UK firms told to beware of cyber squatters

According to new figures the majority of local businesses failed to bid for new .eu domain name web addresses and have left themselves open to 'cyber squatters' warns Grant Hume.

”Reports in the Times indicate that just 1.5% of UK companies applied for the new domain before the main registration deadline expired last Friday. The figure represented just 9.2% of total applications compared to German companies which made up 28.6%” explained Grant, technical director with IT specialist's GHS.
Companies and trademark owners were given a four-month grace period to apply before the process was opened up to anyone. However, with such a small number of UK firms applying for the addresses, experts have warned that many will lose out to 'cyber squatters'.

Cyber squatters are those who have no genuine claim to the address but buy it cheap to sell on for a large profit later. As most large companies applied to protect their domain, it is likely that small firms will be most affected and forced to pay thousands if they want a .eu address with their company name.

Though SME's can take heart that they are not the only ones facing this problem “Some large corporates did miss out however. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren beat car giant Volkswagen in the race to claim www.polo.eu, while Land Rover lost out on www.discovery.eu to television station the Discovery Channel”.

This article originally appeared in the Swindon Advertiser and Swindon Chamber News on the 20 April 2006

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