domain names). The second in chronological order brought a lawsuit against the first, and requested the withdrawal of the application (summary proceedings). The French court [Paris commercial court, January 10, 2006] found it was not competent, because there was no emergency:

• At the time the coexistence agreement was signed, domain names existed, but the parties did not include a provision on domain name registrations
• The domain name has not been used yet
• The EU regulation on .eu domain names [PDF] provides for a specific ADR procedure in case a decision taken by the Registry conflicts with this Regulation.

This decision is interesting, because it acknowledges that .eu ADR is an appropriate procedure for disputes between legitimate holders of a same mark.

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Written by Cedric Manara, Law Professor. Visit the blog maintained by Cedric Manara here.

See related topics: DNS, Domain Names, Policy & Regulation