Be aware if someone tries to register your brand as a .eu domain

The European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the .eu and .ею domain registry manager EURid announced the launch of a new service which will help the fight against bad faith domain registrations.

Some people have taken advantage of early publication of EUTM applications and registered the EUTM as a .eu domain name in bad faith. Effectively reducing the risk of such cyber-squatting infringements requires adopting preventive actions such as raising awareness and pro-actively informing the EUTM holders.
 
As of 18 May, holders and applicants of a EUTM can opt-in to receive alerts as soon as a .eu domain name is registered that is identical to their EUTM (application). By receiving such alert, EUTM holders are informed much faster and may take appropriate action much sooner.

For more information here.

LEGO won a case against a similar domain name

TBO reports about a case before the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center initiated by LEGO regarding the use of the following domain www.operationslego.com by a third party.

This website includes, without permission, trademarks belonging to the company as well as it gives a link for purchasing Lego products again without any authorisation.

According to the Arbitration and Mediation Center, this domain name is confusingly similar to the LEGO’s well-known trademarks and it was been registered and was being used in bad faith.

More information here.

 

.ЕЮ domain names are now available

EURid, the organization responsible for .EU domain names, announced the launch of .ЕЮ domain name in Cyrillic alphabet, which happened because of the fact that Bulgaria is a EU member state and the only country in EU which alphabet is different from Latin and Greek. More:

The long-awaited in Bulgaria Cyrillic domain extension “.ею” has already started being operational. It enables you to create Internet addresses written entirely in Bulgarian language. All institutions, municipalities, companies and individuals who wish to be more easily detectable in the Bulgarian web space would benefit from the new domain. The combination of the letters “.ею” was selected by Bulgarian Internet users after a poll. With the introduction of the new domain Cyrillic has become the third official alphabet used in the spelling of domain names in Europe. The other options are Latin and Greek alphabets. Currently the “.eu” domain is one of the most popular ones in the world. The registration of new domain names in Cyrillic is now available and millions of people around the world will be able to use their native language while surfing the net and to make the most of the opportunities offered by the virtual space. The new extension is also a good step towards preserving the cultural identity of nations using the Cyrillic alphabet and takes web communication to a higher level. Not only Bulgaria, but countries like Macedonia, Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Mongolia would also benefit from the new domain.

Source: BNR.

Brief IP news

1. Apple v. Samsung: The saga continues. For more information here.

2. Claims for patenting methods. For more information here.

3. How Is Your Brand Handling the New gTLDs? More information here.

Information from Intellectual Property Center at the UNWE. More information can be found here