Sunrise Period for .eu Domain Names Begins Dec. 7 The registry for the .eu Internet top-level domain will accept reservations for second-level domain names from Dec. 7. The domain is intended to identify activities or information related to the European Union, and give companies based there the opportunity to use a pan-European Internet identity to complement their individual national sites.
During the four-month sunrise period, Eurid vzw will accept name reservations on a first-come, first-served basis from companies and organizations based in the E.U., and from persons living there.
In the first phase, lasting two months, only the names of public bodies and the territories they govern, or registered trademarks, may be reserved. From Feb. 7, other names can be reserved, including company names and business identifiers, unregistered trademarks, and distinctive titles of protected literary and artistic work.
From April 7, registration is open to all. Details of the procedures and rules, and the names of approved registrars, can be found at
European governments have already had the opportunity to identify the names of geographic areas and administrative entities for which they wish to block registration ahead of the sunrise period. Only Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Spain exercised this right, with Spain choosing to block regis-tration of its country name in Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Greek, Hindi, Korean and Russian languages that do not use the Latin alphabet.
Spain also chose to block registration of Arabic transcrip-tions of Ceuta and Melilla, the names of its two North African enclaves that have hit the headlines of late.
