Region: Europe

The English High Court has issued an unusual decision in the case of <i>Metalrax Group v Vanci</i>, granting an injunction to prevent the defendant from reacquiring a domain name he had lost, rather than waiting for the defendant to acquire the name and then ordering its transfer.

05 July 2002

The Presidium of the Russian Federation Supreme Arbitration Court has arrived at the important conclusion that the '.ru' domain registry may be held liable in cases involving unlawful registration. It also ruled that the courts may order the registry to cancel a registration and transfer the domain name to the plaintiff-trademark owner.

04 July 2002

The Danish Internet Forum, which administers the '.dk' domain, has adopted a new set of rules on the registration of country-code top-level domain names. Among other things, the rules provide for a waiting list for desired names and the use of Danish characters.

02 July 2002

DNS.BE, the nonprofit organization responsible for registering country-code top-level domains in Belgium, has announced that it will allow the transfer of '.be' names beginning in the third quarter of this year.

28 June 2002

In the final chapter to the saga regarding use of the acronym 'WWF', the World Wrestling Federation has changed its company and domain names, leaving the domain name 'wwf.com' for the World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly the World Wildlife Fund).

14 June 2002

EU ministers have published the regulation that establishes '.eu' as a new top-level domain, in the hope that a pan-European address will stimulate e-commerce in Europe. As part of the next phase - implementation - the European Commission will advertise for interested parties to apply to run the domain.

10 June 2002

According to a judgment of the District Court of Düsseldorf, the use of words as metatags that are not directly related to the content of a website is an infringement of the German Law against Unfair Competition.

24 May 2002

Nominet, the registry for all domain names ending '.uk', is the subject of a website campaign against its plan to make publicly available the addresses of those who register or have already registered domain names.

22 May 2002

A plan is underway to make the existing rules for registering under Spain's country-code top-level domain more flexible, while at the same time assuring security to maintain the very low rate of cybersquatting involving '.es' domains.

17 May 2002

A Ministry of Transport working group has issued its report regarding Phase Two of the liberalization of Norway's domain name regulations. The report focuses on the administration of the country-code top-level domain '.no', which is the responsibility of NORID.

08 May 2002