EU weighs fresh rules for geographic terms registered in country code domains

Proposal would establish a system to alert geographic mark owners and help them recover the domains.

The European Union is considering creating a fresh cybersquatting system for country code domains managed in the Union.

The proposed regulation (pdf) protects geographic indicators for craft and industrial products. It gives the examples of Murano glass, Solingen cutlery, Donegal tweed, Halas lace and Gablonz jewelry.

Readers are probably more familiar with agriculture-related protected terms, such as Champagne wine and Gorgonzola cheese.

Those by now have extensive protections, but the EU is deciding if it ought to create a separate class of protection mechanisms for non-agriculture products recognized for the region in which they are produced. This would include domain name protections.

The regulation states:

Establishment of a domain name information and alert system

1. For domain names registered under a country-code top-level domain name, administered or managed by a registry established in the Union, the Office shall provide a domain name information and alert system. Upon submission of an application for a geographical indication, the information and alert system shall inform applicants for a geographical indication regarding the availability of their geographical indication as a domain name, and on an optional basis once a domain name containing an identical or similar name with their geographical indication is registered (domain name alerts).

2. For the purposes of paragraph 1, country-code top-level domain name registries, established in the Union, shall provide the Office with all information and data in their possession necessary to run the domain name information and alert system.

It also proposes an arbitration system for groups with protected geographic craft marks to recover infringing domains through a tribunal. Think UDRP for this subset of terms on EU-based country code domain names.

While the instant regulation relates only to geographic indicators of craft and industrial products, the proposal states that previous trademark regulations ought to be updated to reflect the domain name system:

Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 of the European Parliament and of the Council ought to be amended. Article 151 of that Regulation sets out the tasks of the Office. The administration and promotion of geographical indications, in particular the tasks conferred on the Office under this Regulation ought to be added to Article 151 of that Regulation. In addition, in order to ensure coherence with this Regulation, a provision on the establishment of a domain name information and alert system for EU trade marks ought to also be inserted in that Regulation.