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1. Introduction

As Internet continues to boom, especially in Belgium, domain names are increasingly important in any marketing strategy for companies. Today, a presence on the world wide web is inevitable; if one wishes to reach any possible interested party.

A website represents the identity and image of any kind of organisation. Therefore, a suitable domain name is indispensable to make information regarding your company or any products or services which are offered easily accessible.

Different kinds of domain names are available. The final part of a domain name, the so-called "top-level domain" or TLD, refers generally spoken to its use.

Two kinds of TLD names can be distinguished:

- generic TLD's (gTLD) such as .com or .net,
- country code TLD's (ccTLD) such as .be (for Belgium), .lu (for Luxembourg), .nl (for the Netherlands), etc.

Attribution and registration of a domain name is usually governed by a central registration office, which can set out the requirements for registering domain names in the TDL for which it is responsible.

2. Preliminary search

Before any registration, it should be often very useful to perform a preliminary search, firstly to verify if the domain name is still free, and secondly to check that there are no "cyber-squatters" already using your domain name.

It is recommended to combine such kinds of domain names search with a trademark search.

3. Registration in Belgium

For the ccTLD .be, the official organisation in charge of the .be registrations is DNS Belgium (www.dns.be).

Previously, a lot of restrictions existed for registering a domain name in Belgium.

From December 2000, most of these restrictions have been dropped under the new regulations.

a. Acceptable domain names

The "first comes, first served" - principle is used.

A name for which registration already exists, cannot be registered again. Also, a name for which a legal dispute exists cannot be registered.

Further, the name has to contain at least two characters and can only contain between "a-z", "A-Z", "0-9" and "-".

The licensee (= registrant) can be any interested party who wishes to register a domain name.

Legal entities and individuals from any country can thus register a domain name in Belgium.

b. Proceedings

The registration of a .be domain name must be performed through a recognised registrar.

A list of such registrars can be found on www.dns.be.

The licensee must agree to the terms and conditions set by DNS Belgium. These terms and conditions are attached to these General notes of information.

4. Registration in other countries

We are in contact with a special licensed firm that can handle the registration of a domain name in any country in the world.

5. Registration as generic domain name

Generic domain names for top-level domains such as .com, .net, .org and the new .biz and .info are also available through registrars such as http://www.internic.net.

6. Watch

It is often recommended to have a watch on domain names, especially combined with a watch on trademarks, in order to check infringement of i.e. trademark rights.

7. Dispute resolution

Because of the liberalisation of the attribution of domain names, it is no longer necessary to prove your rights on a domain name before obtaining the registration at least in Belgium.

More disputes concerning the property rights on domain names arise as a consequence.

It is advised to come to an amicable solution, if possible. If an agreement cannot be reached, then one has the choice between two kinds of proceedure: mediation or regular court proceedings.

a. Mediation in Belgium

The CEPANI-CEPINA, which is the Belgian dispute resolution mediation organism, has provided new rules in order to have a centralised mediation proceeding for domain names .be.

b. Mediation world-wide

WIPO mediation organism in Geneva will handle disputes involving generic domain names such as .com, .net, .org

c. Advantages of the mediation proceedure

There is no need to start proceedings before regular court, involving designation of a law attorney. We can represent you before these mediation organisms.

Accordingly, the proceedure before this kind of organism should be considered as quicker and cheaper than before national courts.

However, it should be taken into account that when both parties agreed to appear before the arbiter, they are bound by said verdict. If the parties do not agree on this last verdict, they can then dispute before a regular court of law.

Should you be in a situation of conflict on domain names, we would be pleased to provide you advice and to defend your interests.