Overview

In a recent case, Internet Portal und Marketing GmbH v. Richard Schlicht, the ECJ had to rule on the provisions relating to the registration or use of .eu domain names in bad faith and how they should be applied to the specific circumstances of this case.

The Court was confronted with the Swedish trade mark '&R&E&I&F&E&N&', which had been invoked to obtain, after eliminating the special character '&', the domain name 'reifen.eu'. The word 'Reifen' means 'tyres' in German. No mere coincidence, apparently, since the holder of this trade mark had submitted applications to register 180 domain names, all consisting of generic terms.

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