I read this a few months ago and, from memory, it points out some pretty serious defects in the text of
Regulation 874/2004 (which contains the substantive rules governing .eu dispute resolution).
In fact, I think I have a copy somewhere...
...
Willoughby's main criticisms of .eu ADR are:
(1) During the sunrise period applications were not restricted to those with registered trade mark rights. This has led to unnecessary cost and complexity.
(2) The definition of rights is discriminatory because it is grounded in national law. E.g. A person in one member state may have rights in his own name by virtue of national law, while a person with the same name in another member state has no such rights. This problem affects both sunrise applications and ADR proceedings.
(3) [Most importantly for you guys, I think] The Regulation can be used to dispossess domain registrants who have
not registered or used the domain name in bad faith. All that needs to be shown (in addition to the domain being identical or confusingly similar to a name or mark protected by Community law) is that the registrant has no legitimate interests; bad faith is simply an alternative ground for dispossession.
TW: "Suppose for example that .. a domain name dealer ... has registered a host of dictionary words as domain names in the .eu domain with a view to selling them , and one of those dictionary words, unknown to him, is a registered trade mark belonging to someone within one of the 25 Member States of the EU. Will he be deprived of that domain name on the basis that he has no rights or legitimate interests?"
(4) Also very critical of Art 21(3)(b)(iii) which "has to be read to be believed" - but problem is rather tiresome to explain.
I wrote an introductory article (not a very good one, I have to say...) on the subject highlighting some of the main problems:
.eu disputes article
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Sequitur IPS - Domain name disputes, cybersquatting and UDRP cases