Conclusions and recommendations

AuthorPaulovics, Ivett
Pages95-102
STUDY ON EVALUATION OF PRACTICES FOR COMBATING SPECULATIVE AND ABUSIVE DOMAIN NAME
REGISTRATIONS
95
11. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The .eu Registry ought to adopt policies and implement measures to avoid speculative
and abusive registration of domain names, as this is fundamental to maintain a secure,
transparent and trustworthy .eu online environment.
The Study evaluated the measures put in place and planned to be implemented by the .eu
Registry to combat speculative and abusive registrations by comparing them with other
market peers’ practices. Based on such assessment and comparison, the measures of the
.eu Registry were found in line with the best practices of other ccTLDs. However, certain
improvements would enhance the effective protection of rightsholders’ rights and reduce
speculative and abusive domain name registrations.
In particular, the Study recommends that the .eu Registry make further efforts t o adopt
preventive measures aimed at avoiding abuse, and thus reduce the need to resort to
curative measures on rightsholders’ part. The Study also suggests further improvements
of the curative measures.
11.1 Recommendations with reference to the collaborations between the .eu Registry and
other bodies
With reference to the collaboration between the .eu Registry and EUIPO, the Study
recommends the following:
Enhance the collaboration between the .eu Registry and EUIPO. In particular,
further technical improvements are recommended to fully deploy the availability
check and alert functionalities in the production environment with a view to
enhance such measures from a technical standpoint and offer simple and effective
solutions to rightsholders, especially to SMEs. In particular, within the availability
check functionality, links ought to correctly resolve to the .eu Registry’s search
tool. The configuration of the alert functionality ought to work properly at the final
stage of the EUTM application filing process to avoid that EUTM applicants are
required to take an additional step to configure such functionality at a later stage
through the ‘Alerts’ section of their User Area;
Carry out further awareness-raising and knowledge-building activities on both
sides in order to make rightsholders aware of the existing measures (i.e.,
availability check and alert), and thus increase their use. Although a certain level of
awareness as to the availability of such measures exists, their use is still
uncommon. The Study recommends that specific training courses and webinars
are organised for the benefit of rightsholders representatives and the rightsholders
themselves, especially where SMEs are concerned, and that the same ar e
boosted through specific promotional campaigns. Feedback from the users also
needs to be gathered and analysed to consider their needs and inputs with the
further aim of consistently bettering such tools. From the EUIPO side, this could be
carried out through the EUIPO User Group consisting in EU-wide federations of
SMEs and associations representing particular industries or trade mark owners.205
The .eu Registry might collect such information through customer satisfactions
surveys;
Evaluate whether legal constraints exist and determine how to overcome such
legal constraints so as to alert not only EUTM holders (or their representatives)
205 https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/our-partners

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT