Business interest first served at .eu domain

On 30 April 2004, the European Commission finally released the public policy for the new .EU top-level domain. The policy seems to have been written with 2 thoughts in mind: prevent endless disputes with governments about geographical and institutional names and make sure all trademark-related rights are served first.

Registration will take place in two phases, first giving governments and holders of registered national and Community trademarks the chance to claim their desired names. In the second phase, all ‘holders of prior rights’ get to register their names of choice. These ‘prior rights’ are defined as ‘inter alia, registered national and community trademarks, geographical indications or designations of origin, and, in as far as they are protected under national law in the Member-State where they are held: unregistered trademarks, trade names, business identifiers, company names, family names, and distinctive titles of protected literary and artistic works..

During the pre-registration phase (the Sunrise), all contact information about claimants will be publicly accessible, such as full name, address of domicile, telephone number and e-mail.

When the public registration starts, maybe at the end of 2004, the WHOIS database will reveal many personal data about each registrant. The public policy specifies that this information ‘should not be excessive in relation to the purpose of the database’. Natural persons will have to express unambiguous consent for their personal data to be made publicly available, but the public policy does not specify what the result of an objection would be: refusal to register or the possibility of hiding the contact details.

EU Commission regulation on public policy .EU domain (30.04.2004)
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2004/l_162/l_16220040430en00400050.pdf